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.
NPS “chose the best company to expedite the repair of the iconic Reflecting Pool ahead of our 250 celebrations,” an Interior Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The choice of American Flag Blue will enhance the visitor experience by making the pool reflect the grand Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.”
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.
The organization is represented by the Washington Litigation Group.
The case is The Cultural Landscape Found. v. U.S. Dep’t of the Interior, D.D.C., No. 1:26-cv-01593, complaint filed 5/11/26.
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