Donald Trump Stayed Up Until 1am to Fire Off Rant Over ‘Embarrassing’ Lincoln Memorial Cost Revelation

Donald Trump unleashed a late-night online tirade from Washington on Tuesday, railing against The New York Times after the paper reported that his renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool would cost more than seven times the price tag he had claimed.

Donald Trump, now 79, has been touting a self-styled 'beautification' drive in the US capital, deciding late last month to overhaul the iconic pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech in 1963.

Trump told supporters the work to fix leaks and repaint the basin an 'American flag blue' would cost $1.8 million. Federal records cited by the New York Times instead show the Interior Department intends to pay Atlantic Industrial Coatings $13.1 million for the job.

Donald Trump's 1am Rant Over Reflecting Pool Costs

The discrepancy set off Donald Trump in the early hours. At 1:12 a.m., he posted a roughly 400-word message on Truth Social attacking the report and defending his role in the project. The original post, which referred to the pool as 'and embarrassment to Washington,' was quietly deleted. At 6:46 a.m. he uploaded a cleaned-up version, correcting spelling and grammar while keeping the substance of his complaint.

By dissecting the numbers, Trump effectively acknowledged the higher bill reported by the Times while trying to redirect blame. He accused the newspaper of 'trying to justify Obama and Biden's expensively botched attempt at fixing' the Reflecting Pool, claiming that 'they squandered at least 55 Million Dollars haplessly trying, with no chance of success, to get the Reflecting Pool to work.'

The pool did undergo a major renovation during the Obama administration, when Joe Biden was vice president, between 2010 and 2012. That work cost in the region of $30–38 million, not the $55 million figure Trump cited. Nothing in the supplied material confirms his higher number, so it should be treated with caution.

In his rant, Donald Trump cast himself as the man called in to fix a mess created by others. 'Now, along comes 'TRUMP,' who is asked by many patriots if I can fix it. The answer is a resounding, YES, and for a 'tiny' fraction of the cost!' he wrote, presenting his involvement as an act of patriotic thrift.

He then sketched a fantasy version of the project's finances and timetable. 'Instead of taking 4 years to build, at a cost, granite pavers and all, of 400 Million Dollars, we could construct a far superior Reflecting Pool for 5 or 6 Million Dollars, and could complete the project in 2 weeks rather than 4 years. What a difference in time and money, and for a far superior end result!'

Again, his own administration's numbers do not match that account. According to the reporting he was reacting to, the Interior Department added $6.2 million to a previous $1.8 million contract, giving a total of $8 million. That is more than the '5 or 6' million in his Truth Social post, but far below the $400 million straw man he used for comparison.

Donald Trump, The 'Lowlife Reporter' And A No-Bid Contract

As his message went on, Donald Trump shifted from defending the project to criticising the journalist who had scrutinised it. He singled out New York Times reporter David Fahrenthold, branding him a lowlife 'reporter' and insisting the story had reduced a complex piece of work to 'just a paint job.'

'This is not just a paint job, like lowlife 'reporter,' David Fahrenthold, of the NYT so inaccurately and maliciously stated, it is a deeply complicated work of smart and beautiful construction,' Trump wrote.

'It won't leak, it will shine, and be the pride of Washington D.C. for decades to come. I saved more than 390 Million Dollars, and 4 years of no 'mess,' and was, of course, given no credit by the biased New York Times.'

The Interior Department's own description of the project sounded more prosaic. In the material provided, officials referred to it as 'the leak prevention coating project,' language that leans closer to maintenance than to the grand architectural rescue Trump described.

His financial boasting also sits awkwardly beside the contracting process. In his Truth Social post, Trump insisted, 'Also, I didn't give out the contract, 'Interior' did, to a contractor I did not know, and have never used before.'

According to the Daily Beast, however, his administration bypassed the usual requirement to consider competing bids and awarded a no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a firm that has previously renovated pools at Trump's club in Sterling, Virginia.

Those claims cannot both be accurate as stated. Without access to the underlying contracting documents, it is impossible to say precisely who took which decision, but the contradiction is obvious enough that it undercuts his attempt to distance himself from the choice of contractor. Given that, nothing about his professed ignorance of the company can be treated as confirmed.

The president had already boasted about bringing in a favoured specialist. 'I have a guy who's unbelievable at doing swimming pools,' he told reporters in late April, in comments that now sit uneasily next to his denial of any prior relationship with the firm.

War, Gas Prices And Donald Trump's Sensitivity To Criticism

The furore over a pool comes against the backdrop of a live war with Iran and domestic anxiety over fuel costs. During a White House Rose Garden speech on Monday, Trump again took aim at The New York Times, telling his audience, 'I read in The New York Times we just gave it a little paint job. This is not paint. This is highly sophisticated stuff.'

The paper he derides as 'Failing' has, by contrast, been thriving commercially, adding 1.4 million digital subscribers in 2025 and continuing to dominate US news traffic, according to the Daily Beast. That asymmetry may help explain why he returns to it so often as a foil.

His irritation has not been reserved for print media. ABC News senior political correspondent Rachel Scott drew his fire last week when she questioned the timing of his beautification campaign. 'Mr. President, you are here against the backdrop of the war in Iran. Why focus on all these projects right now? We're still seeing gas prices soaring,' she asked.

Trump's response was scathing. He called Scott a 'horror show' and a 'disgrace' and dismissed her query as a 'stupid question.' That exchange, and the nocturnal 400-word screed over the Reflecting Pool, point to a president acutely sensitive to any suggestion that his pet projects are vanity exercises, whether the criticism is about money, optics or simple priorities in wartime.

Originally published on IBTimes UK

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Donald Trump, New York Times