WASHINGTON, D.C. — Workers have begun painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue as part of President Donald Trump's effort to beautify Washington, D.C., ahead of the nation's 250th birthday this summer. The Trump administration awarded a no-bid contract totaling $6.9 million to a preferred vendor using an exemption meant for emergency situations.

The pool, built in 1922, stretches 2,030 feet between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. It has long been plagued by leaks, structural deterioration, faulty pipes, algae growth, and bird droppings. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum pledged to solve the pool's leaking problem.

"The reflecting pool was filthy, dirty, and it leaked like a sieve for many years," Trump said. He said initial bids to renovate the pool included an estimated cost of $300 million and a timeline of over three years, and that one proposal called for removing the pool's original granite and replacing it with stone.

Trump said contractors who had worked for him on renovating swimming pools could renovate the pool for $1.5 million to $2 million. He said the paint will last for 40 or 50 years and "there'll be no leaks, there'll be no anything." "For much less money, it will look far more beautiful, more beautiful than it did in 1922 when they built it," he said.

Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, objected to how the project was authorized. "The system of checks and balances has broken down in the United States," he said. "Burgum is dispensing with a variety of legal safeguards to improperly facilitate Trump vanity projects in the nation's capital," Whitehouse said.

Former CNN reporter Jim Acosta criticized the project in a video posted online. "And guess who's paying for it? That's right — you're paying for it! Just in time for America's 250th birthday. Let's take a look," Acosta said. He said in the same video that "Trump seems to think that all these federal workers are going to be able to make this look like a swimming pool by using blue paint on the bottom."