ABC News already paid Donald Trump $16 million to settle one defamation case. Now it looks like the network may be headed right back to court.
Trump put ABC on notice in a recent Truth Social post, and the network has reason to take it seriously.
And the President says he is gearing up to sue ABC again, this time over what he calls flat-out false reporting on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
What Trump Actually Said
Trump posted on Truth Social recently blasting ABC News for its coverage of the Reflecting Pool situation, calling the network “ABC FAKE NEWS, one of the worst in the business.”
He did not mince words about where things are headed legally. “We are preparing lawsuits against ABC for false reporting. I like their money, which will be given to the U.S. Treasury!” Trump wrote.
The President accused ABC of selectively ignoring the history of the pool under his predecessors. “In describing the Vandalism that took place at the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., ABC FAKE NEWS, one of the worst in the business, even paying me $16,000,000 for past bad and inaccurate reporting, failed to report that their close ‘friends,’ Dumocrats Obama and Biden, spent over 100 Million Dollars on the Reflecting Pool, and it never worked,” he wrote. “In fact, it was rarely open due to leaks and ‘stench.’ They wanted to spend 300 to 400 Million Dollars, but just let it ROT.”
Trump also defended the scope and cost of his own renovation. “I spent approximately 16 Million Dollars, and it came out great, except for the Vandalism, which we are now fixing. It was also a much bigger job than originally envisioned, including the outer areas and sidewalks,” he wrote.
The Pool and the Controversy
Trump ordered the Reflecting Pool renovation in April, directing that its floor and walls be painted what he called “American flag blue” ahead of America’s 250th anniversary on July 4.
The total project cost has reached approximately $16 million, with $14.7 million going to Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings under a no-bid contract, and another $1.7 million paid to Green Water Solutions of Ohio for a water-purification system.
Shortly after the pool was refilled, algae blooms returned. National Park Service workers poured thousands of gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the pool in an attempt to kill the algae. Then the blue polyurea coating on the pool floor began visibly cracking and peeling, with chunks floating to the surface.
Trump blamed vandals, claiming that “sick people” used razors and box cutters to slice the pool lining and that fertilizer was dumped into the water to produce the algae. The Interior Department confirmed that 14 police reports had been filed for vandalism, and that at least five people were arrested and five others received federal citations. The National Park Service separately said the pool liner was cut with a sharp knife or razor, according to its own investigation.
But the ABC News segment that set Trump off featured Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl standing at the pool and picking up a piece of peeling coating that was still attached to the pool floor. Trump accused Karl of “sticking his hand into the Pool, and trying to rip the rubber off of the surface.” Karl’s segment reported that the $14 million job to redo the bottom of the pool was “falling apart before our eyes.”
ABC also noted that the Obama administration spent around $34 million on a 2012 restoration of the pool, not the $100 million-plus figure Trump cited in his post. The Obama-era renovation, which repaired leaks and established a new water source, also experienced an algal bloom upon completion.
ABC Has Been Here Before
This is not the first time ABC has found itself in Trump’s legal crosshairs, and the network knows exactly how that story can end.
In December 2024, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation and museum and an additional $1 million in legal fees to settle a defamation lawsuit Trump brought against anchor George Stephanopoulos. The lawsuit stemmed from a March 2024 segment in which Stephanopoulos repeatedly stated that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll civil case. A jury had actually found Trump liable for sexual abuse, not rape, under New York law’s distinct definitions. Stephanopoulos repeated the inaccurate characterization multiple times during the broadcast.
ABC and Stephanopoulos also issued a formal statement of regret as part of the settlement terms, added as an editor’s note to the original online article. Renowned First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams acknowledged at the time that the settlement was “a major victory” for Trump, saying the case had posed “a genuine level of risk for ABC” because Stephanopoulos had inaccurately summarized the jury verdict.
And ABC is not just dealing with Trump’s latest lawsuit threat. The network currently faces two separate investigations from the Federal Communications Commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr. The FCC also demanded that ABC submit early renewal applications for eight of its local broadcasting licenses, stations that were not scheduled to apply for renewal until 2028 at the earliest. Carr has said the license action stems from a preexisting investigation into Disney’s DEI practices.
ABC recently launched an on-air campaign encouraging viewers to support the network, a sign that the pressure from multiple directions is being felt inside the building.
What This Really Means
The media establishment has spent years treating Trump’s legal threats against news organizations as bluster. After the Stephanopoulos settlement, that assumption got a lot harder to sustain.
ABC coughed up $16 million to make the last case go away. Whatever internal calculations Disney made when it decided to settle rather than fight, the outcome handed Trump a concrete, documented win against a major broadcast network. That is the backdrop against which every new lawsuit threat has to be evaluated now.
The Reflecting Pool story also puts ABC in an awkward spot. The network’s coverage of the pool’s problems has been aggressive, and Trump is pushing back just as hard. Whether the legal theory behind a new lawsuit holds up is a separate question, but Trump has already shown he is willing to take these fights all the way to the settlement table, and ABC has already shown it will write a check to avoid a trial.
The pool itself has become something of a proxy war. Trump wanted a gleaming, patriotic landmark ready for the nation’s 250th birthday. The renovation hit real problems, vandalism appears to have been a genuine part of the story based on law enforcement reports, and the press has covered the algae and peeling paint with obvious relish. Trump thinks the coverage is dishonest. ABC thinks it is doing its job. And now lawyers are getting involved.
But the larger pattern is worth noting. Trump has sued the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and The New York Times in the past year. He got $16 million out of ABC once already. The media’s old assumption that these suits would go nowhere is no longer operative. ABC learned that the hard way.
The administration faces a self-imposed July 4 deadline to have the pool looking right for the 250th anniversary celebrations. Whether the lawsuits move as fast as the algae is another question entirely.
Sources: Mediaite; Washington Examiner; CNBC; OAN; The Wrap; CNN; Fox News; NBC News; PBS NewsHour; Scientific American; Britannica