In early June 2026, social media users circulated images and video of U.S. President Trump holding a chart that claimed to compare the size of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., with some of the country's most famous skyscrapers.
The posts circulated following an event in the Oval Office on June 3, in which Trump spoke about renovations underway at the landmark. According to the chart, the reflecting pool's length is greater than the heights of Chicago's Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) and New York's Empire State Building and One World Trade Center.
Trump: I just had this done. *holds up chart comparing reflecting pool to buildings* pic.twitter.com/9T15bn6VxA
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 3, 2026
Snopes readers also searched the site for information about the data on display.
Some measurements on the chart differed slightly from official reports by 2 feet or less, but were generally accurate. Additionally, the scale of the chart was somewhat misleading, as the distance between 0 and 1,000 feet was the same as the distance from 1,000 to 1,500 feet. For this reason, we've rated this claim mostly true.
According to WSP Global, a professional services consulting firm selected in 2009 by the National Parks Service to handle the renovation of the reflecting pool under then-President Barack Obama, the pond is 2,028 feet long and 167 feet wide. Trump's chart declared it was 2,030 feet long.
According to the Willis Tower website, as well as reports about the development and opening of the building published in Time magazine and the Chicago Tribune in the 1970s, the height of the building is 1,450 feet. Trump's chart added 1 foot, making it 1,451 feet.
Trump's chart accurately reflected the height of the Empire State Building, though the structure's official website admits its height depends on how you measure it: "At its top floor, the Empire State Building stands 1,250 feet (380 meters) tall. Counting the spire and antenna, the building clocks in at a mighty 1,454 feet (443 meters)." Trump's chart used the measurement that included the spire and antenna.
Finally, the height of One World Trade Center on Trump's chart was accurate. A 2013 news release from the New York Port Authority advising on the installment of the building's spire stated its total height as 1,776 feet. The number matched a 2003 New York Times report about the development of the building plans in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as well as a 2014 CNN report about its official opening, which claimed the height was alluding to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.