Last edited Mon May 11, 2026, 04:46 PM - Edit history (1)
The president handed a contract to a company that has never held a federal contract — but did work on a swimming pool at one of his golf clubs.
Trump’s no-bid contract for reflecting pool project faces rising costs, new lawsuit www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Philly Joe (@joehick58.bsky.social) 2026-05-11T19:55:37.606Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-no-bid-contract-for-reflecting-pool-project-faces-rising-costs-new-lawsuit
A separate Times report noted the Republican administration, to advance the project and its no-bid contract, invoked the same exemption for urgent situations — which, in this instance, does not appear to exist. The article added:
The pool is the latest in a string of cases where Mr. Trump’s government invoked special powers to shut down required competition, and then handed contracts directly to the president’s preferred vendors.
The renovation plans exemplify how Mr. Trump views much of the nation’s capital as his imperial realm — to decorate, or even destroy, as he sees fit. In doing so, he and his administration have run roughshod over a decades-old review process for changes in Washington’s core, as well as rules intended to ensure government money is spent wisely and without favoritism.
A follow-up Times report noted tha
t Trump said his handpicked contractor would charge $1.8 million for the project, but the actual cost is now “more than seven times that, after the Interior Department nearly doubled the size of the contract late last week, federal records show.”....
On Monday mornin
g, preservationists with the Cultural Landscape Foundation filed suit, asking a federal judge to halt the president’s renovation project. (The park service and the White House did not comment on the litigation.) The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee. Watch this space.
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