Crews are applying an "American flag blue" coating to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Friday, as part of a roughly $1.5 million resurfacing President Donald Trump announced Thursday.
He said that the reconditioning will be finished well before the nation's 250th anniversary on July 4.
The update comes as a separate, far larger Trump construction project, the $400 million White House ballroom, remains partially blocked by a federal court.
Burgum wrote on X that "Renovations are underway!" and he thanked Trump "for investing in our capital," adding that the pool "is about to look better than ever."
Trump, speaking at an Oval Office event on drug prices Thursday, said contractors had scrubbed the granite basin, grouted it, and begun laying down what he called an industrial-grade swimming pool surface in "American flag blue."
He estimated the job will cost roughly $1.5 million, with NBC News reporting a range of $1.5 million to $2 million, and said it will be completed "long before July 4."
Trump said the administration rejected an earlier proposal to replace the pool's 1920s granite, which he described as costing about $300 million and taking roughly three years.
He said he instead used contractors he knew from private real estate work.
"You're going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, the way it's supposed to be," he told reporters. "Much better than it was, actually."
The 2,030-foot-long, 6-acre pool, designed by Henry Bacon, sits east of the Lincoln Memorial and was last comprehensively renovated in 2012 under a roughly $34 million project funded by Obama-era stimulus money, according to the National Park Service and the firm that managed that rebuild.
The pool work is part of a broader push Trump launched with a March 28, 2025, executive order directing Burgum and the Park Service to clean up federal land in Washington ahead of the semiquincentennial.
The administration has also pursued a task force on public safety and beautification, National Guard deployments in D.C., and restoration projects at fountains, parks, and federal golf courses.
Trump's proposed fiscal 2027 budget seeks $10 billion more for his Presidential Capital Stewardship Program.
The reflecting pool project is advancing while Trump's signature White House construction effort remains in court.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled in March that the $400 million, 90,000-square-foot East Wing ballroom could not proceed above ground without congressional approval, finding that "no statute comes close" to authorizing it.
On April 16, Leon reaffirmed that ruling, rejecting the administration's argument that national security concerns covered the entire structure, while allowing work on an underground bunker and security facilities to continue.
The District of Columbia Circuit had earlier briefly allowed above-ground work to resume, then sent the case back for clarification. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued in December, has backed the split approach.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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