Trump bizarrely claims Lincoln Memorial is facing the wrong way as he floats latest icon upgrade

Donald Trump derailed a White House event about “clean coal” to go on a rant about his ongoing beautification efforts in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, marking yet another moment where those efforts have distracted the president from more serious policy discussions.

A Thursday afternoon event billed as an announcement about a new investment in U.S. coal plants began with Trump immediately launching into a spiel for the assembled White House press about his efforts to overhaul the Lincoln Memorial, complete with a video showing water flowing into the newly-repainted Reflection Pool. The president then shifted to his future plans: An idea for a “promenade” to extend down the other side of the building to the Potomac River.

“We’re doing something that just came up, we have a little breaking news here,” Trump teased. “We’re going to be doing that, it’s a promenade. They want to call it the Trump promenade.”

His explanation for the planned renovations followed: “At the Lincoln Memorial, the front was supposed to be the back, and the back was supposed to be the front. [The promenade] never got built, because they built two roadways behind it.”

Describing the new project as adding a “gateway to the water” behind the structure, which borders the Arlington Memorial Bridge and the National Mall, Trump said that it would “take the Lincoln Memorial right down to the Potomac”.

“It’s going to be beautiful,” Trump promised.

His plans actually do find roots in the original intention for the area around the Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service describes the Watergate Steps area on the Potomac side of the Lincoln Memorial as a planned site where foreign dignitaries would take their first steps into the capital and the National Mall. The location of the Lincoln Memorial was also selected due to the site’s views of the river, though the monument itself faces east, towards downtown Washington D.C. and the National Mall. A bridge on the western side links Lincoln’s memorial with Arlington National Cemetery and the former home of Robert E. Lee, the famed Confederate general, in a deliberate symbolic choice by the planners to show the rebuilt peace healing a divided nation.

But the project, like his effort to add a ballroom to the White House, is likely to face a court battle. The Trump administration has argued that it has the authority to make changes to any buildings or other structures overseen by the Interior Department, though he has faced roadblocks in his battle to rename the Kennedy Center after himself and that question remains undecided.

More to follow…