Trump’s Reflecting Pool liner failed in a whopping 85 places, inspection finds
Por Alex Woodward — – World RSS Feed
Trump’s Reflecting Pool liner failed in a whopping 85 places, inspection finds
‘Failure analysis’ finds the president’s ‘American flag blue’ sealant was compromised by poor construction and a rushed job
Alex Woodward Wednesday 14 October 2026 15:53 BST
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A recently applied blue coating on the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was damaged in at least 85 places after workers rushed to refill the pool before the Donald Trump-requested liner had set.
A report commissioned by the contractor that did the work, obtained by The Washington Post, does not make any mention of vandalism despite the president’s ongoing claims and sworn statements from administration officials that attributed the peeled-off lining to “botched installation.”
The report instead blames a rushed job to meet Trump’s demands that the work be completed for the nation’s 250th anniversary on July 4.
The 75-page “failure analysis” by Atlantic Coating Inspection reveals that Trump’s “American flag blue” coating buckled along eight of the 10 expansion joints on the pool’s basin.
The liner also blistered in nearly 40 places due to moisture or chemical fumes trapped beneath it, and the paint peeled in nearly two dozen spots before detaching from the pool floor and flapping to the surface, the report found.
open image in galleryThe Trump administration has funneled nearly $20 million in taxpayer funding into the project despite the president’s initial estimate that the renovation could be done quickly for just $1.5 million.
That was in April.
The liner was finally replaced in recent weeks and the pool is being refilled, again, this week.
Initial costs quickly surged to nearly $7 million this summer after an initial no-bid contract was handed to a Virginia-based firm that did not appear to have previously held a contract with the federal government.
That company, Atlantic Industrial Coatings LLC, was awarded another $6.2 million in May, according to federal spending records.
On June 3, the company received another $1 million — followed by more than $461,000 on June 15.
The shallow pool, which the president repeatedly promotes as “bigger than skyscrapers,” was initially refurbished this summer with a shade of dark blue and outfitted with “advanced nanobubbler technology” to tackle algae blooms that have long plagued the landmark.
But shortly after workers refilled the pool, the algae returned, and the recently applied sealant in the Trump-requested blue hue started to peel and float to the surface.
The monument was then closed off with fencing and the pool was drained once again to repair the damage and redo the work.
In July, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the Trump administration would not seek any new contracts after costs for the project exploded to more than $17 million.
But spending records show that the National Park Service awarded a nearly $2.7 million contract to American Ag Energy Inc. the following month for the maintenance, repair and rebuilding of water purification and sewage treatment equipment.
Another firm, Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was also awarded $1.8 million to install a water-purification system.
open image in galleryThe Department of Interior skipped a typical competitive bidding process to hand out millions of taxpayer dollars to a handful of companies for the work, claiming that “only a limited pool of contractors possess the qualification and equipment” for the work,
Officials claimed that the need for renovations was so urgent that any delays would cause “serious injury” to the government, though it remains unclear what that “injury” entailed.
In July, weeks after she publicly accused a former Olympian of “forcefully and violently” ripping out the blue liner, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dismissed a criminal case against him entirely.
Pirro’s office admitted that the Trump-requested “American flag blue” sealant started to peel “almost immediately” after the work was completed after recent renovations to the site. The Department of Interior “provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case,” the filing said.
It was not until after the indictment was filed against 67-year-old David Hearn that the agency determined that the “damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism,” according to Pirro’s office.
Trump later pushed Pirro to “revisit her hastily made decision,” though he has also admitted that “some contractor error” played a role in the damage.
open image in galleryA judge later blocked prosecutors from trying to charge Hearn a second time, finding that a case against him would likely be the result of “political pressure” from the president.
Earlier this month, D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman called that idea of prosecuting Hearn again “simply fanciful” and permanently tossed the case against him.
Hearn’s attorneys have asked the Department of Justice and Department of Interior to launch an independent investigation into alleged “widespread misconduct” surrounding the case.
The administration “subjected an innocent man to a nightmare of wrongful arrest, felony indictment, and public defamation to cover up their own botched, rushed renovation of the Reflecting Pool,” attorneys Michael Bromwich, Steve Levin, Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann said in a statement last week,
“This administration threw the entire weight of the federal government into prosecuting Davey Hearn, and their actions surrounding his arrest and indictment demand full accountability,” they added.
More about
Donald TrumpNational Park ServiceDepartment Of JusticeLincoln MemorialDoug Burgumjeanine pirro
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