MaddowBlog-Trump's no-bid contract for reflecting pool project faces rising costs, new lawsuit

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The president handed a contract to a company that has never held a federal contract — but did work on a swimming pool at one of his golf clubs.

Trump’s no-bid contract for reflecting pool project faces rising costs, new lawsuit www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Philly Joe (@joehick58.bsky.social) 2026-05-11T19:55:37.606Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-no-bid-contract-for-reflecting-pool-project-faces-rising-costs-new-lawsuit

A separate Times report noted the Republican administration, to advance the project and its no-bid contract, invoked the same exemption for urgent situations — which, in this instance, does not appear to exist. The article added:

The pool is the latest in a string of cases where Mr. Trump’s government invoked special powers to shut down required competition, and then handed contracts directly to the president’s preferred vendors.

The renovation plans exemplify how Mr. Trump views much of the nation’s capital as his imperial realm — to decorate, or even destroy, as he sees fit. In doing so, he and his administration have run roughshod over a decades-old review process for changes in Washington’s core, as well as rules intended to ensure government money is spent wisely and without favoritism.

A follow-up Times report noted that Trump said his handpicked contractor would charge $1.8 million for the project, but the actual cost is now “more than seven times that, after the Interior Department nearly doubled the size of the contract late last week, federal records show.”....

On Monday morning, preservationists with the Cultural Landscape Foundation filed suit, asking a federal judge to halt the president’s renovation project. (The park service and the White House did not comment on the litigation.) The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee. Watch this space.

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1. Trump Reflecting Pool Paint Job Draws New Lawsuit Over Review

The Trump administration unlawfully began painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool basin blue without conducting the required consultations before altering a registered historic landmark, a new lawsuit alleged Monday.

What about giving his pool guy a no-bid .9 million contract, isn't that illegal as well?!

Trump Reflecting Pool Paint Job Draws New Lawsuit Over Review

news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

— haversack (@hsack121.bsky.social) 2026-05-11T16:55:31.986Z

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/trump-reflecting-pool-paint-job-draws-new-lawsuit-over-review

The Trump administration unlawfully began painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool basin blue without conducting the required consultations before altering a registered historic landmark, a new lawsuit alleged Monday.

The National Park Service awarded a pool contractor a no-bid $6.9 million contract to alter the original design of the National Mall landmark without publishing an environmental assessment or giving an opportunity for public comment, the Cultural Landscape Foundation said in a lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Because the reflecting pool is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Interior Department agency must consult with “experts and nonprofit organizations with relevant expertise” before altering the site under the National Historic Preservation Act, the group alleged.

The Trump administration said the urgent situation of the country’s 250th anniversary warranted an exemption from the law’s procedural requirements, according to the complaint.....

According to the complaint, the project was awarded to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which previously performed work at President Donald Trump’s National Golf Club in Sterling, Va.

It’s the latest alteration to a monument within the nation’s capital that groups say lacked any public review process or National Environmental Policy Act study, as Trump continues to push the East Wing ballroom project forward and plans to renovate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. All projects have drawn lawsuits from similar historical societies and nonprofits.

“Every day that the resurfacing continues, the historic character of the Reflecting Pool is being further and fundamentally altered,” the suit filed Monday said.