Friday, June 19, 2026

Everything Trump touches dies—except for algae in the Reflecting Pool

Everything Trump touches dies—except for algae in the Reflecting Pool

 https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/18/800057610/news/donald-trump-has-made-algae-great-again/

Everything Trump touches dies—except for algae in the Reflecting Pool

by Emily Singer
Staff
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The newly refurbished green algae contaminated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the War II Memorial, foreground, and the Lincoln Memorial, as seen from the Washington Memorial on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Washington.
APThe newly refurbished, green algae-contaminated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the War II Memorial, foreground, and the Lincoln Memorial, as seen on June 17 from the Washington Memorial on the National Mall.

President Donald Trump gave a sweetheart, no-bid, $13 million contract to a vendor who handles the pools at his tacky Trump-branded properties to “renovate” the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, painting the bottom of the massive basin of sitting water a dark “American flag blue” and allegedly fixing the filtration system so that it will have “clean, beautiful water.”

But, as pool experts and scientists alike predicted, the millions of gallons of water between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument are already filled with algae. The new, darker color of the basin absorbed more sunlight, heating up the water and leading the neon-green scum to return with a vengeance.

In fact, The Washington Post reported on Thursday that there is now more algae in the pool than “at any recorded point in the month of June for at least five years.”

Even worse: The countless gallons of hydrogen peroxide National Park Service workers are pouring into the water to try to rid it of this new algae bloom are now causing the new paint to peel away from the concrete.

In sum, the reflecting pool has turned into the latest expensive boondoggle Trump has wasted taxpayer dollars on to create.

The failure is obviously bothering Trump, who has clearly demanded that the Interior Department that oversees national monuments lie about what Americans can see with their own eyes.

“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool—just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” the Interior Department’s press account wrote in a post on X. It’s the kind of propaganda you’d imagine would come from North Korea, not the United States.

Members of the National Park Service clean algae from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Washington.
APNational Park Service workers clean algae from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 16 in Washington.

The account went on to attack former President Barack Obama, whom Trump will never be as popular as, for not caring for the pool properly. But in fact, Obama renovated the pool in 2012 to change its water source from Washington, D.C.’s drinking water to water from the tidal basin, saving the city millions of gallons of potable water.

“Previous administrations—most notably under Obama—failed to maintain the Reflecting Pool, and after refilling the pool, the water would quickly become murky and thick with massive clumps of algae floating on the surface,” the Interior Department press account continued. “As our National Park Service team noted, the Reflecting Pool is now so ‘blue’ that the Fake News Media, which has been staked out at the Reflecting Pool for weeks, has fled!”

Of course, reporters have not fled. The anti-Trump outlet The Bulwark showed live on video on Thursday that the pool is once again algae filled and already peeling.

Meanwhile, right-wing pundits are coming to Trump’s rescue, concocting insane and wildly stupid conspiracy theories to try to blame the algae overgrowth on Democrats. 

“President Trump fixes the reflecting pool and a week later it’s green again, loaded with algae … Sabotage … Vandalism? I believe it is,” conservative commentator Grant Stinchfield wrote in a post on X when the algae began to return. “The left can’t stand Trump, American greatness and his quest to make DC beautiful again. What a shame!”

Hey Grant, if Democrats were so powerful enough to cause the biggest algae bloom in years in the reflecting pool just hours after it was refilled, they wouldn’t have lost the 2024 election. The real reason the pool is once again green is science, as algae thrives in hot water. But I guess we shouldn’t expect a halfwit like you to understand that.

Related | Trump happy to waste more money on Reflecting Pool paint job

Democrats, however, are using this latest debacle to call attention to the fact that Trump is more consumed with vanity construction projects than helping Americans afford the skyrocketing cost of living he exacerbated with his idiotic war in Iran.

“The President said it’d be the most beautiful reflecting pool anyone’s ever seen. $14 million later, it turned green with algae in days,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota wrote in a post on X on Thursday. “Americans need lower costs, not expensive distractions and misplaced priorities.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York echoed those sentiments.

“The Reflecting Pool is a fitting metaphor for Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump ran for office promising to ‘drain the swamp.’ Instead, he became the swamp,” Torres wrote in a post on X, along with video of the green water and peeling paint.

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  1. Comment by craig2030.

    Why was painting this a $13 million contract?

  2. Comment by Pool House Doctor.

    The Reflecting pool debacle. A metaphor for what Emperor Caligulard is doing to the entire country.

