President Donald Trump attacked the New York Times for coverage of the Reflecting Pool renovation, claiming his administration achieved dramatic cost and time savings compared to previous administrations' efforts.
The Times published a piece called, "Reflecting Pool Repairs to Cost $13.1 Million. Trump Had Promised $1.8 Million." That seemed to trigger the president.
In a post published at 1:12 A.M. Eastern, Trump characterized the Times as "one of the worst newspapers anywhere in the World, and is losing subscribers on an hourly basis," and accused the outlet of inaccurately covering his 2024 election victory.
Regarding the Reflecting Pool, Trump claimed former administrations "squandered at least 55 Million Dollars haplessly trying, with no chance of success, to get the Reflecting Pool to work. Instead, they made it worse, keeping it closed for years, and ending up with a leaking, smelling, ode to both of their failed Administrations."
Trump said his approach represented a fundamentally different strategy. "I worked with our now strong Department of the Interior and explained to them that we should view this as a highly sophisticated swimming pool, not the leaking, dilapidated facade, joints and all, of a building."
He claimed his team could construct the project "for 5 or 6 Million Dollars, and could complete the project in 2 weeks rather than 4 years," contrasting with what he described as a previous planned cost of "400 Million Dollars."
Trump stated: "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. It won't leak, it will shine, and be the pride of Washington D.C. for decades to come."
The president concluded: "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."