WASHINGTON — Water is flowing back into the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, after a controversial painting job kept it closed for weeks. And to many onlookers, it doesn’t look much different.

“The pool gets completed at 4 o’clock and the water will start to flow in … and it’s going to be beautiful,” President Trump told reporters in the Oval office on Wednesday.

The next day, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum shared a video of water bubbling up through a grate on the freshly-darkened pool floor. Trump had the pool’s surface darkened to a shade he calls “American flag blue.” For the last century, he’s said, the pool was “just gray … the color of concrete and stone.”

By Friday morning, the 2,028 foot-long shallow pool had collected a stripe of water down the middle, just wide enough to reflect the Washington Monument across from it. The refilling continued under the bright sun, as one worker stood in the middle of the pool, with his pants rolled up above his knees, wielding a hose.

As the temperature neared 90 degrees, tourists, cyclists and joggers paused at the top of the nearby steps to snap photos and observe the process. Many welcomed the return of the water — and the ducks that play in it — but said they couldn’t immediately tell a difference in the color.

“The more water it fills, the more similar it looks [to before],” said Luisa Córdoba, a D.C. resident and avid runner who says she’s been coming to check on the pool every day since work started. “I’m just happy it’s not that bright blue that we saw the first days, which was so alarming … if it stays like this, it’s fine.”

Early renderings — as well as preliminary coats of paint when the project started in late April — had critics worried the historic landmark would end up looking more like a swimming pool. But Friday’s observers didn’t find that to be the case.

“I’m colorblind, so it doesn’t look blue — yet,” said Terry Barzanti, a Maryland resident who works nearby.

“I’m not colorblind and it doesn’t look blue,” laughed his coworker Edgar Sadsad, who found it more grey.

Other passersby described it as closer to black, and said the difference might be more noticeable once the pool is fully refilled. Even so, Sadsad and Barzanti were among those who praised the project, saying the pool already looked cleaner and more appealing.

Trump has for months complained about the state of the pool, saying he made it a priority after an unnamed friend visiting from Germany called it “filthy” and “not representative of the country,” according to the president.

The pool, which first opened in 1923, last underwent major renovations between 2010 and 2012. But it has continued to suffer from broken pipes and water leaks that merit costly refills, according to the Department of the Interior.

Trump has said this project sealed crevices in the stone to prevent leaks, and removed 12 truckloads of garbage from the pool, though it’s not clear that it addressed the broken pipes.

“It’ll last for 50 to 100 years before you have to do anything with it,” he said.

The reflecting pool, at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, previously reflected blue in certain conditions such as this day in November 2025.

Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

Questions remain about the project’s funding 

The resurfacing took significantly longer than Trump’s initial estimate.

He said in late April that the project would be done in a week or two, though the Department of the Interior told NPR it would take closer to a month.

In mid-May, the nonprofit Cultural Landscape Foundation sued the administration to stop work on the pool, saying it had bypassed federally required historic preservation reviews. A judge heard arguments later that month, but hadn’t made a decision by the time the administration informed the court on Wednesday that work had been completed.

The project also appears to cost more than Trump said it would.

He gave the price tag as $2 million, which he said, without specifics, was significantly less than he had been quoted previously. But Interior Department records obtained by The New York Times show the administration plans to pay $13.1 million to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia firm that Trump picked for the project.

“It’s kind of sad where our tax dollars are going. I mean, it was fine before, by my knowledge,” said Samantha Sorokin of Arlington, Va., who was taking her parents on a tour.

It’s not clear how much of the money is coming from taxpayers. A large sign affixed to the construction site fence, on National Park Service letterhead, informed visitors that “these improvements are being completed using your fee dollars.”

(The Washington Post reported this week that the Trump administration is diverting at least $90 million from national park entry fees to fund its July 4th fireworks display and other D.C. beautification projects.)

When asked for comment about the cost and where the money is coming from, the Department of the Interior — the park service’s parent agency — told NPR that it has “many funding sources available to spend on deferred maintenance.”

“Unlike Barack Obama who spent millions upon millions in taxpayer-funded Great Recession recovery aid that should have gone to struggling families, the Trump administration is looking at different funding mechanisms which include endowment funds and revenue brought in from the sale of park passes,” the unnamed spokesperson wrote over email.

The two-year renovation of the reflecting pool that ended in 2012 was funded by $34 million from an Obama-era economic stimulus package.

A sign outside the reflecting pool informs visitors that their national park fees helped fund the project.

Rachel Treisman/NPR

hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Rachel Treisman/NPR

Trump’s campaign to spruce up D.C. 

Trump is hoping to make many changes to D.C., ranging from massive undertakings like his proposed triumphal arch (which got preliminary approval from a second federal agency this week) to smaller changes like installing new statues and restoring park fountains.

“We have many monuments and fountains all over Washington, and we’re just about completed with all of them,” he said Wednesday.

The Interior Department referred NPR to a White House post on X listing those accomplishments, which include “500 instances of graffiti removed,” “134 rat-resistant trash cans installed” and “250 truckloads of debris from ponds removed.”

