Exclusive: Firm that worked on past Reflecting Pool renovation passed on Trump project after deeming it ‘unfeasible’

CNN ^ | 25 June 2026 | Abigail Roederhsheimer , Isabelle Khurshudyan Isabelle Khurshudyan , Sunlen Serfaty Sunlen Serfaty

[Merrick]

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8 min read Exclusive: Firm that worked on past Reflecting Pool renovation passed on Trump project after deeming it ‘unfeasible’ By Abigail Roederhsheimer , Isabelle Khurshudyan Isabelle Khurshudyan , Sunlen Serfaty Sunlen Serfaty 3 hr ago Chipped paint and algae are visible in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, on June 21. Chipped paint and algae are visible in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, on June 21. Aaron Schwartz/Reuters

Several months before blue strips started floating to the surface of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a company involved in its last renovation more than 15 years ago was approached with an opportunity to do this remodel as well. But the company said no.

Specifically, it balked at two requirements – the Trump administration wanted it done by July 4, and the pool bottom had to be blue, according to two employees with the New Jersey-based Sika Corporation, which provided the concrete construction and sealing products for a 2010 renovation project to the Reflecting Pool.

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TOPICS: Conspiracy
KEYWORDS: pool; reflecting; trump

[Merrick]

Wait! Trump reached out to Obama's company first??!! I guess all that BS about sole source graft was - BS!!!

[Merrick]

How many TDS BS conspiracies posted *won’t* turn out to be BS? I ask it that way because asking the other way would be too large a number.

[Sarah Barracuda]

Just imagine if CNN did actual journalism instead of wasting their time covering a FREAKIN POOL..OMG WHO CARES..I had no idea that Obama even tried fixing it for 34 million dollars back when he was President, NO ONE TALKED ABOUT IT because it was NOT important.

[Da Coyote]

Good old CNN, semi-news that’s still unfit to print.
But they try, they try.
And fail.
Journalism - for lesbian studies failures.

[Kleon]

Online commentators have also speculated that the bottom of the pool may have been affected by the presence of heavy equipment and trucks — and a presidential motorcade that drove through at one point — shortly after the coating was applied.

Why would they drive on it?

[Merrick]

Why would entertain the possibility the claim is true?

[Kleon]

Why would entertain the possibility the claim is true?

Because there's video and images showing it happening.

[Merrick]

I see a motorcade driving on bare cement. That surface isn’t the color you see a few seconds later in the video when they are sealing it.

[Kleon]

I don't know what you're looking at. They're clearly driving across the sealed surface, including a section that's still wet:

https://x.com/StevenCheung47/status/2052540371394081155

[bigbob]

Line the damn thing with LCD screens and project an image of water. Anyone comes near it, project an image of Hillary. No would will touch it.

[Ann Archy]

Look at the WRITER’S NAMES!!!! It took THREE DUMBASS CHICKS to write this dribble!!!

[Organic Panic]

I have refused projects that were unfeasible for my shop’s capabilities. It was not a scandal. Not all companies can do all things.

[Ann Archy]

LIARS LIE!!!

[Merrick]

Th3 answer to your second question is: what i was watching was thd video of the motorcade on the article I posted that I assumed was what you were referring to - and stand by what I said. You now provide a different video showing a different event - fine - tbey drove across it. So my answer to your first question is in two parts:

1. I agree with you that I think they shouldn’t have driven across it.

2. It’s irrelevant to the actual damage, because the actual damage is a slash across sealant on the side of the pool. That not the surface the motorcade affected.

[Merrick]

Th3 scandal i was referring to was the mass hyperventilation all the TDSers had around here on a posted article that claimed Trump did a sole source award to a company under the table and didn’t consider multiple companies. And I think I made that clear in reply 1.

[meyer]

Let’s check their political donor’s list. Odds are that they’re either a DEI/Minority entity that gets high priced contracts and favorable treatment from democrats, or they’re just big time donors to the libtards. Or both!

[Merrick]

And who’s lying?

[Sacajaweau]

These are specialists. Sounds like the company didn't have the expertise required.

But my gut tells me that he made a LOT of money under Obama...and he's a Dem...

Would like to know if he did any other projects for Obama....

[central_va]

There going to have to turn it into a real pool and recirc the water thru a filtration system instead of keeping it a tributary of the Potomac.

[bray]

Is that the firm that took 300 million and three years to make it worse than when they started?