You know how to finish that headline.
I’m trying to think back on whether any President was so hectored, attacked and criticized over matters as tangential to Presidential performance in office as Donald Trump regarding these two “scandals.” I rank both of these on the level of Harry Truman criticizing the Washington Post music critic who criticized his daughter Margaret’s singing: fodder for future Presidential trivia and oddities, but ultimately non-substantive.
So why did former CNN full-time partisan anti-Trump agent Jim Acosta go into raptures over the removal of Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center’s front, “This is very much like watching the Berlin Wall coming down. It is a sign that mankind, humankind can stand up against tyranny“? Because, dear friends, these sad, confused, hysterical people have lost all sense of proportion and reason. As I have had to point out on EA too many times already for such a silly episode, the President’s take-over of the Kennedy Center was petty, vindictive, intentionally obnoxious (aka “trolling”) and gave his worst enemies a metaphorical stick to beat him with. But it was also an act that literally had no impact on matters concerning the American public, since it involved an elitist art venue unaffordable or inaccessible to all but about .0001% of Americans, and is an aging, excessive monument to the second most over-rated U.S. President in U.S. history (the first being Barack Obama).
One wag on X responded, “I missed the time when people were SHOT DEAD trying to get into the Kennedy Center for 40 years. What a clown.” That clown was permitted to be CNN’s official representative at White House press briefings for Trump’s entire first term! If that isn’t a smoking gun regarding the state of our mainstream media’s objectivity, I don’t know what is. The Trump Deranged are so crazed that they get ecstatic over the slightest foiling of any Trump project, policy or initiative, big or small, wise or foolish, right or wrong. These are lives whose values are governed by the cognitive dissonance scale, which is emotional, not rational. It has been suggested in jest that Trump louse up Democratic primaries by endorsing the Democrats he wants to see lose. It’s a great idea. Democrats and progressives are so batty that it would work.
And then there is the Reflecting Pool.
Ethics Alarms 
My TDS-suffering sister is headed to DC this week. I wonder what her reaction to the reflecting pool will be….
There is an absolute lack at all levels of basic structure maintenance, from dams to roads to aesthetic features to pipes. It’s not surprising that when it doesn’t go as planned they “pounce” but at least he’s not ignoring the problem. Obama’s reign did a few renovations and upgrades, specifically with schools but Mike Rowe is right; currently we don’t even have skilled or a willing labor force to get the jobs done.
Add to this the demand on cement, steel and other materials for data centers, new power lines and wind and solar projects and there’s not even enough material available to get needed jobs done. I mean you can blame Trump, but that’s like blaming the CEO of Ford for a missing bolt in your car. It’s not precisely his job to make sure the job got done on a pond. He has other pressing problems, the ongoing trade agreements and Iran come to mind.
Because, dear friends, these sad, confused, hysterical people have lost all sense of proportion and reason.
It is just one of many really, really stupid performances by a president with narcissism issues, but to try to put his name on that building should have been recognized as a public relations stupidity. He should have some mostly-sane person, with a reasonable mind, to discourage him from shooting himself in his foot every other day.
I am reminded of that video where Obama roast him with pictures of the White House with Trump’s name in gold.
Public relations disasters will blemish his presidency: presiding over shooting a pitiable lesbian in Minnesota; a useless invasion and arrest of a foreign president; and the recent “war” with insane, deranged declarations of success, annihilation if a nation, bombing and God knows what else, that resulted in total defeat for the US.
I have no sympathy for this fool. I voted for him. He betrayed my trust, expectations, hopes and promises.
Shades of the Sixties! Indeed. And it’s an even more direct connection than that. The people cast in these Kabuki Theater productions, er, protests, are from the ‘Sixties! They’ve never left the ‘Sixties behind. They are children of the ‘Sixties, and still children. See, e.g., Robert DeNiro. It’s embarrassing.
I’m going to gently disagree here, because while the people expressing glee over how absolutely botched this project was desperately need to touch grass and get healthier hobbies… They do have a point.
Because Trump invoked an emergency clause in order to bypass the normal bidding process and unilaterally awarded the contract to a company that had previously worked privately for him. The company wasn’t really set up for a job of this scale, the quote came in surprisingly high, it was not completed on time, and it seems to have produced poor results.
I’m not sure if dragging your feet until the last couple of months to manufacture urgency for an anniversary date actually predicates an “emergency” as written by statute, but even if it’s technically legal, it’s a shitty thing to do.
