President Donald Trump has aggressively moved to leave his imprint on the nation’s capital in the year and a half since he returned to office.
The famed Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been drained, painted blue and filled again. But the algae has returned and Trump has said that material peeling off the bottom will require the pool to be drained again. An entire wing of the White House is gone, demolished to a pile of rubble, while construction on a much larger 90,000-square foot replacement is underway.
Sites around town are being scoped out for new, splashy monuments. The president’s name has been added to several buildings in the nation’s capital, including the US Institute of Peace and the Kennedy Center, although it’s since been removed from the latter to comply with a court order. And Trump has touted the repair of Columbus Fountain, in front of Union Station, as “the most magnificent possibly of all,” among a number of fountains repaired around the city.
CNN is tracking the projects and plans reshaping DC so far this term.
The president — reverting to his roots as a builder and developer — has blown through regulatory hurdles, sparking legal challenges to several of his projects. And while he’s secured millions in private donations, some efforts are also racking up millions at the taxpayers’ expense.
