With the Strait of Hormuz opened, or maybe not, Donald Trump is turning his attention to another body of water that has very much been on his mind: the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. And, it seems as though the president is wading into another controversy.

If you only get your news from WhoWhatWhy (which we would find flattering), you will not be familiar with this story because, quite frankly, it’s pretty dumb (a word that is spelled with a “b,” as Trump recently learned) and we didn’t bother covering it.

However, to understand the most recent developments, it’s important to know the backstory, so here is a quick recap: Trump, who is very much into gaudy aesthetics, has been trying to remake the nation’s capital by “beautifying” it, which includes everything from slathering the Oval Office in gold leaf, putting his name on buildings, tearing down part of the White House, having the National Guard pick up trash, planning a new monument, and cleaning up some fountains. 

Apart from his partially taxpayer-funded ballroom, the president has been most obsessed with the restoration of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, which had been a bit of an eyesore. Here he is in a White House-produced video with a couple of cabinet members inspecting that work. 

From beginning to end, this project has been classic Trump, which means it was a total trainwreck. 

We won’t bore you with all of the details, but, in a nutshell, the president first lied about how much his predecessors spent on fixing this problem as well as how much his solution would cost. Then, his administration awarded a no-bid contract to a company owned by a donor. Finally, nature — in the form of green algae — foiled Trump’s plan to make the water in the pool appear “American flag blue.” 

Furthermore, the entire $14 million endeavor is literally falling apart at the seams, as the blue lining that was placed at the bottom of the pool is coming loose. 

Now, does this matter? 

Apart from serving as a metaphor for the entire Trump presidency (for example, you can replace “Reflecting Pool” with “Iran,” and “fixing it” with “launching an ill-advised attack resulting in a global economic crisis”), it really doesn’t matter. 

However, because the president made such a big deal out of it, this failure has now turned into a big headache for him. 

After all, clearly this disaster could not possibly be blamed on Trump, so a scapegoat had to be found. 

And that brings us to Saturday night when the president concocted a tale that is supposed to achieve just that. 

According to Trump, his solution initially “worked perfectly,” but “terrible vandals” used “some form of knife or blade, and put a 250-foot-long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete.”

These mystery criminals, many of whom have been arrested and now face “years in jail,” also “also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the pool.”

Is there evidence that these things happened? Of course not. 

The only thing Trump wrote in a couple of social media posts that seems vaguely rooted in reality is that a former US Olympian was arrested and charged with “destruction of government property.” However, the man said he had merely wanted to touch the blue paint that had been detaching itself from the bottom of the pool.

Apart from that, the only people who were seen pouring anything into the Reflecting Pool were government workers who tried using bleach to kill the algae. Others were observed standing in the water to clean the pool. 

Obviously, on many levels, none of this matters, which is why we didn’t bother covering it before.

However, now that Trump’s solution has epically failed and, instead of acknowledging that, the president feels compelled to make up a story about “vandals” who are to blame for this failure, we felt it was time to write something. 

This episode is a microcosm of his entire presidency and an alarming snapshot of the mental state of a man who is clearly not well.

It is deeply problematic that the country is being run by someone incapable of ever admitting failure, even in the case of a very trivial matter. 

What’s even worse is that the entire government is now working to bend reality to Trump’s will, for example by arresting curious bystanders. We imagine that these charges will be quietly dropped at some point before this case results in another embarrassment for the Department of Justice.

But the fact that this is happening at all is more than troubling.

Trump Goes Off the Deep End of the Reflecting Pool originally appeared on WhoWhatWhy

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Donald Trump is facing controversy over the restoration of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Aimed at beautifying Washington, the project, which cost $14 million, has been plagued by issues including misleading cost claims and an awarded no-bid contract to a donor. The completion is marred by algae growth and a blue lining that is coming loose. In response to the failure, Trump claimed “vandals” caused damage to the pool, despite a lack of evidence to support these assertions. This situation reflects broader themes of denial within Trump’s presidency and raises concerns about the government’s response to reality.