According to a New York Times analysis of federal records, the National Park Service (NPS) is using at least $67 million in entrance-fee revenue to help pay for President Trump’s Washington beautification push.

Almost $60 million is going toward repairs of nine ornamental fountains in the capital. Another $7 million is funding the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, part of a $13.1 million project that’ll turn the pool into “American flag blue.”

Technically, this is all legal under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which was enacted in 2004 during the George W. Bush administration.

The Times found that between December 2025 and March 2026, more than three-quarters of the Park Service’s recreation-fee funds went to the Washington fountains alone, and more than 90 percent went to D.C.-based projects overall.

I’ll repeat that: 90% of funds collected through national park entrance fees were used for projects near the White House. The other 10% had to be spread out across dozens of other National Park Service sites elsewhere in the country.

This isn’t routine stewardship. It’s a dramatic redirection of funds—toward hand-picked priority improvements in the capital, and away from other, equally as important maintenance projects elsewhere in the park system.

The real danger of this new development is that the NPS becomes the mechanism through which public money, collected across the country from Americans and foreign visitors alike, is converted into presidential branding.

The problem is not that national park sites in Washington are now being cared for (they do need a lot of work). The problem is that the rest of the system has been asked, again and again, to make do with less.