Construction workers in yellow and orange milled about the drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Tuesday morning, where a rectangular patch of brilliant blue signaled President Donald Trump’s latest effort to remake the nation’s capital.
Trump last week announced that the reflecting pool — the granite foreground for Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech — would be coated with a commercial-grade liner in a color dubbed “American Flag Blue.” The painted-on material, commonly used in swimming pools, is intended as a lower-cost alternative to major repairs aimed at stopping long-standing leaks.
The decision comes as the Trump administration prepares for the nation’s 250th anniversary, planning fireworks and large-scale celebrations on the National Mall. But the move has drawn critical reactions from historic preservation experts, who question both the aesthetic choice and the administration’s penchant for bypassing federal laws and procedures that are intended to preserve the look of the nation’s capital.
“The reflecting pool is hallowed ground,” said Charles Birnbaum, who previously served as the coordinator of the National Park Service’s Historic Landscape Initiative, which aimed to identify and preserve historic landscapes across the national park system. “It shouldn’t resemble a swimming pool.”
