FACTS FOCUS: Trump says Obama and Biden spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” on reflection pool. they don’t

In April, President Donald Trump announced a project to transform the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool, hiring a contractor to paint its massive granite basin at a cost he said would cost $1.5 million. He criticized his predecessors’ efforts to repair the site Wednesday cabinet meetingclaiming they spent “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Former President Obama oversaw a multimillion-dollar renovation of the pool, but the final bill fell far short of Trump’s estimates. And the Biden administration hasn’t done anything significant. As for Trump, federal spending records show the costs are much higher than he says.

The reflecting pool, which is more than 2,000 feet long, was originally built 1920s. Located between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, it is one of Washington’s most iconic attractions. In 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech here.

Let’s take a closer look at the facts.

Trump: “The Biden administration and the Obama administration spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to make it work, and they failed. We’re going to spend the money and you give me a number, but I think it’s a very low number. Like the number we were talking about originally.”

Fact: This is wrong. Obama administration At least $34 million was spent An extensive two-year redevelopment project concluded in 2012. There have been no major repairs to the pool during the Biden administration. Trump puts the cost of the pool project at $1.5 million to $2 million, but Record display Contracts worth at least $14.8 million has been granted Project so far.

Restoration efforts under Obama addressed issues such as standing water and the reality that the pool had begun leaking and sinking into the land dug out of the Potomac River to build the pool. It was redesigned with a circulation and filtration system that uses river water from a nearby tidal basin instead of city drinking water. To conserve water, it was also designed to be lighter and the base was dyed gray to make the water darker and more reflective of the Washington Monument. Additionally, paved roads have been added.

one Associated Press report Beginning with the pool’s reopening in August 2012, the cost of reconstruction will be $34 million. according to federal spending recordsthe government awarded at least $1.3 million in additional contracts related to the project. But those efforts were not entirely successful, as the pool continued to leak and algae grew massively.

Chuck Sams, who served as National Park Service director during most of the Biden administration, told The Associated Press that no progress has been made on a “comprehensive restoration” of the pool after an estimated cost of more than $100 million. He said pools will be cleaned annually during Biden’s term to control algae buildup.

Asked to comment on Trump’s claims, White House spokesman Tyler Rogers wrote in an email: “Thanks to President Trump, the Reflecting Pool will be restored to all its glory ahead of the 250th anniversary celebrations at a fraction of the money former Presidents Obama and Biden wasted exacerbating its condition!”

trump said announced simultaneously In April, during another renovation of the Oval Office’s exterior, he decided to spend $1.5 million with a new “industrial-grade pool” surface painted “American flag blue,” covering a decades-old granite surface that he said “leaked like a sieve.” According to the president, he has canceled plans to replace the granite because it was estimated to cost $301 million and would take at least three years.

At Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump said the pool had been Steam cleaning, fumigation and coating. He added that workers “sandblasted it, and then we pebble blasted it,” and that to prevent leaks, crews used “a very sophisticated rubber.” Trump noted that cleaning crews had cleared “more than a dozen dumpsters” as part of the renovation.

Interior Department spokesperson Katie Martin did not comment directly on the discrepancy between what Trump said was the project’s cost and what federal records showed when asked, but said the price “reflects the effort required to accelerate the timeline to complete the leak-proof coating project — requiring more personnel, more materials, more equipment and more time before our 250th project.”

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.

Find AP fact checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.