WASHINGTON — A Washington-based nonprofit is asking a judge to force the Trump administration to stop work on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and restore its historic elements, alleging that a project to repaint the pool’s bottom a shade President Donald Trump has called “American flag blue” violated federal preservation laws.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court against the Interior Department and the National Park Service, which oversee the renovations. The group argued that the administration moved ahead with the color change without conducting the environmental and historic reviews required for modifications to one of the most protected sites on the National Mall.
“The design intent, to create a reflective surface that is subordinate, is fundamental to the solemn and hallowed visual and spatial connection between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, the foundation’s president and CEO, in a statement. “A blue-tinted basin is more appropriate to a resort or theme park.”
Trump has claimed direct ownership of the project. After calling the area “filthy,” he dispatched workers to repaint the Reflecting Pool and, last week, had his motorcade driven over the drained basin so he could inspect it in person.
Speaking at a Rose Garden event Monday evening, Trump did not address the lawsuit but said the pool would reopen “sometime next week, week after.” He rejected descriptions of the work as a basic paint job, calling the material “highly sophisticated stuff.”
Katie Martin, an Interior Department spokeswoman, said in a statement that Trump “has done more to make our nation’s capital a shining beacon than any other president in the history of this country. The Department is proud of the work being carried out by our Park Service to ensure this magical spot can be enjoyed for not only our 250th, but for many generations to come.”
The Reflecting Pool is the latest front in an aggressive, year-long effort by Trump to reshape the physical landscape of Washington. Over the past twelve months, the administration has demolished the East Wing of the White House to make room for a ballroom, added the president’s name to the facades of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Kennedy Center — which it plans to close for a two-year renovation — and hung a banner bearing Trump’s face at the Department of Justice headquarters. The president is also pushing for a triumphal arch near Arlington Cemetery and has closed parks, including Lafayette Square across from the White House, for what the administration describes as rehabilitation work. Multiple projects are already the subject of separate lawsuits.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s suit contends that the Reflecting Pool project is part of a broader pattern of dramatic renovations carried out without proper legal review, and it asks the court to compel the administration to restore the historic elements of one of the most photographed and visited sites in the nation’s capital.