President Donald Trump has called for investigations into perceived political enemies he accuses of cost overruns and mismanagement. But the price tags on two of his own signature projects have skyrocketed.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, which Trump said last month would cost roughly $2 million, has ballooned to $13 million, according to a federal contracting record first reported by The New York Times. The cost of Trump’s planned White House ballroom addition was estimated at $200 million when Trump announced it last summer. Trump said it would be paid for solely through private donations. The cost has since soared to $400 million, with Republicans in Congress weighing a request for an additional $220 million in taxpayer funding for security upgrades for the new construction within a broader $1 billion funding request for security upgrades across the White House complex.
The increases rival, in percentage terms, the cost overruns Trump has cited in calling for investigations into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro recently dropped her federal criminal inquiry into Powell after a district judge said prosecutors had produced “essentially zero evidence” in the case. Trump, who has clashed with Powell over his reluctance to reduce interest rates, said the Fed’s cost overruns were “sort of” a fireable offense — though federal law requires specific justification to remove a sitting chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
“Somebody has to find out why that building that should have cost $25 million is costing billions of dollars,” Trump said last month after the case was dismissed. “You know why they have to find it out? For other buildings, because that’s not the only one. I think that’s the most egregious example.”
When MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner asked Trump about the contradiction between his calls for Powell to be fired and the cost of his own projects, the president insisted his ballroom was “under budget and ahead of schedule,” and suggested the price had ballooned because the scope of the project had expanded. When MS NOW noted that the price of the ballroom has doubled, Trump responded, “I doubled the size of it, you dumb person.” He declined to address questions about the cost of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation.
Last month, Trump claimed that repainting the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool would cost roughly $2 million. The Interior Department awarded Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings LLC $6.9 million for the project on April 3 — well before Trump publicly floated the $1.8 million figure. Last Friday, the agency awarded the company an additional $6.2 million for what it described as a “supplemental agreement for work within scope.” Federal contracting data suggests the firm had not previously received any government contract before this work. Trump said Monday that the Interior Department selected it after a recommendation from another contractor that has worked on his personal property.
When asked for comment on reflecting pool costs, the White House referred to the Department of Interior. In a statement, an Interior Department spokesperson said the National Park Service “chose the best company to expedite the repair of the iconic Reflecting Pool ahead of our 250 celebrations,” adding that the project now includes a new filtration system and a dedicated maintenance crew.
“The contract price reflects the effort necessary to expedite the timeline of completing the leak prevention coating project — more people, more materials, more equipment and longer hours ahead of our 250th,” the spokesperson said.
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On the ballroom, the separate $220 million in potential taxpayer funding is part of a broader $1 billion proposal for White House security upgrades, which Republicans advanced following a shooting at last month’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. On Tuesday, Secret Service Director Sean Curran presented Senate Republicans with a breakdown that includes bulletproof glass, drone detection technology and chemical threat filtration systems for the East Wing. A White House official told MS NOW the ballroom itself “will still be paid for with the private funds raised,” but said the security proposal covers “the overall East Wing Modernization Project, which is more than just the Ballroom.”
For months, Trump has touted the now-$400 million price tag for building the new East Wing as a “gift” from his wealthy supporters, though critics argue that the arrangement could allow private interests to curry favor with the president. In October, the White House released a partial list of donors, which included Amazon, Apple, Google, Coinbase, Ripple and Palantir, as well as major GOP donors such as the Adelson Family Foundation and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Trump has repeatedly said he would have “no problem” releasing a full list of donors but has not done so yet, even as the cost has doubled.
By comparison, the Federal Reserve’s headquarters renovation has grown roughly 30% since it began in 2022, which Powell has attributed to inflation and widespread tariffs imposed by the administration last year.
Similarly, Trump has criticized the cost and delays of the billion-dollar California High-Speed Rail project, overseen by Newsom, a Democrat, and called for the governor to be investigated over the situation. An estimate for the rail project has surged to $235 billion, according to a 2026 budget request, up from its original price point of $33 billion from 2008 — a roughly sevenfold increase. The Department of Transportation pulled $4 billion in federal funding from the rail project as a result of the delays.
“That train is the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen,” Trump said in April, although the cost growth is similar to the makeover of the reflecting pool.
Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
Soorin Kim is a White House producer with MS NOW.