Trump inspects Lincoln Memorial pool after $2M blue coating

President Donald Trump drove across the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Thursday to inspect a nearly $2 million blue-paint coating he ordered, calling the new color "American flag blue" and vowing to rid the capital of what he described as filth and neglect.

The visit underscores Trump's push to reshape the aesthetic of the nation's capital through a series of federally funded renovation projects, at a time when his administration has also moved to cut government spending in other areas.

Trump arrived at the Lincoln Memorial by motorcade and drove across the newly coated pool surface before stepping out to speak with reporters. Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin were among the Cabinet members who accompanied him, ABC7 Los Angeles reported.

Standing in the pool with members of his Cabinet, Trump said the original gray stone color "never had the color people wanted, but now it's going to have the great color."

When a reporter questioned why the president was focused on the Reflecting Pool's appearance, Trump pushed back. "Our country is about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people. Not a filthy capital," he said.

Trump elaborated further, framing the renovation as a matter of national pride. "We're fixing up the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and you say, 'Why are you fixing it up?' Because you can understand dirt maybe better than I can, but I don't allow it," he told reporters, according to ABC7 Los Angeles.

The coating project cost nearly $2 million and involved the removal of several truckloads of garbage from the pool. An underground visitors' center at the Lincoln Memorial is scheduled to open in June, ABC7 Los Angeles reported.

The Reflecting Pool project is one of several capital-aesthetics initiatives Trump has ordered. He has announced plans to coat the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in white paint and ordered the demolition of the White House East Wing to build a new ballroom.

Trump said a visiting German friend had complained that the pool water appeared dark, dirty and disgusting — a conversation the president cited as one reason he ordered the project, ABC7 Los Angeles reported.