Trump hails Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool work as ‘complete’

President Donald Trump said Saturday the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s renovations in Washington are “complete” after crews began refilling the pool on Thursday after weeks of renovations.

Trump credited Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and crew members for submerging the “Dark Blue surface of the Reflecting Pool” in “CLEAN, BEAUTIFUL WATER” and restoring a memorial that was opened in 1922. The $6.9 million renovation was announced by Trump in April, when he directed Burgum to resurface the pool’s basin in “American flag blue.”

The project comes alongside other efforts by the administration to restore Washington landmarks, such as the construction of a ballroom in the White House and a proposed triumphal arch. Upon returning to the White House, Trump signed an executive order titled “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful.”

Trump also referenced the recently announced “promenade” the administration plans to construct, which would connect the Lincoln Memorial directly to the Potomac River. Burgum said at the Thursday announcement that people at the National Mall “don’t know that 100 yards away is the beautiful Potomac River… and now they’d be able to walk around the Lincoln Memorial, walk on a pedestrian bridge over the first highway, walk over the next one, and right down to the water.”

In late May, Burgum celebrated the reopening of the Columbus Fountain near Union Station, where water is now flowing again for the first time in nearly two decades.

TRUMP ANNOUNCES HE’LL BUILD A ‘PROMENADE’ CONNECTING LINCOLN MEMORIAL TO POTOMAC RIVER

Trump showed reporters on Wednesday a chart comparing the size of the reflecting pool to other national landmarks, touting the work as “really special.”

Trump told reporters in late May that ten dumpsters of trash were removed from the pool’s basin during renovations.