And while I understand being annoyed at the giddy glee with which the Twitterazi are pointing at this, it really should be at least embarrassing for the hand-picked, already expensive contract to come in 40% over quote, months late for the celebration the job was for, and for the work to already need repair.
Agreed. But it’s a reflecting pool in one section of one city.
Compare the reaction to the massive botch by contractors of the Obamacare website, with was the central policy achievement (heh) of the Obama administration.
I suspect that a “reflecting pool” is an architect’s dream but an engineer’s nightmare. How DO you keep algae and mosquitos from thriving in shallow, stagnant water, open to sunshine and windblown nutrients (including those deposited by ducks), without making the water too toxic for visitors and wildlife? I was once somewhat responsible for maintenance of a neighborhood swimming pool (as a volunteer), and if groundwater wasn’t leaking in, treated water was leaking out; if the chlorine wasn’t too high, it was too low. A proper farm pond doesn’t need a lining, because it’s actually lined with packed clay, rather than porous and soluble concrete, but a clay liner won’t hold up if people walk on it. I think we’ll eventually learn that the contractor regrets taking on this job.
someone should remind the TDS inflicted that Trump paid to fix The Wollman Rink in 1986 (the ice skating rink in Central Park), which was, at the time, six years behind schedule and $12 million over budget. In June 1986, he promised to get the rink open before Christmas and it was open on November 1st. And he was widely praised.
And watch them lose their minds.
I don’t see how a successful repair made years before my birth says anything relevant about Trump ability to execute projects today.
It shows that Trump has always done this kind of stuff, that it isn’t new “king-y” conduct, that he believes in renewal and maintenance and has a record of success,
I heard this on one of the FOX news show, just one time, so didn’t absorb the details …. it seems that in the last one hundred years, since 1922, every time the pool has been cleaned or refilled, algae comes back with a vengeance. Don’t know how to check this.
Protesters? Some of my fellow Boomers are embarrassing.
If anyone is interested in facts now… I know it’s unfashionable, but I’m old fashioned.
Bubbles and small holes in the new waterproof coating at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool were first documented in internal Interior Department records around mid-June 2026, just prior to the pool being refilled following a $14.7 million renovation. [1, 2]
Timeline of Events:
* June 2026: The Interior Department completed the repainting of the pool’s basin with an “American Flag Blue” industrial coating to prevent leaks and discourage algae growth.
* Pre-Filling Inspections: Internal documents revealed that the coating was unevenly applied and that workers had already spotted concerning bubbles and small holes in one of the waterproof layers before the pool was filled.
The Algae Outbreak (Mid-June): The pool rapidly turned bright green from algae. During the remediation process, crews deployed “advanced nanobubbler technology” and hydrogen peroxide into the water to kill the algae.
The Peeling Coating (June 18-21, 2026): Visitors and officials began spotting the peeling coating. Large sections of the “American Flag Blue” material detached from the concrete, exposing the rocky bottom. Some specialists attributed the peeling and bubbling to surface contamination or unreacted material curing improperly before the pool was refilled. [11, 12, 13, 14, 15]
You can track the ongoing updates regarding the pool’s renovations and conditions via the New York Times report or the CNN coverage. [2]
[1] https://www.facebook.com/cnn/posts/some-blue-material-at-the-bottom-of-the-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-is-peel/1390531632939484/
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/18/politics/blue-material-reflecting-pool-renovation
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1nTabn7xPE
[4] https://san.com/cc/blue-liner-floats-to-surface-of-newly-renovated-reflecting-pool/
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfPmYmbbLHE
[6] https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonExaminer/posts/the-new-paint-job-at-the-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-appears-to-be-peeling-/1404298381566716/
[7] https://abcnews.com/Politics/lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-liner-appears-falling-apart/story?id=134002251
[8] https://www.npr.org/2026/06/19/nx-s1-5863044/dc-reflecting-pool-algae-green-trump
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTHUhkoKOWY
[10] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZxQ7YIOVJl/
[11] https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/18/politics/blue-material-reflecting-pool-renovation
[12] https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/06/19/blue-paint-is-peeling-off-reflecting-pool/
[13] https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/06/20/reflecting-pool-vandalism/
[14] https://www.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/1u9mgnw/the_reflecting_pool_in_washington_was_painted/
[15] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pixbG97I9eU
In hindsight, more attention should have been given to water filtration when the putrid Potomac was used as the source, rather than hideously expensive tap water. Blame the Obama administration for that. They did get the new foundations right though. For $34 million.
Thanks, ZB.