Much of that work is being carried out by National Guard troops deployed to D.C., whose numbers are set to double ahead of the country’s 250th birthday celebrations on and around July 4th. That’s also the deadline — or at least impetus — for many of Trump’s renovation projects.

Maria Sorokin, who was visiting her daughter from Pennsylvania, is skeptical that the 250th anniversary warrants major changes like the reflecting pool resurfacing.

“It is a special anniversary and it should be spruced up, but I’m not sure if this was necessary,” she said, looking at the pool slowly refilling. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

But some area residents, like Barzanti, embrace the cleanup and beautification efforts.

“We walk down here for lunch breaks,” he said. “People come from all over the world to see our nation’s capital. So we should show it off, we should take care of it.”

Some changes are going over better than others.

Several locals at the reflecting pool, including Córdoba, mentioned that they were thrilled to see the fountains at Meridian Hill Park — a popular spot about 1.5 miles north of the White House — flowing with water for the first time in seven years.

Maryellen Thornton, who lives near the park, says the fountain restoration has been “amazing for the community,” describing the picnic blanket-packed grass “like nirvana.” It’s also one of the reasons she and her husband Brad Thornton came to see the reflecting pool.

“We’re just fascinated with how fabulous it is to have all of these water features being restored in the district,” she said. “It just brings so much happiness to everybody.”

Brad is also excited to see the return of water to the fountain outside Union Station, Washington’s major transport hub, and hopes the newly filled reflecting pool will build on that momentum.

“A little bit of spraying water goes a long way,” he said. “It shouldn’t be about politics. It’s just about enjoying it. We’re in the city. We need some green space.”

How do you reserve your seat at an Hermès show? A Birkin bag, apparently. Even before pulling up to the Second Chapter of the Hermès women’s ready-to-wear fall-winter show in Bel-Air — the house’s first women’s show in Los Angeles — photographer Tyler Matthew Oyer was texting me photos of women at check-in clutching their Birkins in one hand, phone and ID in the other. “They are everywhere.” I took a photo of my yellow raffia bag, the handle tied with an Hermès horse scarf that once belonged to my maternal grandmother.

Getting to the destination was like ascending to a parallel universe of the Getty, in similar excursion-like fashion — only instead of cable cars, we gathered into black vans with tinted windows that climbed the mountains opposite the museum. After a solid 20 minutes of winding roads, we reached the grand reveal: a butter-yellow pavilion, delectable and whimsical like a giant cake on stilts, plastered with all-caps neon signage, SILHOUETTES ON THE HORIZON. The structure, designed by Maybe Paris with Hermès creative director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski, was built from scratch and took three weeks to build.

“I smell leather. Do you smell leather?” Keyla Marquez, our fashion director at large, asked, turning to me from inside the buttery dome, glass of Champagne in hand. Hermès leather goods were on display, including on Keyla, who wore a vintage black skirt with zippers running up the front and back and a suede top.

The show started unusually on time, just moments past 7:30 p.m., at peak twilight. But from where we sat, it was as if we were inside a sun going up at night, the suspended bands of light brightening and intensifying our yellow abode.

The runway looped like Bel-Air’s roads, the models walking in S’s and the clothes following suit, dresses, ’80s flared pants and silks expanding and trailing behind them in a way that brought to mind Audrey Hepburn in “Funny Face,” snaking down the steps of the Louvre in Givenchy (“Take the picture! Take the picture!”). The show notes pointed to “the dancer’s wardrobe” as inspiration, embracing how fabric can have a mind of its own — gathering, draping, cascading. “Don’t smooth out the wrinkles,” a voice over the music said. Each wrinkle is “a powerful current.” A double entendre for embracing age? I liked to think so, especially when the soundtrack to the finale came on, Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes,” a tribute to the Old Hollywood actor and her timeless, teasing gaze.

I caught up with Keyla Marquez after the show for her take on the evening.

The first guest who caught your eye and why.

Brenda Hashtag. I’m a fan. I feel like she’s of a new generation of influencers and has a lot to say. She’s really vulnerable with the things she says about being in the fashion world. She did an interview with the Cutting Room Floor about fashion shows and how people don’t say hi each other, and there’s nothing wrong with saying hi to each other. She’s part of a new generation that has more vulnerability. For me, it’s not so much celebrities but these people who are changing the landscape of the fashion industry and she’s one of them. Even though she said she doesn’t like L.A. [laughs].

Three words that describe the night for you.

Magical, opulent and VIC’s.

Did you have a favorite look?

Yes. The body piece with the flared pant legs. I feel like all these designers who grew up in the ’80s are bringing back the ’80s in a really chic way. YSL did this collection a couple seasons ago with socks with fringe on them. That outfit was very reminiscent of that. There’s this new play on the ’80s but not in a cheesy way. It’s very chic and luxurious.

Monochrome ruled the runway. Are you team red (“rouge tango”), blue-green (“vert impérial”), yellow (“jaune flave”) or black?

