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USAfter D.C.'s Reflecting Pool gets repainted, visitors ask: What changed? - NPR shows it's TDS by refusing to see the difference between filth and beauty
Workers refill the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Friday, after a weeks-long project to resurface and repaint the basin.
Rahmat Gul/AP
WASHINGTON — Water is flowing back into the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, after a controversial painting job kept it closed for weeks. And to many onlookers, it doesn't look much different.
"The pool gets completed at 4 o'clock and the water will start to flow in … and it's going to be beautiful," President Trump told reporters in the Oval office on Wednesday.
The next day, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum shared a video of water bubbling up through a grate on the freshly-darkened pool floor. Trump had the pool's surface darkened to a shade he calls "American flag blue." For the last century, he's said, the pool was "just gray … the color of concrete and stone."
By Friday morning, the 2,028 foot-long shallow pool had collected a stripe of water down the middle, just wide enough to reflect the Washington Monument across from it. The refilling continued under the bright sun, as one worker stood in the middle of the pool, with his pants rolled up above his knees, wielding a hose.
As the temperature neared 90 degrees, tourists, cyclists and joggers paused at the top of the nearby steps to snap photos and observe the process. Many welcomed the return of the water — and the ducks that play in it — but said they couldn't immediately tell a difference in the color.
"The more water it fills, the more similar it looks [to before]," said Luisa Córdoba, a D.C. resident and avid runner who says she's been coming to check on the pool every day since work started. "I'm just happy it's not that bright blue that we saw the first days, which was so alarming … if it stays like this, it's fine."
Early renderings — as well as preliminary coats of paint when the project started in late April — had critics worried the historic landmark would end up looking more like a swimming pool. But Friday's observers didn't find that to be the case.
"I'm colorblind, so it doesn't look blue — yet," said Terry Barzanti, a Maryland resident who works nearby.
"I'm not colorblind and it doesn't look blue," laughed his coworker Edgar Sadsad, who found it more grey.
Other passersby described it as closer to black, and said the difference might be more noticeable once the pool is fully refilled. Even so, Sadsad and Barzanti were among those who praised the project, saying the pool already looked cleaner and more appealing.
Trump has for months complained about the state of the pool, saying he made it a priority after an unnamed friend visiting from Germany called it "filthy" and "not representative of the country," according to the president.
The pool, which first opened in 1923, last underwent major renovations between 2010 and 2012. But it has continued to suffer from broken pipes and water leaks that merit costly refills, according to the Department of the Interior.
Trump has said this project sealed crevices in the stone to prevent leaks, and removed 12 truckloads of garbage from the pool, though it's not clear that it addressed the broken pipes.
"It'll last for 50 to 100 years before you have to do anything with it," he said.
The reflecting pool, at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, previously reflected blue in certain conditions such as this day in November 2025.
Andrew Leyden/Getty Images
Questions remain about the project's funding
The resurfacing took significantly longer than Trump's initial estimate.
He said in late April that the project would be done in a week or two, though the Department of the Interior told NPR it would take closer to a month.
In mid-May, the nonprofit Cultural Landscape Foundation sued the administration to stop work on the pool, saying it had bypassed federally required historic preservation reviews. A judge heard arguments later that month, but hadn't made a decision by the time the administration informed the court on Wednesday that work had been completed.
The project also appears to cost more than Trump said it would.
He gave the price tag as $2 million, which he said, without specifics, was significantly less than he had been quoted previously. But Interior Department records obtained by The New York Times show the administration plans to pay $13.1 million to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia firm that Trump picked for the project.
"It's kind of sad where our tax dollars are going. I mean, it was fine before, by my knowledge," said Samantha Sorokin of Arlington, Va., who was taking her parents on a tour.
It's not clear how much of the money is coming from taxpayers. A large sign affixed to the construction site fence, on National Park Service letterhead, informed visitors that "these improvements are being completed using your fee dollars."
(TheWashington Post reported this week that the Trump administration is diverting at least $90 million from national park entry fees to fund its July 4th fireworks display and other D.C. beautification projects.)
When asked for comment about the cost and where the money is coming from, the Department of the Interior — the park service's parent agency — told NPR that it has "many funding sources available to spend on deferred maintenance."
"Unlike Barack Obama who spent millions upon millions in taxpayer-funded Great Recession recovery aid that should have gone to struggling families, the Trump administration is looking at different funding mechanisms which include endowment funds and revenue brought in from the sale of park passes," the unnamed spokesperson wrote over email.
The two-year renovation of the reflecting pool that ended in 2012 was funded by $34 million from an Obama-era economic stimulus package.
A sign outside the reflecting pool informs visitors that their national park fees helped fund the project.
