President Donald Trump's proposed overhaul of Washington, DC landmarks has drawn sustained criticism from political opponents, encompassing plans ranging from a new White House ballroom to renovations at the Kennedy Center to a proposed triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. Now, the president faces sharp backlash over the botched renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — and over who may lead any subsequent investigation.

According to the Daily Beast, Trump has nominated Dennis Kirk — a contributor to the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 blueprint — to head the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General, the watchdog office that would oversee any probe into the Reflecting Pool renovation.

The nomination fits a broader pattern of turnover across the federal government's inspector general corps. Federal IGs, established under the Inspector General Act of 1978, are mandated to operate independently of political influence, and Senate confirmation has traditionally served as a check on appointments. During his first term, Trump removed multiple Senate-confirmed IGs across several agencies, drawing objections from lawmakers in both parties who warned that the dismissals undermined the watchdog system's independence.

Journalist William Vaillancourt, reporting for the Daily Beast, wrote: "The 80-year-old president personally oversaw the $16 million project to refurbish the DC landmark, only to watch as the waters turned slimy green and the pool lining split. He quickly blamed the damage on vandalism, even though his handpicked DC prosecutor couldn't make any charges stick and passed the blame to Doug Burgum's Interior Department, which was in charge of the refurb."

Vaillancourt further reported that Trump is "planning to put one of his most reliably right-wing" appointees in charge of any eventual investigation into the renovation.

Project 2025, developed by the Heritage Foundation in 2024, served as a detailed policy blueprint for a second Trump administration. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump publicly distanced himself from the document. However, critics have noted that Project 2025 was authored by several of Trump's close allies, including Kirk.

Representative Jared Huffman (D-California), a vocal opponent of the Kirk nomination, described Kirk as a "fake and fraudulent watchdog" in an August 5 statement posted on his official website.

"Each and every thing this political puppet does will be in service of Donald Trump," Huffman said. "This man helped write the Project 2025 playbook for seizing control of the federal workforce. Now, he sits inside the office charged with rooting out corruption at Interior, the department that manages our national parks, public lands, Tribal programs, and now under Trump, gold-slathered statues and a botched Reflecting Pool renovation. That same office is weighing serious ethics investigations into senior officials in this administration. It's no surprise the White House suddenly wants its own man inside the one place that Trump's cronies still have reason to fear."

Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, also condemned the nomination, noting the earlier dismissal of former Interior Department Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt.

"Interior's watchdog was fired, left vacant for 18 months, and is now hosting one of the architects of Project 2025," Weiss said in an official statement. "At least five investigation requests from members of Congress are sitting in that office right now, and its integrity has been compromised. Congress cannot outsource its constitutional oversight duty to an inspector general's office taken over by the White House."