Black and yellow. I would’ve been OK with the blue not being included. I see the ’80s inspiration but I would’ve been OK with blue not being a part of the color palette.

The best thing you ate after the show.

Those egg thingies with roe were so good. What was in it even?! The truffle toast was bomb. And of course, Champagne.

Your take on the Birkin bag.

The more worn out, the better.

The thing you tell the L.A. haters who flew in for just a few days for the show.

Get to know the culture. Get to know the real people. Go to the east side. When the only thing that you see are the influencers and Erewhon, that’s not the real L.A. You have to go to where the culture lives.

Monique McWilliams and Lauren Halsey.

Chloe Fineman and Miranda July.

Hermès creative director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski.

If you were to divide the total number of bands there have ever been by the total number of hits there have ever been, it would be clear that most bands have never had a single hit. That means if you’re a one-hit wonder, you’ve really been highly, highly successful. A single hit is a near miracle.

In Power Ballad, Rick Power (Paul Rudd) is a loving husband and father who sings in a good wedding band people really like. He once had a pop band and a record deal — he even toured, which is how he came to Ireland, met a woman, married her, had a daughter with her, and made his life there. He continues to make a living as a performing musician who makes people happy, which, again, qualifies him as more successful than he perhaps gives himself credit for.

At a wedding, he meets Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas), who used to be in a boy band and is trying to get a solo career off the ground. He and Rick see something kindred in each other, and they end up spending the night drinking and playing music and talking about songs they’re working on. Rick plays him an unfinished ballad called “How To Write A Song Without You.”

A few months later, Rick is at the mall when he hears “How To Write A Song Without You” playing. As it turns out, Danny finished the song by adding a bridge, brought it to his people as his own, and has released it as a single. When Rick reaches out for credit, Danny denies everything (through his management). Rick has no proof that he wrote it. He sets out, with increasing intensity, to confront Danny.

Nick Jonas as Danny Wilson and Paul Rudd as Rick Power in Power Ballad.

David Cleary/Lionsgate

hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

David Cleary/Lionsgate

This story is, in part, about credit and money. That could seem like an incongruous direction for director and co-writer John Carney, who previously made beloved, big-hearted films like Once and Sing Street that are also about musicians, but where credit and money are beside the point.

The film isn’t really about credit and money, though. It’s about the fact that Rick has been working in music for decades and has never produced, for himself or the people he loves, much hard evidence that he’s good. Maybe that kind of hard evidence isn’t even a thing. Artistic success is hard to define, but Rick has never even gotten far enough to split those hairs. But now, suddenly, there is this (maddeningly unreliable) indicator of quality: He wrote a monster hit. He wrote a song people love. It’s easy to talk about wanting credit as if there’s something small or grimy about it, especially when money is involved. But if Rick wanting credit is grimy, then surely Danny denying him credit is doubly so.

Danny, for his part, is less a villain than a coward. His public image is souring, and he’s got a slimy manager (played by Jack Reynor, who deserves bad things here just as much as he did in Midsommar and The Perfect Couple) threatening to drop him. So when his girlfriend (Havana Rose Liu) overhears him noodling around with Rick’s song, misunderstands it to be his, and loves it, he can’t resist. The script cleverly includes the complicating detail that Danny did finish the song by writing the bridge, so it’s not as if he didn’t contribute anything. It’s a song they both worked on; it’s just that by the time Rick is trying to get things straightened out, it’s much too late for Danny to admit that he lifted the song from a middle-aged wedding singer and lied about it.

By the end, Power Ballad has said some pretty profound things about art, including a warning that shortcuts are unsatisfying. Danny achieves huge commercial success with “How To Write A Song Without You,” but he has guaranteed that performing the song will always feel empty. Why? Because he’s pretending. He didn’t write the song, and he doesn’t even understand the song.

Danny wants to be a star, and he knows how to get what stars have. He has what it takes. But he also wants to perform a song and know that it came from him, that it is of his heart and mind, and that it is good. He is a talented performer who got greedy, and he decided he had to have what songwriters have. Ending a songwriting experience with money and recognition isn’t a requirement. But beginning it with your own brain is. Otherwise, you simply cannot have what songwriters have, no matter how many stadiums you play.

And while this isn’t a movie about AI, it’s safe to assume that if trying to take credit for a song somebody else wrote won’t truly satisfy, taking credit for a song no human being wrote won’t either. In fact, if Danny’s experience says anything, it’s that a good song may not have come from you, but at least it came from somebody. Somebody cared about the making of it, even if it was somebody else. After all, plenty of very good performers don’t write their own songs, which is fine — unless you fib about it.

It’s a terrific movie; the leads are both very good and perfectly cast. The song that is supposed to be a huge pop hit is a very plausible pop hit, which isn’t always how it goes. The ending is satisfying but bittersweet, like pretty much every ending Carney has ever made. Ultimately, Power Ballad posits that in art, as in life, it should matter if you’re honest. It should matter if you did what you say you did. And perhaps too optimistically, it suggests that a genuine one-hit wonder is likely happier than a superstar who’s lying.

This piece also appears in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.

Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.