Sen. John Fetterman told left-wing critics to stop fixating on the rising price tag for President Trump’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, brushing aside concerns Tuesday as a symptom of partisan anti-Trump reflexes rather than genuine fiscal oversight.
“Stop this henpecking. $13M? This is an iconic American place and was in serious disrepair,” Mr. Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrat, wrote on X. “Get over the TDS and celebrate this is getting done for our 250th.” The abbreviation refers to “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” and the “250th” is a reference to the nation’s Semiquincentennial on July 4.
The post came in response to a New York Times report citing federal records showing the project’s actual cost had risen to $13.1 million — more than seven times the $1.8 million Mr. Trump originally said it would cost. According to The Hill, the Interior Department added $6.2 million to an existing $6.9 million contract on Friday, bringing the total to $13.1 million.
The contractor, Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, was awarded a no-bid contract in April. Officials bypassed the standard competitive bidding process by arguing the situation was so urgent that any delay would cause “serious injury” to the government. Mr. Trump has said he selected the firm because it had previously worked on swimming pools at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia.
The project involves applying an industrial-grade pool coating over the existing stone basin to seal leaks and repainting it what the administration is calling “American flag blue.” Mr. Trump ordered the work to be completed in time for the nation’s 250th birthday celebration.
Mr. Trump also pushed back against the New York Times’ reporting Tuesday, defending the project on Truth Social and accusing the Obama and Biden administrations of having “expensively botched” maintenance of the pool. The Obama administration spent between $30 million and $34 million on a two-year major restoration of the pool funded through the 2009 stimulus package. Mr. Trump said the Biden administration had studied a full granite replacement of the pool that he estimated would cost $301 million and take more than three years, though the precise figure has been disputed — a proposal that was ultimately never carried out.
“It won’t leak, it will shine, and be the pride of Washington D.C. for decades to come,” Mr. Trump wrote. “I saved more than 390 Million Dollars, and 4 years of no ’mess,’ and was, of course, given no credit by the biased New York Times.”
The renovation has drawn a legal challenge. The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington seeking to halt the work, arguing the administration violated federal laws requiring public notification, interagency consultation and an environmental impact assessment before beginning the project. The foundation’s president, Charles Birnbaum, said the blue basin is “more appropriate to a resort or theme park” and called the work a “permanent blemish on the National Mall.” The case was assigned to Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee.
The Interior Department defended the project, saying the new color “will enhance the visitor experience by making the pool reflect the grand Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.”
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