Trump drives across Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to inspect new blue coating he’s putting on it
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday went on an unannounced trip to the Lincoln Memorial to see the Reflecting Pool after he had it coated in a color he calls “American flag blue.”
He did more than just see it — the Republican president was driven across the new coating before he got out of his SUV to make a statement and answer questions from reporters who had been taken there to await his arrival before the sun set.
The new blue coating will hide the pool’s gray stone, a color Trump said was “never good.” The project cost nearly $2 million, he said.
“It never had the color people wanted, but now it’s going to have the great color,” he said, standing in the pool surrounded by some of his Cabinet secretaries, including Doug Burgum of Interior and Markwayne Mullin of Homeland Security.
Trump had similar feelings about the gray granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, describing it as a “really bad color” last year. The president wants to cover the building in white paint and two federal agencies are reviewing his proposal.
Trump said he is also working on the memorial to President Abraham Lincoln itself, but he offered no specifics, saying only that “we have a beautiful plan” in mind.
Work has been underway at the memorial for the past few years on an underground visitors’ center scheduled to open in June.
Trump last month announced the reflecting pool renovation during an unrelated Oval Office appearance. He said he was inspired by the complaints of a friend visiting from Germany, who he said told him the water in the pool was dark, filthy, and looked disgusting.
The project is another way for Trump to leave his mark on the city, following his demolition of the White House East Wing to build a large ballroom there.
Critics have said Trump is spending too much time and attention on his pet projects and not enough on issues that voters care about, like the cost of living, in the run-up to the November elections. Others have said he wants the reflecting pool to look more like an actual swimming pool.
Trump lashed out when a reporter asked why he was focused on the Reflecting Pool, given U.S. military action in Iran. He said several truckloads of garbage had been hauled away after it was removed from the pool and said, “Our country is about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people. Not a filthy capital.”
“We’re fixing up the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and you say, ‘Why are you fixing it up?’” Trump continued. “Because you can understand dirt maybe better than I can, but I don’t allow it.”