  3. Comment by BlueStar99.

    Fire the scientists and this is what you get.

  4. Comment by KBDK.

    An ecological problem like algae in the Reflecting Pool is complex and long-term. Trump does not do complex and long-term. Smash and grab is his way, like Maduro in Venezuela, Did not work in Iran and hopefully short term solutions will lead to a short-term administration.

  5. Comment by Chastity Jones.

    All he's accomplished in his first year, second term is to line his pockets and make America a laughing stock of the entire world.

  6. Comment by SkyRider5.

    "Previous administrations—most notably under Obama—failed to maintain the Reflecting Pool" Doesn't that also include the idiot's first administration.

  7. Comment by AlexandertheGreat.

    MAGA - Making Algae Great Again!!!

  8. Comment by The Lone Apple.

    What sort of idiot or company run by idiots would paint over granite? The paint won't stick to it.

  9. Comment by Al B Tross.

    The behavior from college educated folks at the Dept. of Interior is a perfect example of the depth Authoritarian Personality Syndrome effects an individuals psyche. By themselves they would never say or promote such things, but when surrounded and enabled by leadership, their intellect is substituted for obedience, their lack of logic or reason skills laid bare, they willingly become tools for abuse.

  10. Comment by SofiesTango.

    He's going to retaliate. His "favorite" pool people are making him, in his opinion, look sooo bad. So, He first of all won't pay them. Then he'll sue them up the wazooo.

    • Reply by u4riah.

      He absolutely will retaliate. His name removed from the Kennedy Center, the reflecting pool debacle I'm sure is preventing him from having good feelies. More bad things need to happen to push him over the edge or worse. Condolences to the housekeeping staff with all the ketchup everywhere.

  11. Comment by gdw619.

    Two no cost solutions — 1. Dump pre-1982 copper Pennie’s into the pool. Copper will kill the algae and weight down the peeling paint. Or, — 2. Change the flag from red, white and blue to red, white and green. Like Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. Trump could do this! Tongue firmly lodged in cheek.

  12. Comment by prius04.

    I really wish the reality based community would move on from calling people like Grant Stinchfield halfwits or idiots when they state the kind of MAGA nonsense that they do.

    Because they aren't the nitwits. They are APPEALING to the nitwits. I have little doubt that most of these conservative commentators/influencers know full well where the truth lies but they've got a pedophile to protect, with all the tax cuts and corruption that such protection affords the rich and powerful.

    So they have to spout nonsense to have any chance of winning the next election.

    I think we need to focus on the real nitwits. People like Grant are more accurately called sociopaths and not ignorant nitwits.

    • Reply by Janmoho.

      But Stinchfield is correct - the reflecting pool was sabotaged. But not by the Democrats, but by his Fearless Leader!

  13. Comment by No Dolls 4 Donny.

    Trump as swamp creature emerging from Reflecting Pool

    • Reply by u4riah.

      The creature from the black lagoon.

  14. Comment by StanleyYelnats dotcom.

    It's your money.

  15. Comment by crispycreme.

    If he wanted a goddamn swimming pool, he should've installed a pump and filter like most pools have and most sane people realize is a requirement, except one the size of a train engine. Just like the fucking war, this was all so predictable.

  16. Comment by Ben Kalom.

    Joining the ranks of many other info-mercial once-alive-now-dead product hawkers, our Orange Dude is, unlike the algae that flourish under sun and heat, withering, peeling off like his blue paint, running out of oxygen.

    Agree with Emily Singer. This is a full-on waste of money.

  17. Comment by Ar Feeto.

    I wouldn't be surprised if the latest flap over the reflecting pool would, cause Trump, in his mounting frustration with everything, to indulge his megalomaniac instinct and replace the slimy thing with the world's largest pyramid. How better to salve his wounded ego and venerate himself than by interposing a Trump commemorative between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument?

  18. Comment by evancooper.

    When does some "entrepreneur" starting hawking framed pieces of the liner material? If I was visiting, I would buy one.

    • Reply by brat city blue.

      I heard that people are already tearing off little pieces of the liner as souvenirs.

  19. Comment by GrannyCT.

    Oh nose!! Another Leftist plot to make the awesome Preznident look bad!!

    (/S of course.)

  20. Comment by comeaug.

    Hey, it;s still taller than the empire state building, the Eiffel tower and every other building on earth except it's flat, on the ground and underwater, Just like Trump said.

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