Price Tag on Reflecting Pool Repairs Jumps Way Above Trump’s Promised Budget

(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

President Donald Trump’s plan to repair the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool and paint it a shade called “American flag blue” is far exceeding his initial budget, according to The New York Times.

Trump initially said that his handpicked contractor would charge $1.8 million for the project, and handed out a no-bid contract to get the job done.

But federal records showed that the actual cost was “more than seven times that, after the Interior Department nearly doubled the size of the contract late last week,” the Times reported.

“On Friday, the Interior Department added $6.2 million to the contract’s previous cost, saying it now planned to pay $13.1 million to a Virginia firm called Atlantic Industrial Coatings,” the report said. “President Trump said he chose that company to repair the landmark because the firm had worked on the swimming pools at his golf club in Sterling, Va.”

The Trump administration argued that it bypassed the normal competitive bidding process because “the situation was so urgent that any delay would cause ‘serious injury’ to the government. “The government has not publicly said what that injury would have been,” the report said.

A spokeswoman for the Interior Department told the Times that the higher price “reflects the effort necessary to expedite the timeline of completing the leak prevention coating project — more people, more materials, more equipment and longer hours” ahead of the country’s 250th birthday.

The nonprofit Cultural Landscape Foundation filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Monday to put a stop to the project, saying the Trump administration “had ignored a law requiring advance scrutiny of projects that alter historic landmarks.”

Trump lashed out at ABC News’s Rachel Scott when she asked why the president was focusing on projects like the reflecting pool in the midst of a war and high gas prices.

“Such a stupid question that you asked,” said Trump. “We’re fixing up the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument. And you say, ‘Why are you fixing anything up?’ Because you can understand dirt, maybe better than I can. But I don’t allow it.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) chastised the Times for “henpecking” over the cost.

“$13M? This is an iconic American place and was in serious disrepair,” he wrote. “Get over the TDS and celebrate this is getting done for our 250th.”

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