President Donald Trump on Monday contradicted his past comments on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation when he tried distancing himself from a firm hired on a no-bid contract to do the work. (Watch below.)
Trump — in a video circulating X and Facebook that seemingly derives from a CNN clip — told reporters in the Oval Office that he wasn’t “100% thrilled” with the contractor, claiming the firm was “rushing” to finish the job before July 4.
“By the way, I didn’t know the contractor,” remarked Trump while appearing to refer to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia-based firm that was reportedly paid an “inflated” total of $14.7 million.
“But, when it was completed, it was perfect,” continued Trump before insisting that vandals — and not the contractor, as his Justice Department found to be the case — are to blame for damage to the pool.
Trump offered a remarkably different take about the contractor on April 23, the video shows.
“I said, ‘I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools,’” said Trump, recalling a conversation with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about the firm and the “perfect” work they once did on one of his pools.
He continued, “I’m going to send my contractor over and take a look. He looked at it. He called me up. He said, ‘Sir, we can do something on it … We have a color, it’s called ‘American Flag Blue.’’ I said, ‘That’s the color I like.’ He talked me into it very easily.”
By May, Trump would claim on his Truth Social platform that he didn’t know the contractor, and the Interior Department, rather than him, awarded the contract.
Outside of AIC, another contractor, Greenwater Services, was hired on a no-bid contract to install a new water purification system in the pool.