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Donald Trump published a message this Saturday on his platform Truth Social in which he blamed Barack Obama and Joe Biden for the deterioration of the Reflecting Pool in Washington D.C. He promised that the ongoing renovation will be completed by July 4, 2026, with a result he described as "spectacular" and that, according to him, will last 100 years "at a fraction of the cost."
"The Reflecting Pool, built between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, was destroyed by Barack Hussein Obama and sleepy Joe Biden after spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to fix it (it only got worse!), is progressing well and we should easily reach the date of July 4th," wrote Trump, who signed the message with his full name in uppercase.
Along with the text, the president shared an infographic outlining the three phases of the renovation process: sandblasting, priming, and sealant application, noting that the project was already in the final stage.
Trump's claims about the responsibility of his predecessors contrast with the documented history of the monument. The pool was entirely reconstructed in 2012, during the Obama administration, with an investment of 34 million dollars that included a new ozone filtration system, improvements to pathways and lighting, and a new water supply from the Tidal Basin. Structural deterioration had been documented by the National Park Service since 1986.
The current renovation, framed within the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States, involves applying an industrial-grade coating in "American flag blue" over the original granite background of the pool, constructed in the 1920s between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
The cost of the project has caused controversy. Trump initially announced, on May 7, that the work would cost about 1.8 million dollars and take a week. However, federal contract records revealed that the actual cost skyrocketed to 13.1 million dollars, including an additional increase of 6.2 million. Trump himself later acknowledged that the project was larger than initially stated and estimated that the final cost would be "less than 20 million."
Last Wednesday, in a cabinet meeting, Trump stated that the project was "probably about 70% complete" and that it would open "in a couple of weeks," comments that align with the July 4 deadline he reiterated today.
The renovation also faces a legal challenge. On May 11, the Cultural Landscape Foundation sued the Department of the Interior, arguing that the color change violates the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and that the original hue of the pool is a "defining feature" of the historic landscape of the National Mall, whose alteration affects the designed visual relationship between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
PolitiFact published an analysis last Thursday concluding that Trump exaggerated the size, timeline, and cost of the renovation, and that he altered his explanation of the project's scope on several occasions.
The renovated Reflecting Pool is set to be a central symbolic piece of the July 4th celebrations, the main event of the 250th anniversary of American independence at the National Mall.
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