Trump Administration Live Updates: Reflecting Pool Costs Balloon to $13.1 Million, Records Show

[Zorro]

President Trump said that his handpicked contractor would charge only $1.8 million to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and paint it blue.

The actual cost is now more than seven times that, after the Interior Department nearly doubled the size of the contract late last week, federal records show.

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. 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 government awarded that firm a no-bid contract last month, bypassing the requirement to seek competing offers by saying that 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.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/05/11/us/trump-news

[Johonny]

1. Man that bankrupt 7 companies

Turns out to be fiscally irresponsible. LOL

[underpants]

2. Funny how that keeps happening

[newdeal2]

3. For blue paint?

Guess the public should sacrifice for this very important project.

[tanyev]

5. Perhaps we'll learn that a giant gold fountain has also been commissioned.

😒

[Greybnk48]

4. Another money laundering project at our expense. n/t

[chowder66]

6. That's some "Art of Deal".

[The Madcap]

7. I'm waiting for the day

when that statue is torn down like that of Stalin.