Trump faces pile-on from the left over reflecting pool fiasco

President Trump is taking on algae — and his liberal critics — as he races to restore the historic Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of the nation’s 250th celebration.

Mr. Trump is the third consecutive president to run into problems restoring the 103-year-old, rectangular pool located in the heart of the National Mall.

But unlike former President Obama, who was unable to successfully restore the pool after spending $35 million on renovations, or former President Biden, who rejected a plan to make needed repairs, Mr. Trump isn’t getting a pass.

Instead, the left, aided by dogged media coverage of the pool’s problems and cost, gleefully framed the peeling paint and algae blooms as a symbol of the Trump administration’s many alleged failures.

“Found an imaginary problem, said only they could fix it, didn’t listen to experts, hired buddies who grifted millions, failed miserably, bragged how great it went. The entire Trump presidency in a nutshell,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said, commenting on a video showing blue paint peeling from the floor of the reflecting pool last week.

Mr. Trump announced contractors would drain and make repairs to the pool, just days after the project was completed at a cost of more than $14 million.

The left is blaming Mr. Trump for hiring contractors outside of the normal bidding process who they accuse of inadequately sealing the bottom of the pool before applying the “American Flag Blue” paint.

Contractors also failed to solve the algae problem that has plagued the pool for years, critics said. The reflecting pool renovations included $1.74 million for a nano-bubble algae filtration system installed by Green Water Solutions, an Ohio-based company owned by Trump donor John J. Cafaro.

Mr. Trump isn’t blaming the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, or Green Water Solutions.

The president accused vandals, who, he said, ripped a 300-foot gash in the bottom and dumped chemicals into the water.

“The United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nation’s magnificent Reflecting Pool. Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair,” Mr. Trump posted on social media.

Among those collared for vandalism was three-time U.S. Olympian David Hearn, who told ABC News he “was able to reach out and touch,” the “loose end,” of the pool’s blue coating. He was arrested by the Park Police on a misdemeanor vandalism charge and held for five hours.

A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said it “has received only a handful of citations, which we will review.”

They provided no further details.

News outlets have descended on the reflecting pool to document the algae and peeling paint.

Mr. Trump accused ABC reporter Jonathan Karl of “sticking his hand in the Pool and trying to rip the rubber off the service.”

Workers began draining the pool on Monday in preparation for repairs while the president’s most vocal critics compared the troubled project to Mr. Trump’s other problems, from the Iran war they accuse him of unnecessarily starting to the detection of the once-eradicated screwworm that now threatens livestock in the Southwest after the Trump administration cut preventative funding.

Robert Reich, who was former President Clinton’s labor secretary, called the “mess” at the reflecting pool, “a metaphor for Trump’s many other messes.”

Rep. Dave Min, California Democrat, said the reflecting pool problems are “another example of the abuse of power that we’ve seen time and again from Trump and his lackeys, with ZERO oversight from House GOP.”

The media’s saturated coverage has stoked the outrage on the left.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, Michigan Democrat, said her constituents are obsessed with the reflecting pool renovation problems.

“Algae, that’s all anybody talked at home this weekend. They were outraged,” Ms. Dingell, who represents the liberal enclave of Ann Arbor, told CNN.

Mr. Trump took on the reflecting pool renovations as part of a D.C. beautification project ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday.

Statues and fountains around the federal city have been cleaned and restored and the president has ordered construction of a triumphal arch between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.

“Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP!” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social.

The 2,028-foot reflecting pool has long been a renovation headache for the federal government and has suffered from leaking pipes and a sinking foundation, among other problems.

In 2012, less than a month after the completion of a two-year, $35 million renovation during the Obama administration, algae returned with a vengeance.

The National Park Service attempted to mitigate algae growth with increased ozone levels in the water, but it became impossible to eradicate due in part to a decision by the Obama administration to refill it from the Tidal Basin, rather than the city’s drinking water supply, National Park Service officials told The Washington Post in 2012.

Then-Park Service spokesperson Carol Johnson called the algae bloom, “a direct consequence of the fact that this is a green project.”

A decade later, the Biden administration explored major renovations to address the pool’s longstanding structural problems, but the president passed on the $100 million proposed price tag.

Mr. Trump decided to take on the project and signed on Atlantic Industrial Coatings in late March. The company was chosen in part because it could install the Rhino polyurea coating already selected by the Interior Department.

On Sunday, company officials said they identified some areas in the Reflecting Pool that require repairs.

“These areas are a very small part of the massive 7-acre project, and do not indicate a failure of the liner,” officials said. “As soon as it’s feasible for the Park, the pool will be drained and AIC will be back to make those needed repairs as part of the warranty.”