Folly on the Mall

If you’ve followed Washington, D.C., news in recent months, you likely noticed one national landmark hogging the spotlight: the Reflecting Pool. The saga, which began with a nearly $15 million paint job, is still unfolding but already has included multiple arrests, peeling paint and the return of algal blooms. The controversial makeover is just one in a long list of changes President Trump has implemented or proposed on national park lands in the capital — and advocates are calling foul. In its haste to break ground, they say, the administration has been cagey about funding and has flouted the law.

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Besides overseeing the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom, the president has unveiled plans to construct a 250-foot arch adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery, install a garden on the Mall featuring 250 life-size statues of Americans he handpicked, turn the public golf course at Hains Point into a championship-style club, and massively expand the tennis complex in Rock Creek Park. Several of these projects have already spurred lawsuits.

Ed Stierli, NPCA’s vice president of government affairs, isn’t opposed to new monuments or needed investments in park infrastructure but said NPCA is against forcing these projects forward in the absence of financial transparency, public input, and congressional and environmental review. So far this year, the administration has siphoned more than $100 million in national park fee dollars for pet projects in Washington. Total costs will likely reach hundreds of millions — if not billions — of dollars, at a time when the Park Service is saddled with a shrinking budget and a roughly $24 billion repair backlog.

Even if Trump were to get these projects privately funded, “the president doesn’t have the power to decide what goes on America’s front yard,” Stierli said. “Only Congress does.” That authority stems from the Commemorative Works Act of 1986, which outlines a comprehensive process for approving new monuments on federal lands in Washington. “This is a commemorative landscape,” Stierli continued. “This shouldn’t be changed without congressional approval, because that’s what the law says.”

ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL BYERS, 2026, LEVI CREATIVE MANAGEMENT, NYC