Trump Returns to Reflecting Pool, Now Refilled After Botched Renovation

President Trump on Monday will make his closing argument before the midterm elections at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a landmark whose failed repair job became a high-profile symbol of his second administration’s struggles with governing.

The Reflecting Pool has been closed and fenced off since July, after earlier repairs ended in a debacle: The pool’s new blue waterproof coating peeled up, and algae blooms turned the water bright green.

Since then, contractors have applied a new layer of waterproofing and flushed out the pool’s filtration system. Photos of the pool in recent days have shown it gradually refilling.

Mr. Trump is scheduled to speak at the pool at 2 p.m. Eastern on Monday.

On Sunday, while campaigning for Republican candidates in Iowa, the president told reporters that he wanted to return to the pool to show “how beautiful it is.”

“It’s been finished,” Mr. Trump said.

Then he again blamed vandals for the pool’s problems, even though federal prosecutors and the contractors who repaired the pool said the biggest problem was flaws in the repair work.

“It was vandalized badly,” Mr. Trump said in Iowa. “We have cameras all over the place now for the vandals.”