The president is pushing his most ardent supporters to swallow his incompetence and delusions as if they were nothing more than algae.
There is no doubt that the fiasco surrounding President Donald Trump’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool does not measure up to his decision to take on Iran, the legally dubious tariffs he imposed, or his push to socialize private businesses.
Yet this foul little episode, still unsettled, serves as a compact indicator of the murkiness and stink that mark his so-far disastrous second term, especially his reluctance to own up to his missteps (such as conceding the 2020 election). Jimmy Carter fought a feral rabbit. Gerald Ford tumbled down stairs. And George H.W. Bush vomited on visiting dignitaries. Trump is now contending with an algae bloom in a way that makes him a figure of ridicule.
“You won’t be seeing this Biden filth and incompetence much longer!,” he proclaimed triumphantly last fall on Truth Social as he unveiled his plan for the job. It was projected to cost only $1.5 million. In April, he boasted endlessly about his pool-building prowess, telling the press, “I’ve probably built more than 100 swimming pools… There’ll be no leaks; there’ll be no issues… It will look gorgeous, beautiful.” On June 3, he presented a strange, unmistakably Freudian graphic that compared the reflecting pool’s length (2,030 feet) to the heights of the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, and One World Trade Center. The chart bore the caption “Our Pool Is Bigger than Skyscrapers.”
However long the pool ultimately was, by the time the renovations were finished, the Department of the Interior had signed two no-bid contracts totaling over $16 million, more than ten times the initial estimate. Yet soon after the work was done and the pool refilled, the water turned a sickly green from an algae bloom, and the waterproofing— applied in the president’s chosen shade of “American Flag Blue”— began peeling away. On June 18, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl reported on both the nauseatingly green water and the deteriorating waterproofing.
Earlier this week, the president took to Truth Social to denounce “ABC FAKE NEWS” for failing “to report that their close ‘friends,’ Dumocrats [sic] Obama and Biden, spent over 100 Million Dollars on the Reflecting Pool, and it never worked.” He added, “We are preparing lawsuits against ABC for false reporting. I like their money, which will be given to the U.S. Treasury! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT.”
According to CBS News, “President Trump is alleging, without proof, that vandals are to blame for recent issues at the Reflecting Pool in D.C. and says several people have been arrested.” Five individuals have been arrested and five issued citations related to the reflecting pool, but it remains unclear when those cases will be resolved. The U.S. Park Police has released footage that it says shows vandals and is seeking help identifying potential suspects. Strangely, the president himself assured reporters on May 22 that the material used to line the reflecting pool was so strong that “if you had a knife, you can’t even cut it.”
Yet regardless of how this plays out, the president appears to be losing ground with the public. His long-promoted Freedom 250 concert series and Great American State Fair were reorganized after eight of nine musical acts dropped out, though Trump tried to spin it as a triumph, saying, “We don’t want singers with no talent, but big fees to put you to sleep—we’ve told them all to stay home… All we want is you, me, a few speakers, and the Greatest Music ever played, the same Music you have listened to for years! We will have the fabulous Lee Greenwood introducing me with what has turned out to be one of the Greatest Hits of All Time, ‘GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.'” The 16-day event kicked off Wednesday night, with Trump declaring, “A short time ago we were a dead country. We were dead. Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. We’re respected by everybody. Nobody’s laughing at us anymore.”
Well, perhaps so, perhaps not. RealClearPolitics polling averages show Trump entering January 2025 with an approval rating around 50.5 percent. By March of that year, he was underwater, and his current approval sits near 40.5 percent. Last month, inflation stood at 4.1 percent year over year, representing the largest annual uptick since April 2023.
Trump loyalists will undoubtedly stand by their man and swallow his version of events, whether the topics are Iran diplomacy, inflation, the 2020 election, or the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Yet ultimately, reality has a way of catching up with everyone, even Donald Trump.
