Why is Trump's Reflecting Pool Renovation Costing $13M?

President Trump is promising an unbelievable makeover of one of Washington's most recognizable landmarks, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. But the fast moving project is adding up and drawing scrutiny.

So I went to see the work for myself. It was always other people think of it as beautiful, but it was always a mess. It's going to be unbelievable. It will be unbelievable.

It's actually exciting. That was President Trump in a cabinet meeting this past week, spending more than eight minutes talking about this. The reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on the National Mall.

It's just one of many iconic Washington landmarks that, at the president's direction, is getting a facelift. What they did is they cleaned it. They took out, as they said, more than ten dumpsters of garbage.

We then steam cleaned it. We then, uh, sandblasted it. We made the surface as good as it can be. And we're now covering it with the most beautiful blue. And it's beautiful.

It's called American flag blue. That was the color we chose. So here's what it actually looks like right now. That first coat of American flag blue is nearly all the way down, even if it is a bit uneven

in spots and the entire area remains fenced off to the public as this crews do their work even. Continuing that work after preservationist groups sued to stop it. And of course, all of this work does come at a cost.

We're going to spend like $10 million, maybe $12 million, but I think it's a very low number. The thing is, that number was supposed to be even lower. President Trump originally promised that his handpicked no bid contractor

would just charge $1.8 million for this repair and paint job. But federal records show the Interior Department is now planning to pay that contractor Atlantic Industrial Coatings, more than seven times that, about $13.1 million.

And the National Park Service analysis obtained by The New York Times found the Virginia based firm is getting an unusually large profit margin for a federal construction project of 20%, adding at least $850,000 to what a more typical contract would have cost.

But the Interior Department says that higher price tag reflects the tight deadline. President Trump wants this project complete before the country's semi centennial, when it opens in a couple of weeks, long before July 4th.

We want to have a for July 4th weekend, but it will be long before that. You will see something that's really going to be beautiful.