WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday went on an unannounced trip to the Lincoln Memorial to see the Reflecting Pool after he had it coated in a color he calls “American flag blue.”
He did more than just see it — the Republican president was driven across the new coating before he got out of his SUV to make a statement and answer questions from reporters who had been taken there to await his arrival before the sun set.
The new blue coating will hide the pool’s gray stone, a color Trump said was “never good.” The project cost nearly $2 million, he said.
“It never had the color people wanted, but now it’s going to have the great color,” he said, standing in the pool surrounded by some of his Cabinet secretaries, including Doug Burgum of Interior and Markwayne Mullin of Homeland Security.
Trump had similar feelings about the gray granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, describing it as a “really bad color” last year. The president wants to cover the building in white paint and two federal agencies are reviewing his proposal.
