FILE PHOTO: A logo for ABC is pictured atop a building in Burbank, California February 5, 2014.
Mario Anzuoni | Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to sue broadcaster ABC for its reporting on the cost of repairing damage sustained by the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC.
The U.S. president said the network had not reported costs incurred by previous administrations in maintaining the landmark.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed 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.”
Trump did not give any evidence for the $100 million claim, but prior reporting by PBS indicated that former president Barack Obama’s administration spent around $35 million on repairs for the monument. No major repairs to the pool are known to have been carried out during the Biden administration.
He also claimed that the damage to the monument has been caused by vandalism, but no evidence that the Reflecting Pool was intentionally damaged has been provided by the White House.
Trump claimed to reporters on Monday that a “350-foot slit” was cut with a “box-cutter or a knife of some kind.” NBC News reported that at least five people have been arrested in connection with the alleged vandalism.
“We are preparing lawsuits against ABC for false reporting. I like their money, which will be given to the U.S. Treasury,” Trump added, also referencing $16 million that ABC paid to settle a defamation case he filed in 2024.
The network paid $15 million, which was put toward Trump’s presidential library, and an additional $1 million in legal fees.
Last week, ABC reported that the cost to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had ballooned to more than $14.65 million.
This exceeded the original estimated cost of the no-bid contract — that was not awarded by competitive tender — by more than $4 million, according to federal contract data.
The broadcaster also highlighted a $1.74 million contract awarded to Green Water Solutions, an Ohio-based company, to install a “nano bubble” system to kill algae, using a similar no-bid process.
This would have brought the cost of the entire project to more than $16 million.
The latest action against ABC comes as the broadcaster faces two investigations from the Federal Communications Commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr.
The FCC also demanded that ABC submit early renewal applications for eight of its local broadcasting licenses. That move came soon after comedian Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about First Lady Melania Trump and the U.S. president called for Kimmel’s firing.
The stations were reportedly not scheduled to apply for renewal until 2028 at the earliest.
On Monday, ABC said it was launching an on-air campaign encouraging viewers to support the network after its daytime talk show “The View” was investigated under federal “equal time” rules for political candidates, Reuters reported.