{"id":2850,"date":"2026-06-21T12:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/trump-goes-off-the-deep-end-of-the-reflecting-pool\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T12:28:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:28:00","slug":"trump-goes-off-the-deep-end-of-the-reflecting-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/trump-goes-off-the-deep-end-of-the-reflecting-pool\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Goes Off the Deep End of the Reflecting Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<br><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/whowhatwhy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Lincoln_Memorial_Reflecting_Pool_01_3x2.jpg\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"Algae bloom, Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool\" style=\"margin: auto;margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;object-position: 50% 20%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>With the Strait of Hormuz opened, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/live\/c9wq95g0lx2t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">or maybe not<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p>If you only get your news from <i>WhoWhatWhy <\/i>(which we would find flattering), you will not be familiar with this story because, quite frankly, it\u2019s pretty dumb (a word that is spelled with a \u201cb,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/atrupar\/status\/2060894509991444846\/video\/1\">as Trump recently learned<\/a>) and we didn\u2019t bother covering it.<\/p>\n<p>However, to understand the most recent developments, it\u2019s 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\u2019s capital by \u201cbeautifying\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Restoring the Reflecting Pool\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7Et_RpfJ0QE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>From beginning to end, this project has been classic Trump, which means it was a total trainwreck.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We won\u2019t bore you with all of the details, but, in a nutshell, the president first <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-reflecting-pool-renovations-obama-biden-millions-c261ebc9898149002bb384a084e49b27\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lied about<\/a> 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 href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/18\/us\/politics\/trump-donor-contract-reflecting-pool.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a company owned by a donor<\/a>. Finally, nature \u2014 in the form of green algae \u2014 foiled Trump\u2019s plan to make the water in the pool appear \u201cAmerican flag blue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, does this matter?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Apart from serving as a metaphor for the entire Trump presidency (for example, you can replace \u201cReflecting Pool\u201d with \u201cIran,\u201d and \u201cfixing it\u201d with \u201claunching an ill-advised attack resulting in a global economic crisis\u201d), it really doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, because the president made such a big deal out of it, this failure has now turned into a big headache for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After all, clearly this disaster could not possibly be blamed on Trump, so a scapegoat had to be found.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And that brings us to Saturday night when the president concocted a tale that is supposed to achieve just that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to Trump, his solution initially \u201cworked perfectly,\u201d but \u201cterrible vandals\u201d used \u201csome 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These mystery criminals, many of whom have been arrested and now face \u201cyears in jail,\u201d also \u201calso poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Is there evidence that these things happened? Of course not.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2026\/06\/20\/cyclist-arrested-reflecting-pool-denies-trump-vandalism-claims\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">charged with<\/a> \u201cdestruction of government property.\u201d However, the man said he had merely wanted to touch the blue paint that had been detaching itself from the bottom of the pool.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from that, the only people who were seen pouring anything into the Reflecting Pool were government workers who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/americas\/us-politics\/trump-reflecting-pool-algae-bleach-b2996823.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tried using bleach to kill the algae<\/a>. Others were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/19\/us\/politics\/reflecting-pool-paint-algae.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">observed standing in the water<\/a> to clean the pool.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, on many levels, none of this matters, which is why we didn\u2019t bother covering it before.<\/p>\n<p>However, now that Trump\u2019s solution has epically failed and, instead of acknowledging that, the president feels compelled to make up a story about \u201cvandals\u201d who are to blame for this failure, we felt it was time to write something.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s even worse is that the entire government is now working to bend reality to Trump\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>But the fact that this is happening at all is more than troubling.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/whowhatwhy.org\/politics\/government-integrity\/trump-goes-off-the-deep-end-of-the-reflecting-pool\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trump Goes Off the Deep End of the Reflecting Pool<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/whowhatwhy.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WhoWhatWhy<\/a><\/p>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/whowhatwhy.org\/politics\/government-integrity\/trump-goes-off-the-deep-end-of-the-reflecting-pool\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link  whowhatwhy.org<\/a>\r\n<br>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 \u201cvandals\u201d caused damage to the pool, despite a lack of evidence to support these assertions. This situation reflects broader themes of denial within Trump\u2019s presidency and raises concerns about the government\u2019s response to reality.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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&hellip;","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":2851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}