Senate

Fetterman: ‘Stop the henpecking’ on Trump’s reflecting pool revamp price tag

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by Ryan Mancini - 05/12/26 12:52 PM ET

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by Ryan Mancini - 05/12/26 12:52 PM ET

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Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Tuesday defended the amount of money reportedly spent on President Trump’s revamp of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and told critics to “stop the henpecking.”

The New York Times cited federal records that showed the actual cost of the project to repaint the bottom of the pool “American flag blue” and mend leaking joints was at $13.1 million. Trump originally said the repairs would cost $1.8 million.

The Interior Department added $6.2 million to the existing $6.9 million contract, the outlet reported.

“Stop this henpecking. $13M? This is an iconic American place and was in serious disrepair,” Fetterman said on the social platform X, sharing a screenshot of the headline for the Times’ story. “Get over the TDS and celebrate this is getting done for our 250th.”

Trump earlier on Tuesday blasted the outlet’s reporting, accusing the Times of justifying former presidents “Obama and Biden’s expensively botched attempt at fixing the long broken, unsightly, and unsanitary Reflecting Pool that NOW sits majestically between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.”

“It won’t leak, it will shine, and be the pride of Washington D.C. for decades to come,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I saved more than 390 Million Dollars, and 4 years of no ‘mess,’ and was, of course, given no credit by the biased New York Times.”

Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia firm that previously repaired swimming pools at the Trump National Golf Club near Washington, is overseeing the project. It was chosen to lead the work following a government request that said there was an urgent need to proceed with the repairs.

Trump ordered the project to coincide with the nation’s 250th anniversary, with completion slated by July 4.

Preservationists, however, filed a lawsuit last week. The Cultural Landscape Foundation and its founder, Charles Birnbaum, said the project violates environmental and preservation laws. They accused the administration of “altering the historic character of the Reflecting Pool without following Congressionally mandatory procedures.”

Birnbaum and his foundation compared the painting of and repairs to the reflecting pool to other projects in Washington, D.C., carried out by the administration.

“This latest desecration of the reflecting pool is part of a pattern –– epitomized most notably by the rush to destroy the East Wing of the White House –– in which this Administration willfully disregards legal limits established by Congress,” the lawsuit reads.

The Interior Department defended the work on the reflecting pool.

“President Trump has done more to make our nation’s capital a shining beacon than any other president in the history of this country,” an Interior Department spokesperson previously told The Hill.

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