Rachel Treisman/NPR
Trump's campaign to spruce up D.C.
Trump is hoping to make many changes to D.C., ranging from massive undertakings like his proposed triumphal arch (which got preliminary approval from a second federal agency this week) to smaller changes like installing new statues and restoring park fountains.
"We have many monuments and fountains all over Washington, and we're just about completed with all of them," he said Wednesday.
The Interior Department referred NPR to a White House post on X listing those accomplishments, which include "500 instances of graffiti removed," "134 rat-resistant trash cans installed" and "250 truckloads of debris from ponds removed."
Much of that work is being carried out by National Guard troops deployed to D.C., whose numbers are set to double ahead of the country's 250th birthday celebrations on and around July 4th. That's also the deadline — or at least impetus — for many of Trump's renovation projects.
Maria Sorokin, who was visiting her daughter from Pennsylvania, is skeptical that the 250th anniversary warrants major changes like the reflecting pool resurfacing.
"It is a special anniversary and it should be spruced up, but I'm not sure if this was necessary," she said, looking at the pool slowly refilling. "If it's not broken, don't fix it."
But some area residents, like Barzanti, embrace the cleanup and beautification efforts.
"We walk down here for lunch breaks," he said. "People come from all over the world to see our nation's capital. So we should show it off, we should take care of it."
Some changes are going over better than others.
Several locals at the reflecting pool, including Córdoba, mentioned that they were thrilled to see the fountains at Meridian Hill Park — a popular spot about 1.5 miles north of the White House — flowing with water for the first time in seven years.
Maryellen Thornton, who lives near the park, says the fountain restoration has been "amazing for the community," describing the picnic blanket-packed grass "like nirvana." It's also one of the reasons she and her husband Brad Thornton came to see the reflecting pool.
"We're just fascinated with how fabulous it is to have all of these water features being restored in the district," she said. "It just brings so much happiness to everybody."
Brad is also excited to see the return of water to the fountain outside Union Station, Washington's major transport hub, and hopes the newly filled reflecting pool will build on that momentum.
"A little bit of spraying water goes a long way," he said. "It shouldn't be about politics. It's just about enjoying it. We're in the city. We need some green space."
They were just testing the water that came out of the pipes to see if they got the color of the paint right. This is part of Donald Trumps effort to turn the American Capital back into a city Americans can be proud of and can live in without fear. For example, its not just the reflecting pool. Trump also went into the niggerhood and restored Malcon X park.
"It's kind of sad where our tax dollars are going. I mean, it was fine before, by my knowledge," said Samantha Sorokin of Arlington, Va., who was taking her parents on a tour.
Guarantee she hadn't stepped foot anywhere near the reflecting pool in years and only does so when family/friends are in town. The people who live outside DC in Arlington, Bethesda, etc. are generally clueless about the state of most of the DC national parks or museums because they don't interact with them ever.
That said, I also believe most aren't that aware of how bad things had gotten in downtown DC during the Biden years. Obama and Trump's first term both had different parts of the capitol looking rough but everything went to hell in a hand basket under Joe's watch.
Guarantee she hadn't stepped foot anywhere near the reflecting pool in years and only does so when family/friends are in town. The people who live outside DC in Arlington, Bethesda, etc. are generally clueless about the state of most of the DC national parks or museums because they don't interact with them ever.
That said, I also believe most aren't that aware of how bad things had gotten in downtown DC during the Biden years. Obama and Trump's first term both had different parts of the capitol looking rough but everything went to hell in a hand basket under Joe's watch.
Turning the capital of the American People into an international embarrassment was a deliberate choice by our national enemies. Foreign and domestic. I listen to the shrieks of people complaining about the American People retaking the city that is the sole federal district and the seat of the Union as fine wine. I want them to scream more.
There are some things you cannot measure in dollar value. The various monuments you see around Washington DC, and elsewhere in America like the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore, are all priceless and have paid back dividends big time in simple awe and inspiration.
I know I don’t like the Don because he deep throats for Bibi but it does still impress me that Redditors will get absolutely assmad at whatever he does. I mean they spent a month bitching about this reflecting pool and the Ballroom shit solely because it was him who was pushing it. That takes dedication which if used productively might make them successful financially or even threatening politically. Thank God they’re retarded.
There are some things you cannot measure in dollar value. The various monuments you see around Washington DC, and elsewhere in America like the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore, are all priceless and have paid back dividends big time in simple awe and inspiration.
As if we have to apply monetary value to them in the first place. This is the first mistake you are making. The idea that the American people need MONEY to justify our existence.
Pajeets justify their existence with money
Latins justify their existence with money.
