President Donald Trump and members of his administration made an unusual visit to the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday, driving the presidential motorcade through the empty reflecting pool that the president recently ordered contractors to renovate.
When pressed with questions about why he was focused on an ornamental project when gas prices are soaring because of the Iran war, President Trump castigated ABC News reporter Rachel Scott.
The president claimed the memorial had previously been “disgusting” and that truckloads of trash had been removed since the pool project began last month.
“That’s not what our country is about,” Trump said. “Our country is about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people. Not a filthy capital. That’s such a stupid question that you asked. 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.”
The president, who is prone to outbursts against female reporters, accused Scott of being a “horror show” and “a disgrace to our country.”
The Independent has contacted Scott for comment.
Negotiations remain deadlocked to end the Iran war, and the president threatened to respond to Iran “a lot more violently” in the days ahead, after an alleged Iranian attempt was intercepted by U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz.
Last month, complaining of the state of the iconic Washington site, the president said his pool “guy” would resurface the Reflecting Pool with an upgraded “industrial grade” finish in “American flag blue.”
White House communications advisor Margo Martin wrote on X on Thursday that the visit to the pool was meant to “see the progress of the project and meet the hardworking team behind it.”
The president, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in tow, chatted with the Oklahoma-based painting crew working on the project, bragging about his electoral success in the state.
“We love you in Oklahoma,” one of the workers said.
“I love you guys, too,” Trump said in response.
The sight of government limos cruising up the empty pool is just the latest unusual aspect of the project, which is part of the president’s goal to rapidly remake many of Washington’s most famous landmarks according to his tastes.
The president previously touted the project during a string of posts on Truth Social last month, alternating threats against Iran with claims the pool project would “take a fraction of that time, at a fraction of the cost — and it will be much more beautiful than the day it was built!”
Trump has said he would turn to a contractor who previously worked on his real estate projects.
“I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools up the road,” the president said last month.
Trump has also touted the project with an AI image of members of his administration sitting shirtless in the reflecting pool with an unidentified woman in a bikini.
The president has been floating the idea that he would redo the reflecting pool since last year.
The pool was previously renovated under the Obama administration and has been periodically drained for maintenance since.
Trump has sought to put his stamp on Washington across multiple projects, including his unilateral effort to raze the East Wing of the White House to build a new ballroom and a proposed project to build a towering triumphal arch on the banks of the Potomac River.
The administration also plans to shutter the Kennedy Center, which the president has sought to rename after himself, for the next two years for renovations.
The president also cited concerns about the safety and beauty of Washington, D.C., when he deployed federal agents and the National Guard for a law enforcement crackdown in the capital last year.
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