'Reign him in': Nancy Sinatra reacts to lawsuit against Trump admin over Reflecting Pool repair
A cultural nonprofit has filed a lawsuit against the President Donald Trump administration to block the ongoing repainting of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool "American Flag Blue." Reacting to the news, vocal Trump critic Nancy Sinatra urged the court to rein in the President and stop the project in its tracks. The renovation, which Trump promised would be finished before the 250th anniversary of the nation, has been long controversial, and now faces legal challenges.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum over the decision to resurface the reflecting pool's basin, American flag blue, which was chosen by the president himself. "Reign him in," Sinatra wrote, sharing the news of the lawsuit on X.
In the suit, the education and advocacy organization urged a federal judge to halt the project, claiming that the Trump administration failed to have the project reviewed federally, which is mandated by the National Historic Preservation Act. It further claimed that the color was the main issue with the project as it threatened the original design of the 104-year-old historic landmark. "The 1999 National Park Service Cultural Landscape Report for the Lincoln Memorial Grounds specifically identifies the dark-tiled basin as a character-defining feature of the historic landscape, noting that 'the dark color of the tile created the illusion of greater depth and a more profound reflection,'" the suit reads. Thus, attorney Alexander Kristofcak argued that the dark grey color wasn't "incidental" but it was "the design" of the landmark, according to NBC News.
The suit further argued that the new blue color will cause the pool to look like a large swimming pool rather than the reflective civic landscape it was originally designed to be. It argued the move would distort the experience of the site for the millions of yearly visitors.
Trump first revealed his plans to paint the pool blue last month, claiming that the project would take weeks to finish before the 250th anniversary and cost roughly $2 million. However, The New York Times reported that the administration had awarded the $6.9 million contract in a no-bid process by invoking an emergency provision. According to the publication, the contract was given to a company called Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which had never previously held any federal contracts, and on Monday, the Times reported that federal filings showed the administration was planning to pay a total of $13.1 million for the repair, about seven times the cost that Trump had initially promised.
In response to the report, Trump tore into the publication, refuting the claims and stating that he never chose the contractor, and that the previous administrations took years and unsuccessfully spent tens of millions on the pool. He claimed the project wasn't a paint job but a "deeply complicated work of smart and beautiful construction," in a Truth Social post.
