Trump Changes Story on $13.1 Million Reflecting Pool Contract as Repair Scope Expands
Updated
Updated · The Daily Beast · May 17
Trump Changes Story on $13.1 Million Reflecting Pool Contract as Repair Scope Expands
9 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · May 17
$13.1 million in no-bid work on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool drew a new denial from Donald Trump, who said the Interior Department chose the contractor and that he had never used the company.
Trump had earlier said the Virginia firm had worked on a pool at his Trump National Golf Club, while records cited in the report say Atlantic Industrial Coatings had never previously held a federal contract.
The project itself has widened from Trump's April plan to paint the pool bottom blue to what he now calls a higher-level repair using industrial-strength materials, with completion targeted by July 4.
Trump also said the work bypassed normal approvals because it was urgent and would cost only a fraction of failed Obama- and Biden-era overhaul plans, though the report says the job is already showing problems.
How did a pool's paint job become a $15 million urgent project awarded without bids to a highway waterproofing firm?
Is changing the historic reflecting pool to 'American Flag Blue' a patriotic upgrade or a violation of its original design?