FILE PHOTO: A logo for ABC is pictured atop a building in Burbank, California February 5, 2014. <\/p>\n
Mario Anzuoni | Reuters<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n The U.S. president said the network had not reported costs incurred by previous administrations in maintaining the landmark.<\/p>\n In a post on Truth Social,<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n Trump did not give any evidence for the $100 million claim, but prior reporting by PBS<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Trump claimed to reporters<\/a> on Monday that a “350-foot slit” was cut with a “box-cutter or a knife of some kind.” NBC News reported<\/a> that at least five people have been arrested in connection with the alleged vandalism.<\/p>\n “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. <\/p>\n The network paid $15 million, which was put toward\u00a0Trump’s\u00a0presidential library, and an additional $1 million in legal fees.<\/p>\n Last week, ABC reported<\/a> that the cost to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had ballooned to more than $14.65 million. <\/p>\n This exceeded the original estimated cost of the no-bid contract \u2014 that was not awarded by competitive tender \u2014 by more than $4 million, according to federal contract data. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n This would have brought the cost of the entire project to more than $16 million. <\/p>\n The latest action against ABC comes as the broadcaster faces two investigations from the Federal Communications Commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n The stations were reportedly not scheduled<\/a> to apply for renewal until 2028 at the earliest. <\/p>\n 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 \u200bpolitical candidates, Reuters reported.<\/a> <\/p>\n