A Washington-based nonprofit asked a judge on Monday to stop the Trump administration from going ahead with work on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, one of the most iconic spots on the National Mall. The Cultural Landscape Foundation said the administration repainted the bottom of the pool blue without the reviews it says federal law requires.
The lawsuit, filed against the Interior Department and the National Park Service, says the changes run afoul of federal preservation laws that govern historic sites. Charles A. Birnbaum, the foundation’s president, said the design of the pool is meant to create a reflective surface that stays subordinate to the monuments around it, and that a blue-tinted basin is more fitting for a resort or theme park than a place framed by the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
The dispute landed after Trump called the area filthy and ordered the reflecting pool painted in what he has called American flag blue. Last week, his motorcade was driven over the drained and repainted basin so he could see the project firsthand. The White House’s deputy press secretary, Katie Martin, said Trump has done more to make the nation’s capital a shining beacon than any other president in the country’s history, and said the department is proud of work by the Park Service for “our 250th” and for generations to come.
The reflecting pool sits between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, a setting that gives the site its historic weight and makes even small alterations hard to ignore. The foundation says that is exactly why the work should have gone through the preservation reviews it argues were skipped. The case also adds to a growing legal fight over Trump’s construction push in Washington, where he bulldozed the East Wing over the past year to make way for a ballroom and pursued other renovation projects now facing litigation.
For now, the question is not whether the pool was repainted, but whether the administration can keep work moving on a landmark that preservation advocates say was changed first and reviewed later. If the court agrees with the foundation, the project could be halted before the new finish becomes the new normal.
