Hey everyone, happy Saturday. There’s been a lot of talk about Trump’s obsession with a new Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Like everything Trump does, it’s been a mess, full of boasting, insults, and horrible results. Check out the video for my thoughts on this typical Trump cycle we find ourselves in.
TRANSCRIPT:
Workers are scooping green slime out of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with nets.
The blue coating is coming off the bottom. Less than two weeks after it reopened.
The cost just hit $14.7 million and it’s still climbing. That’s more than eight times what Trump promised. A no-bid contract to a company that had never done federal work before. A July 4th deadline that is now in serious jeopardy.
It’s a reflection of a president who can’t live up to his own hype.
Not here. Not on the economy. Not ending wars. Not on any of the big promises that got him elected.
The pool is just where it’s impossible to look away.
In March, Trump posted a video of the pool looking grimy. The caption: “Study it hard because you won’t be seeing this Biden filth and incompetence much longer!”
By April, Trump announced he’s personally going to fix the Reflecting Pool.
He claimed Biden got quotes of $300 million even though fact-checkers found that to be false.
The last real renovation – during the Obama administration – cost $34 million and rebuilt the pool’s entire plumbing and water treatment infrastructure from the ground up.
Trump’s promise: under $2 million. Two weeks. Lasting 40 to 50 years. Every one of those numbers will turn out to be wrong.
Okay – federal contracting law is clear. It requires competition, transparency, and independent review, especially on historic landmarks.
It exists to protect public assets and taxpayer money.
The Trump administration bypassed all of it by declaring an emergency.
Trump said he consulted contractors who’d worked on his swimming pools.
The pool refilled June 5th with Trump said the water was clean and beautiful.
Within days, the largest algae bloom recorded in June in at least five years had taken over.
Workers responded by pouring hydrogen peroxide into the pool and deploying what the Interior Department called “advanced nanobubbler technology.”
The Interior Department declared victory against the algae on social media.
They compared it to, and I’m not making this up, “the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf.”
We’ve all seen the pictures and videos of green algae-infused water, and the blue coating comingoff the bottom. One worker said the cleanup could take “a lifetime.”
The Interior Department said the pool was fixed for good. A worker on the ground said it could take a lifetime.
$14.7 million and counting, folks.
A former National Park Service regional director said it plainly: “I’m not sure how this administration thought they were going to overcome a long-standing challenge of keeping the pool clear by painting it.”
The people who know this pool were never asked. The normal process exists to force that conversation before public money gets spent. Skipping it isn’t efficiency.
But here’s the thing. This isn’t just a pool story.
Trump promised to bring prices down on day one. Groceries and housing costs remain stubbornly high. He promised to end the wars. They’re either still going or we’ve handed over significant concessions to get out of them.
He promised to govern like someone who gets things done. Yet, he’s getting nothing done.
The Reflecting Pool – over budget, behind schedule, green, and peeling – isn’t the outlier. It’s the latest example of Trump’s track record.
The pool was designed to reflect Washington’s grandeur. What it’s showing us instead is a president who can’t build, can’t govern, and can’t get out of his own way.
And unfortunately for our country…that’s not just a pool problem.
