what’s at stake
President Donald Trump’s renovations to the nation’s capital extend far beyond the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The Trump administration has undertaken scores of construction projects across Washington, DC since he took office for the second time, from the new White House ballroom to repairs of fountains and statues sitting on federal land. The projects could end up costing taxpayers more than $1 billion, according to The New York Times.
The scale of Trump’s DC renovations, coupled with the peeling paint and algae bloom plaguing the Reflecting Pool project, has critics arguing that the projects are an excessive use of federal funds.
Trump’s defenders see worthy repairs that have been needed for years; last month, the Interior Department reopened a fountain outside Union Station that had been running dry for almost two decades.
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who’s making the case
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., accused Trump of trying to “pay off his friends” using the projects, alluding to reporting linking a Republican donor to a firm that received a no-bid contract for Reflecting Pool renovations:
“It’s not just an excessive use [of federal funds], but it’s obviously a way to pay off his friends if you look at the contractor here. This has been a disaster from start to finish. … The president doesn’t know what he’s doing even as he pretends he does.”
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., called the renovations at the Reflecting Pool and elsewhere on federal property in DC a “perfectly appropriate use” of taxpayer dollars:
“If you have a federal asset, particularly something as historical as the Reflecting Pool, you’ve got to maintain it. That’s a perfectly appropriate use of taxpayer money, as far as I’m concerned.”
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., argued the ongoing repairs were a long time coming:
“The Reflecting Pool is one of those things that has been in need of renovation for a very long time. We’re seeing renovations on the House and Senate buildings that have been ongoing for 10 years.”
Notable
- Democrats in the Senate and House are demanding information from the Trump administration and the contractors themselves regarding the Reflecting Pool renovations.
- Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., suggested Trump let algae grow in the Reflecting Pool to “create an ecosystem.”