AMERICANS justify their existence by being AMERICAN. We are born of the land, a land that does not belong to those invading our patrimony. Our people, the American people, are not an economic unit, and our people embody and inhabit North America in a way that is both temporal and divine. We are born of Europe, upon the soil of North America. We cannot return to the old world, nor can we surrender our world, the new world, to the old.
We are Americans, and our patrimony is not for sale. And if anyone seeks to steal that patrimony, it is the duty of Americans, and their children, to kill them. Kill our enemies, kill their progeny and drive them from the land we love the best. For America belongs to America, and any who seeks to take our patrimony must die, and die unto their seventh generation.
As if we have to apply monetary value to them in the first place. This is the first mistake you are making. The idea that the American people need MONEY to justify our existence.
Pajeets justify their existence with money
Latins justify their existence with money.
AMERICANS justify their existence by being AMERICAN. We are born of the land, a land that does not belong to those invading our patrimony. Our people, the American people, are not an economic unit, and our people embody and inhabit North America in a way that is both temporal and divine. We are born of Europe, upon the soil of North America. We cannot return to the old world, nor can we surrender our world, the new world, to the old.
We are Americans, and our patrimony is not for sale.
I wanted to go farther and say that such a materialistic worldview isn’t just anti-American but also communistic. Under communism, nobody is considered equal until they all have the same amount of stuff. Under western individualism, we are equal the moment we are born. Not respecting human life as it exists has led to atrocities; we are all made in God’s image. Not a belief, but a fact.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. That is why places that brag about GDP are poor in spirit instead, like California. I could care less if they’re the 4th largest economy when it’s mostly built on exploited labor, poverty, corruption, and a lattice of misery.
I wanted to go farther and say that such a materialistic worldview isn’t just anti-American but also communistic. Under communism, nobody is considered equal until they all have the same amount of stuff. Under western individualism, we are equal the moment we are born. Not respecting human life as it exists has led to atrocities; we are all made in God’s image. Not a belief, but a fact.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. That is why places that brag about GDP are poor in spirit instead, like California. I could care less if they’re the 4th largest economy when it’s mostly built on exploited labor, poverty, corruption, and a lattice of misery.
The Communists tried to reframe the American identity as something that "anyone can subscribe too".
They cannot. We are the children of the forests, mountains, plains and deserts of North America. The land is in our blood. America is not just a title we take. It is who we are. We are not for sale. No pajeet off the boat can be this. He cannot breath the air made by the redwoods and understand what it is that fills our lungs. He cannot see the sweep of the Blue Ridge and be humble before the land. He cannot stand before the great rivers like the Ohio and the Mississippi and see the power of our nation. We can see the invaders being foisted on us,. We can see the effort to deny us the title of what we are.
The effort to turn our capital into a monument of decay was an effort to deny us our patrimony. To deny the AMERICANS, a people who are real, an anchor to a truth that they are a people who are real.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of our peoples independence, the effort to try and deny that we, the American People, are a people who exist, a racial and cultural group, one that is exclusionary, one that you have to be born into, grows stronger. Anyone can be what we are. They say. But they LIE.
WE ARE AMERICANS. And no, you are not an American. You were not born of the land. We drew the air of this land with our first breath. Our young eyes beheld the majesty of our mountains and rivers before we ever became adults. We are the Children of America, and you will never be one of us,
Nothing is more political. Especially when it comes to the capital city. The capital is a statement of intent of the ruling power. How the capital presents is how the entire nation presents.
Water is incredicle cheap... borken pipes and leaks lead to other issues, but the money spend on water is a joke. also they would have to refill it all the time anyway because of the sun.
@mindlessobserver is being more grandiose than necessary about this topic, but he is right. If people see your nation's capitol and it's a dump, they're going to view your entire country as a glorified landfill and not much else. NPR can suck my nuts if they don't like that DC is getting cleaned up, it's been an embarrassment for decades at this point.
@mindlessobserver is being more grandiose than necessary about this topic, but he is right. If people see your nation's capitol and it's a dump, they're going to view your entire country as a glorified landfill and not much else. NPR can suck my nuts if they don't like that DC is getting cleaned up, it's been an embarrassment for decades at this point.
Eh, I am being grandiose because its necessary. I feel like I need to somehow grab my fellow American by the collar and remind them that they are more then their skin and last name. Some Euro off the boat can no more be one of us then a pajeet. It needs to be pointed out. We are a people who are here. Foreigners, even if they are white, cannot be us.
Grandiose statements are good at ramming that point.
But to be clear.
Americans are a people, and you can only be American by being born one. You can never become American by coming to our land. Coming to the land does not give you the title. The land is ours, it is our enemy and our friend.
If you don't understand what I mean by how the land is the enemy and friend at the same time, you are not an American. You will also never be an American.
