Trump's administration won't seek new bids to repair the Lincoln
Memorial Reflecting Pool
[July 06, 2026]
By STEVE PEOPLES
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration will not seek new bids to
repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug
Burgum said Sunday as he faced new questions about the troubled project
and the taxpayer money involved.
Like President Donald Trump, Burgum said he was 100% sure that vandals
caused the damage to the century-old Reflecting Pool on the National
Mall. Trump has charged that a 350-foot gash was cut into the pool's
liner in the midst of recent renovations, while Burgum described it as
multiple cuts adding up to that figure. He also said the pool would have
to be at least partially drained in the coming week to finish the
repairs.
The repairs will not be opened up to new contractors, he said.
“We’ll use the same company, because they did a fantastic job,” Burgum
told CNN's “State of the Union." ”Thankfully, the vandalism was small.
It was bad. I mean, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to
repair, so then it could fall into a felony ... just like damaging any
other government property could. But the job that was done to fix the
Reflecting Pool was done extremely well."
Trump this spring pledged to beautify the Reflecting Pool before the
nation’s 250th birthday celebrations on July Fourth. Water was drained
and the Republican president directed that the bottom be painted a color
he called “American flag blue.” But after the site was restored, the
water was plagued by an algae bloom for more than a week, and pieces of
the new coating have appeared to be peeling off the bottom.
The pool was closed for the Independence Day celebration, but Burgum
said that was due to a safety issue related to the fireworks.
The evolving debate over the Reflecting Pool has inflamed the broader
fight over Trump's aggressive push to overhaul Washington landmarks,
including the White House, nearly two years into his final term in
office.
Authorities have arrested more than a half dozen people in relation to
Reflecting Pool damage, including former Olympian David Hearn, who was
indicted last week on a felony of property destruction.
The top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney
Jeanine Pirro, said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on the
pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than $1,000 in damage. She
accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the bottom liner
“with both hands” and acting belligerently toward an employee who told
him to stop.
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A man on a bike passes security fencing along the edge of the
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of America 250 July 4th
celebration on the National Mall, Thursday, July 2, 2026, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Hearn's lawyers, Democracy Defenders Fund co-founder Norm Eisen and
Mary Dohrmann, said the charges were “outrageous and should be
alarming to every American.” Eisen and Dohrmann construed the case
as representative of “the misuse of government power against an
ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”
Burgum was asked and did not answer directly whether there was
photographic evidence of vandals cutting the pool's liner. He was
also asked whether Hearn should face a 10-year prison sentence,
which is the maximum legal penalty for his charge.
“Just because you were a former something doesn’t exclude you from
the law today,” Burgum told CNN. “The courts will decide.”
Meanwhile, questions loom over the no-bid contracts for the project
that were awarded to vendors with prior ties to Trump.
Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services,
was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification
system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic
Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and
waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.
About 10 Democratic senators and House members are investigating the
pool project.
“Taxpayers deserve a full explanation of how these failures occurred
and who will be held accountable for correcting them,″ said a letter
signed last month by six senators.
Burgum also appeared on ABC's “This Week.”
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