Trump gives Oval Office honor to crew behind Reflecting Pool makeover – WRGB
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President Donald Trump signs the Secure America Act at the White House.
by ALEXX ALTMAN-DEVILBISS | The National News Desk
WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump welcomed the "hardworking men" who renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to the White House on Wednesday and thanked them in the Oval Office.
Special Assistant and Communications Advisor Margo Martin shared a video on social media of the president gifting the men signed hats and a presidential challenge coin.
A renovation on the Reflecting Pool was completed last week, and it was refilled by Sunday in preparation for America's 250th birthday on July 4.
Trump faced criticism for choosing to change the color of the basin to "the dark blue of the American flag," and pushed back that it amounted to little more than a "paint job."
"This was highly sophisticated material, industrial strength, that could last for 100 years, applied by very talented people, many of whom came from the Great State of Oklahoma, where I won 77 out of 77 Counties, THREE TIMES, the only President to ever do so," he wrote on Truth Social.
"The material is thick, strong, flexible, and has a natural, beautiful color, the dark blue of the American Flag!" he continued.
The reflecting pool, which stretches more than 2,000 feet, was originally built in the 1920s.
Before a major renovation in 2012, the basin held about 6.5 million gallons of water — roughly the equivalent of 10 Olympic-size swimming pools — according to the National Park Service. That project added a circulation and filtration system that allows the pool to draw water from the nearby Tidal Basin rather than the city's drinking water supply.
A Washington-based nonprofit, the Cultural Landscape Foundation, filed a lawsuit last month seeking to halt the project. The group argues the administration unlawfully altered a historic national landmark without undergoing the required preservation review.
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