Trump's administration won't seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration will not seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday as he faced new questions about the troubled project and the taxpayer money involved.

Like President Donald Trump, Burgum said he was 100% sure that vandals caused the damage to the century-old Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Trump has charged that a 350-foot gash was cut into the pool's liner in the midst of recent renovations, while Burgum described it as multiple cuts adding up to that figure. He also said the pool would have to be at least partially drained in the coming week to finish the repairs.

The repairs will not be opened up to new contractors, he said.

“We’ll use the same company, because they did a fantastic job,” Burgum told CNN's “State of the Union." ”Thankfully, the vandalism was small. It was bad. I mean, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, so then it could fall into a felony ... just like damaging any other government property could. But the job that was done to fix the Reflecting Pool was done extremely well."

Trump this spring pledged to beautify the Reflecting Pool before the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations on July Fourth. Water was drained and the Republican president directed that the bottom be painted a color he called “American flag blue.” But after the site was restored, the water was plagued by an algae bloom for more than a week, and pieces of the new coating have appeared to be peeling off the bottom.

The pool was closed for the Independence Day celebration, but Burgum said that was due to a safety issue related to the fireworks.

The evolving debate over the Reflecting Pool has inflamed the broader fight over Trump's aggressive push to overhaul Washington landmarks, including the White House, nearly two years into his final term in office.

Authorities have arrested more than a half dozen people in relation to Reflecting Pool damage, including former Olympian David Hearn, who was indicted last week on a felony of property destruction.

The top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on the pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than $1,000 in damage. She accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerently toward an employee who told him to stop.

Hearn's lawyers, Democracy Defenders Fund co-founder Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, said the charges were “outrageous and should be alarming to every American.” Eisen and Dohrmann construed the case as representative of “the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”

Burgum was asked and did not answer directly whether there was photographic evidence of vandals cutting the pool's liner. He was also asked whether Hearn should face a 10-year prison sentence, which is the maximum legal penalty for his charge.

“Just because you were a former something doesn’t exclude you from the law today,” Burgum told CNN. “The courts will decide.”

Meanwhile, questions loom over the no-bid contracts for the project that were awarded to vendors with prior ties to Trump.

Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.

About 10 Democratic senators and House members are investigating the pool project.

“Taxpayers deserve a full explanation of how these failures occurred and who will be held accountable for correcting them,″ said a letter signed last month by six senators.

Burgum also appeared on ABC's “This Week.”

FILE - American David Hearn, of Bethesda, Md., makes his way through the C1 slalom course, Sept. 17, 2000, at Whitewater Stadium in Penrith, Australia. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)

A worker clears debris from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum speaks at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Friday, July 3, 2026, near Keystone, S.D. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A man on a bike passes security fencing along the edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of America 250 July 4th celebration on the National Mall, Thursday, July 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Workers install fireworks along the edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of the America 250 July 4th celebration on the National Mall, Thursday, July 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Michigan Democrat Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign for the U.S. Senate on Sunday, transforming her party’s high-stakes nomination contest just a month before the primary.

McMorrow did not explain her unexpected decision in the announcement she posted on social media, but she was under intense pressure from some in her party to help create a two-person race between U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed.

The seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is one that the party must hold if it hopes to reclaim the Senate majority in this fall’s midterm elections. Democrats cannot afford to lose any ground in their uphill fight to take control of the chamber for the final two years of Donald Trump's presidency.

“Today, I’m announcing that I am suspending my campaign for United States Senate,” McMorrow wrote.

“And I’m doing it with a deep, deep sense of gratitude. For our thousands of volunteers, for everyone who donated what you could — building a campaign with zero corporate PAC dollars. For my staff, who built this team up from nothing. I thank you,” she said.

The Aug. 4 race has increasingly split Democrats along ideological lines, with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer backing Stevens and El Sayed drawing the support of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and allies such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., although El-Sayed identifies as a progressive rather than a democratic socialist.

Some establishment Democrats feared that his far-left policies might undermine the party’s chances in the high-profile general election this fall.

With McMorrow out of the race, the establishment believes El Sayed will be easier to defeat.

The primary winner is expected to face Republican Mike Rogers, who lost to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024.

FILE - Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., joined by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)

FILE - Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, answers a question during a press conference at the Michigan Democratic Party State Endorsement Convention, April 19, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez, File)

FILE - Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, listens to questions from the media during the Michigan Democratic Party State Endorsement Convention, April 19, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez, File)