FACT FOCUS: A look at Trump’s false and misleading claims about the Reflecting Pool

In April, President Donald Trump announced that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was being renovated to address long-standing cosmetic and structural issues. He initially promised a gleaming blue pool that would be fixed in a week at a cost of $1.5 million, much less than what previous administrations had paid for work on the national landmark.

But four months later the results of the project have not lived up to Trump’s rhetoric, which has in some cases become increasingly hyperbolic.

Here’s a look at his many claims and the facts around them.

Cost and time frame

TRUMP, on April 23 at an Oval Office event: “Our job will take one week and will cost about a million and a half dollars.”

THE FACTS: Work is ongoing 15 weeks later. The pool was drained for a second time in mid-July to address returning algae blooms and issues with a new coating that was peeling. Trump’s estimates of the project’s cost have increased as work has progressed, to “less than $20 million.” Records show that more than $16 million worth of contracts have been awarded for the project so far.

Relationship with contractors

TRUMP, on April 23 in a video: “And I said, no, there’s a better way of doing it. I said, what we’re going to do is I’m going to call all three of these people that have worked for me in the past, doing swimming pools.

THE FACTS: Trump bragged on multiple occasions about calling up contractors he had worked with previously who could fix the pool and multiple no-bid contracts were awarded.

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.

Trump later backtracked. He said in a May 12 post on Truth Social, “I didn’t give out the contract, ‘Interior’ did, to a contractor I did not know, and have never used before.” At an unrelated Oval Office event on Aug. 3, the president doubled down. “And by the way, I didn’t know the contractor,” he said.

Spending by previous administrations

TRUMP, on May 27 at a Cabinet meeting: “The Biden administration and the Obama administration spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to get it to work, and they failed.”

THE FACTS: This is false. The Obama administration spent at least $34 million on a massive, two-year reconstruction project that ended in 2012. No major repairs to the pool were done during the Biden administration.

The work will be indestructible

TRUMP, on May 4 at a White House event: “This will last for at least 50 years and you’ll never have a leak,” he said. “It’s very strong. You couldn’t — if you had a knife, I don’t want to give anybody ideas — if you had a knife you can’t even cut it.”

THE FACTS: The president responded to reports about problems with the resurfacing by saying that the pool had been cut with a box cutter, knife, or sharp razor, resulting in either a giant gash ranging from 250- to 350-feet or “ numerous slashes over a very long 350-foot length.”

Authorities made at least seven arrests related to problems at the pool, including charging former Olympian David Hearn with one count of felony destruction. Hearn pleaded not guilty.

Trump also blamed vandals for the algae bloom that reoccurred after the pool was refilled, claiming on June 22 that someone may have put chemicals such as fertilizer in the water to “create the algae.” Algae has been a problem with the pool for many years.

By the end of July, the cases were falling apart.

The Justice Department moved July 31 to dismiss a criminal case against Hearn, saying evidence prosecutors had recently received refuted the idea that vandals were to blame.

Its 20-page filing from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said that additional documents provided by the Interior Department since Hearn’s indictment show that the damage was the result of a botched installation by a contractor as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the American 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”

Charges have also been dropped against three other people — Justin Carreno, Cameron Thiers and Sophie Dennison-Gibby — charged in the same D.C. court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the pool, according to online court records.

Trump has rebuked Pirro’s move and maintained that vandals are responsible, saying that she “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.”

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.