This spring, President Trump said he decided to paint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue, and steered a government contract to somebody he said had worked on his swimming pools. To give out that $6.9 million no-bid contract, the Trump administration invoked an exemption meant for urgent situations, The New York Times found. The exemption was supposed to be used only to prevent “serious injury, financial or other, to the government.” Administration officials made no public claim that such injury was likely; rather, officials said, Trump wanted it changed for the country’s birthday party on July 4. The pool is the latest in a string of cases where Trump’s government invoked special powers to shut down required competition, and then handed contracts directly to the president’s preferred vendors. Read more: nyti.ms/4ttgscO