Trump Reveals Latest Vanity Project in Unhinged Pool Rant
Donald Trump has set his sights on another memorial after painting the Reflecting Pool blue.
President Donald Trump wants to paint the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., blue after slapping blue paint on the Reflecting Pool.
Trump, 79, revealed the latest memorial he wants to get his hands on during a nearly 10-minute rant about renovations he’s been focused on throughout the nation’s capital at the White House while surrounded by members of his Cabinet.
“Now we’re looking at the World War II fountain because that’s also in pretty bad shape,” Trump declared.
He revealed he wanted to “duplicate” the fountain’s bottom with paint in a “slightly different color.”
“Actually, we’ll go with a lighter color, but Doug and I have a lot of fun doing it,” Trump told the room, referring to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Trump says he wants to paint the fountain of the WWII Memorial as seen from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 2, 2026.
Ken Cedeno/Reuters
The WWII Memorial includes a series of stone and bronze sculptures surrounding a pool of water on the National Mall just down from the Reflecting Pool.
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The president’s comment came after he rambled for several minutes about his administration slapping a fresh coat of paint on the Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
Trump called it the “reflecting lake” and said “nobody has ever seen anything like it” while also giving it the wrong dimensions and claiming it was longer than the tallest building in the world, which it is not.
It’s one of the many renovation projects the president has taken on since returning to office after he also bulldozed the entire East Wing of the White House.

Workers continue to paint the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall on May 26, 2026 in Washington, DC as Trump claims he also wants to paint the fountain at the WWII Memorial.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Trump first estimated the renovations at the Reflecting Pool would take just one to two weeks, but the project to paint the more than 2,000-foot pool has since dragged on for more than a month as workers continue painting it “American flag blue.”
“Over the years, I built hundreds of pools. I build them every time I guild the building. I always like to build Olympic swimming pools, and I was very aware, swimming pool, what goes into making swimming pool,” Trump rambled. “It’s not as simple as people think. You never want it to leak. You want a beautiful surface.”
Trump went on to brag about a swimming pool he has “right up the road” that he built 22 years ago, calling it “perfect.” He then repeated the story he has shared multiple times about calling his contractors to get ideas for the Reflecting Pool.

Visitors walk near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on May 26, 2026 in Washington, DC as President Trump has initiated numerous construction projects on federal government properties including painting it "American flag blue."
Anna Moneymaker/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The president insisted that, despite the changing timeline, the Reflecting Pool would be completed by the 4th of July, as the U.S. is set to celebrate its 250th birthday.
“If we didn’t have such bad weather the last four or five days, we could have been almost done,” he complained. “You can’t do the substance in the rain.”
Trump whined that before he started the project, the Reflecting Pool was “filthy, dirty and disgusting,” but that it would soon become “really, really beautiful.”
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