The Trump administration has agreed to pay a further $682,000 to fix problems with the Lincoln Reflecting Pool in Washington DC, pushing the total cost of the beleaguered project past $15 million. The saga has proved embarrassing for the White House after a repainting job commissioned by Trump left the pool peeling and turning green with algae within days, with the president's chosen contractor only recently admitting fault after initially claiming vandals were responsible.

The Department of the Interior signed the new deal with Virginia firm Persimmon Grove LLC to replace the pool's valves, with work running from 10 September to 15 October. Persimmon, owned by William Phillips, was separately paid $488,000 in April to clean the nearby Constitution Gardens Lake. The original repainting contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, had quoted $1.8 million but is now due $14.7 million under a no-bid contract, and has since admitted "human oversight" led to it using two incompatible chemicals. Vandalism charges brought against several people, including former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, were dropped after prosecutors accepted the damage stemmed from a botched renovation, prompting Trump to publicly criticise US Attorney Jeanine Pirro.