Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and fellow Republicans say they support the president’s passion for the pool project because D.C. is the “center of democracy in the free world”
Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty; Ken CEDENO / AFP via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- President Donald Trump has a habit of calling his advisers at all hours of the day and night
- In a new interview, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the president has called him as early as 8 a.m. and as late as 11:45 p.m. to discuss the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool specifically
- However, Burgum and fellow Republicans say they support the president’s passion for the reflecting pool project, because Washington, D.C., is the “center of democracy in the free world”
President Donald Trump is a notoriously sporadic sleeper, known for waking staffers on overnight flights to discuss whatever is on his mind. So it’s no surprise that one of his latest passion projects — the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — has him checking in frequently with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at all hours of the day and night.
“I’d say in the last week, the earliest call I’ve had is 8:00 a.m., and the latest call is 11:45 p.m.,” Burgum said during a recent sitdown with Politico’s Jonathan Martin, where he joined North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong and Sen. Kevin Cramer, both Republicans, to discuss the newly opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, as well as the future of the GOP and Trump’s agenda.
Of Trump’s calls, Burgum recounted with a laugh, “He starts [with], ‘Oh, I didn’t wake you up, did I?’ ”
“I’m like, ‘Of course not, of course not,’ ” the Cabinet member continued. “And he’s just checking on progress.”
Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty
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After repeatedly blaming his predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, for allowing it to languish into disrepair and discoloration, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation became a time-consuming side project for the Trump administration amid the America 250 anniversary events leading up to July 4.
The pool was drained, repaired, resurfaced and recolored “American Flag Blue” last month as part of its several-million-dollar renovation; however, almost immediately, a massive algae bloom appeared in the water, followed by chunks of the new liner falling off.
Trump, 80, has repeatedly blamed alleged vandals for the damage, claiming unidentified people not only cut up the liner with knives but also poured toxic chemicals into the water. He has previously claimed that six people have been arrested for allegedly vandalizing the pool; however, only one — former Olympic canoeist David Hearn — has been publicly identified and charged with a crime after police arrested him for reaching into the water. (Hearn has maintained that he was simply touching a piece of the torn liner and did not damage or remove any materials from the pool.)
When asked by Martin if the president’s focus is well spent on the reflecting pool’s repair, the North Dakota politicians spoke up in Trump’s defense.
“Should the leader of the free world, who’s running the biggest military in the history of mankind, be focused on the reflecting pool in Washington D.C.?” the journalist questioned.
“Absolutely,” Armstrong said. “Because it’s the center of democracy in the free world… When did it become OK to say, ‘You know what? This isn’t going to work. This is too hard to fix.’ ”
He continued, “The best place to take anybody [in D.C.], with all due respect to the White House, with all due respect to the Senate, with all due respect to anybody else, is the Speaker’s balcony. You can look out and one mile away is… the Washington Monument, and then one mile after that is the Lincoln Memorial. Those things should be fantastic, and they should be done the way they’re supposed to be.”
Cabinet members aren’t the only ones fielding late-night calls from Trump. In a recent Sky News special titled Trump’s America: 250 Years in the Making, Kid Rock said his rock star hours help him maintain a “f—ing awesome” friendship with the president.
“He’s so gracious, he always picks up or he’ll call and check in just to shoot the s—. He’s not calling me to [ask], ‘Hey, what should we do in Iran, Bob?’ I don’t get those calls,” said the rocker, 55, whose real name is Robert Ritchie.
“But, if I’m sitting around having some beers, if it’s like 11, 12, on a Friday or Saturday, I know he’s up,” Kid Rock added. “He sleeps like me; he sleeps five hours.”
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