Nonprofit sues to block Trump plan to paint Reflecting Pool blue

A Washington nonprofit asked a federal judge to stop Donald Trump’s plan to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue, calling the move an unlawful rewrite of a landmark that anchors the National Mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and named the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Park Service and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum as defendants. The group is seeking a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to pause the resurfacing work while the court considers whether the administration skipped required historic-preservation review. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee.

At the center of the dispute is not just color, but control over one of Washington’s most symbolically loaded public spaces. Trump has said he wants the basin finished in time for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, and has described the new look as “American flag blue.” He has also called the pool “filthy” and said it “leaked like a sieve.” TCLF argues that a blue-tinted basin would fundamentally alter the site’s visual and experiential character, making it read more like a swimming pool than a solemn civic landscape.

That argument reaches back to the design itself. The reflecting pool, about 2,000 feet long, was originally completed in the early 1920s, with multiple sources citing 1924. A 1999 National Park Service report cited in the complaint said the dark color of the tile created the illusion of greater depth and a more profound reflection, a feature preservationists say is inseparable from the pool’s role in connecting the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Swimming in the pool is prohibited by federal law.

The lawsuit also lands as the project’s cost balloons. Trump initially said the repair would cost about $1.8 million, or less than $2 million, but reporting cited a $6.9 million no-bid contract that later rose to $13.1 million after Interior added another $6.2 million late last week. Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the contractor on the job, had never before held a federal contract.

Trump said on May 7 that he drove his motorcade through the drained pool to inspect the work, underscoring the personal interest he has taken in a project the Interior Department says is meant to be ready for the 250th anniversary and for “many generations to come.” The legal fight now asks a broader question: whether a president can remake a protected national monument’s appearance first and justify it later, or whether federal preservation rules still control even when the White House wants a faster, flashier finish.