Trump ups Reflecting Pool renovation projections to ‘less than $20 million’ amid court fight

By Julia Benbrook, Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Thursday the price tag for his Reflecting Pool renovations in Washington, DC, will be “less than $20 million” after he decided the exterior needed more work.

“I originally thought I’d do it for $2 or $3 million,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Just do a base. But now we are fixing up the exterior of it so we will probably be in it for less than $20 million.”

Trump’s comments came as a federal judge heard arguments by a nonprofit suing to stop the project in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The judge did not immediately rule on the motion.

Trump said the exterior work was not included in his original numbers.

“When I went there last week, I saw the exterior was in very bad shape, as well as the interior, so I said, ‘We’re going to fix that too,’” he said.

“The key is to have it done before July 4,” Trump said, adding that the project is “probably at three quarters done.”

The president had initially said the renovation would cost $1.8 million. But federal records show the price tag is already up to $13.1 million for the project, CNN reported.

Trump on Thursday touted the economic efficiency of his renovations, repeatedly pointing to previous repair estimates of $350 million that he said would’ve taken longer.

“It was going to take four years, $350 million. I’ll be doing it in basically a couple of months for less than $20 million dollars.”

The project has been a priority for the president, who has repeatedly disparaged the state of the Reflecting Pool, saying it is feces-infested and in disrepair. He has zeroed in on the color, which he claims no one likes. And he contends that previous administrations failed to repair leaks and other problems.

The color has been a particularly thorny issue in Washington. Historians, including the foundation suing to stop the renovations, say Trump’s choice of a dark blue that he calls “American Flag Blue” will make the site look more like a swimming pool.

Judge torn on lawsuit

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Washington, DC, appeared torn on Thursday over what to do with a request from a non-profit for an order halting work on the Reflecting Pool while their legal challenge to the project plays out.

US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, asked tough questions to attorneys representing the Cultural Landscape Foundation about how the ongoing work amounted to an irreparable injury that warranted his intervention now. Courts are typically reluctant to issue injunctions like the ones sought by the group unless they can be persuaded that a challenged action cannot later be undone.

“It seems to me that if there is any harm to be done it is both reparable and temporary,” Nichols said during a hearing.

The judge, who did not rule form the bench, pushed a Justice Department attorney to concede that while it’s not possible to remove the paint, it could be painted over in a way that brings the color back closer to how it was before work began this year.

That reality appeared to ease concerns from Nichols that if he didn’t intervene now, but later decided that the government violated federal law in how it carried out the project, his ruling would still have an impact on the ground.

“Putting the pool back entirely to the way plaintiffs want — we can do that now and later,” the judge said.

The case, which was brought earlier this month, is the latest challenge to Trump’s effort to remake a slew of cultural and historic institutions and sites in the nation’s capital. Other groups have asked federal courts to stop the president from moving ahead with work on a massive new ballroom at the White House, construction of an arch similar to Paris’ Arc de Triomphe and the painting of a historic federal office building adjacent to the White House.

In the Reflecting Pool case, the plaintiffs contend the project violates federal laws requiring the Interior Department to complete a consultation process that includes notifying the public of the plans and getting input from other federal agencies before beginning the work.

“The new coloration will cause the pool to resemble a large swimming pool rather than the reflective civic landscape it was designed to be, distorting the experience of the site for the millions of visitors who come to it each year,” lawyers for the group wrote in their lawsuit.

The group also says the project runs afoul of a federal law requiring the department to issue an assessment of how the paint job would impact the environment.

“As we speak, the government is defacing a historic treasure,” Alexander Kristofcak, an attorney for the challengers, told Nichols on Thursday.

The Justice Department, however, said both on Thursday and in court papers filed ahead of the hearing that no federal laws were violated because a determination was made to exclude the project in full from an environmental assessment.

As for the winding review process ordinarily required to be undertaken per the National Historic Preservation Act, they said the project underwent a “streamlined review” that can sometimes take place when officials decide work on a site amounts to “routine maintenance.”

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