On the evening of June 22, 2026, President Trump said on Truth Social that he was “preparing lawsuits against ABC for false reporting” over the network's coverage of the troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. ABC had reported that the cost of repainting the pool had grown to more than $14.65 million under a no-bid contract, and on June 18 its chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl lifted a peeling piece of the new liner on air.
Trump wrote that ABC “failed to report that their close 'friends,' Dumocrats Obama and Biden, spent over 100 Million Dollars on the Reflecting Pool, and it never worked,” and blamed the damage on vandalism. He gave no evidence for the $100 million figure; CNBC and the New York Post noted that the Obama administration spent roughly $35 million on the pool, and that no major repairs are known to have been carried out under Biden. The Interior Department told ABC that five people had been arrested in connection with alleged vandalism.
“I like their money, which will be given to the U.S. Treasury!” Trump added, invoking the $15 million ABC paid toward his presidential library, plus $1 million in legal fees, to settle his 2024 defamation suit. The threat came while ABC faced two investigations by the Federal Communications Commission under Trump appointee Brendan Carr, and it fits a pattern of Trump threatening or filing suits against news organizations whose coverage he dislikes (see Trump's $14 Million Reflecting Pool Redo Fills With Algae and Sheds Its Paint, Then He Blames Obama and 'Vandals', Trump Sues BBC for $10 Billion Over Panorama Documentary Edit).
Correction (October 2, 2026): An earlier version dated the post to June 23. TheWrap, the New York Post and the Washington Examiner all report that Trump posted on Monday evening, June 22; the date was corrected.