My Trump Deranged friend whom I have referenced recently leaps to that liquid “scandal” by reflex now. Another friend who railed about the issue while we were playing Scrabble last week (I won) actually went to the pool and nearly got arrested for “vandalism.” Shades of the Sixties! Activists are trying to see how they can push those charged with protecting the pool from crazies into over-reacting, thus getting sympathy and support for wasteful, silly protests.
In contrast to the Kennedy Center mess, President Trump tried to solve a long-standing D.C. embarrassment by finally making the Reflecting Pool function as originally designed. When I first got to the nation’s capital after college, I was stunned at how ugly and horrible maintained the pool appeared up close: dirty, cluttered with debris, discolored, smelly. The concept was cool, but in operation it was a disaster. When the thing was reflecting properly, it made Abe Lincoln look like he was telling ghost stories holding a flashlight under his chin. As the nation’s 250 Anniversary approached, it was completely appropriate for the President of the United States to deal with this perpetual eyesore. Because it was Donald Trump doing it, however…
… the Axis of Unethical Conduct derided both the project and him.
When Barack Obama absurdly invited algae into the pool as environmental grandstanding, as the Washington Post reported in 2012, algae were already blooming in it a week after its reopening. “This is a direct consequence of the fact that this is a green project,” a National Parks Service spokesperson humina-huminaed at the time. But protests? None, of course.
Trump has initiated a District of Columbia restoration project that includes methodically cleaning and repairing ornamental fountains throughout DC, some of which had been inoperative for decades. The formerly graffiti-covered and trash-filled Columbus Plaza fountain outside Union Station is now functioning again, as are fountains in Lafayette Park, Meridian Hill Park and more. This is National Leadership for Dummies: Trump wants to encourage Americans to be proud of their nation as they should be. Democrats and progressives, however, literally don’t like their own nation, if recent polling is to be believed. So the President of the United States using his power to make the Capital safer and symbolically attractive is more reason to hate him.
Writes one conservative commentator on “X’:
“On one side of the Reflecting Pool there’s the MSM claiming that the algae is still there, on another side leftists are protesting to bring the algae back, and on another side leftists are trying to vandalize the pool. TDS needs to be officially classified as a mental disorder.”
That is not, I submit, hyperbole.
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.