On her May 11, 2026 broadcast, Rachel Maddow, citing The New York Times, said the amount being paid on the no-bid contract to paint the Reflecting Pool blue "ballooned from the $1.8 million Trump had announced to, quote, more than seven times that figure, in an unannounced contract revision on Friday." Each piece checks out. The Times reported that day that the Interior Department added $6.2 million to the contract on Friday, bringing the total to $13.1 million, "more than seven times" the $1.8 million Trump had publicly announced, with no explanation offered in the public record [1]. The federal contract database confirms the award went to Atlantic Industrial Coatings without competitive bidding under an urgency exception and shows the $13.1 million figure [4]. An Interior Department spokesperson confirmed and defended the increase to The Hill [3]. One point of precision: the contract itself had been priced at $6.9 million from the start, so the comparison runs against Trump's stated estimate rather than the contract's prior value, which is how the Times framed it and how Maddow, quoting the Times, presented it [1][2]. The math holds: $13.1 million is more than seven times $1.8 million. Verdict: TRUE.