President Donald Trump baffled nearly everyone with a Truth Social post showcasing an AI-generated image of himself swimming in one of Washington D.C.’s most iconic monuments.
In the wee hours of Friday, the president uploaded an image of a thinner, younger version of himself, wearing swim trunks and floating bare-chested in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. As his digital dupe lounged in a gold inflatable pool chair and flashed a thumbs up, he was joined by bare-chested versions of Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, alongside an unidentified (likely imaginary) woman wearing a gingham bikini and sitting on an invisible floating pool chair.
The image was part of a spree of photos Trump posted to herald renovations he’s put in motion ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
This past week, the 2,030-foot-long water feature was drained so crews could paint the bottom of the pool a vibrant cerulean shade, which the president dubbed “American flag blue.” The makeover was projected to take about one week and cost $2 million, per Trump.
The reflecting pool’s revamp was just one of the president’s plans to leave his personal mark on the nation’s capital. Last month, his Commission of Fine Arts approved preliminary designs for a 250-foot stone arch near the National Mall, despite reports that it received around 1,000 public comments opposing the monument.