Federal records show that the no-bid contract to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and paint it blue now costs $13.1 million. That’s about seven times the amount President Trump initially said it would cost.

By David A. Fahrenthold, Nikolay Nikolov, Gilad Thaler, Rafaela Balster, Léo Hamelin, Stephanie Swart and Whitney Shefte

May 14, 2026