{"id":2710,"date":"2026-06-24T18:07:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2710"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:07:57","slug":"how-one-algae-choked-pool-became-the-perfect-reflection-of-trumps-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2710","title":{"rendered":"How one algae-choked pool became the perfect reflection of Trump\u2019s presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OPINION:<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a certain poetry in the fact that President Trump\u2019s grandest Washington beautification project \u2014 a gleaming, \u201cAmerican flag blue\u201d Reflecting Pool fit for the nation\u2019s 250th birthday \u2014 has instead become a stagnant, pea-green swamp that smells like a gym bag left in a hot car.<\/p>\n

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If you wanted a single image to capture this administration, you couldn\u2019t paint one better. And, fittingly, Mr. Trump tried.<\/p>\n

The paint is now peeling off. He came with the promise to \u201cdrain the swamp,\u201d but instead he created one \u2014 and it cost $15 million of your tax dollars.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s review the saga, because it has everything: hubris, algae, dead ducks, no-bid contracts and a man who has never once in his life done anything wrong.<\/p>\n

The premise was simple. Mr. Trump looked at the century-old Reflecting Pool \u2014 plagued for decades by leaks, broken pipes and persistent algae \u2014 and decided he, a builder of \u201cmore than 100 swimming pools,\u201d would fix what lesser presidents could not.<\/p>\n

He demanded the liner be patriotic blue. He promised it would \u201clast 50 to 100 years.\u201d He awarded a $14.7 million no-bid contract to a Virginia firm that had previously worked on the pools at his golf club, because nothing says fiscal responsibility like skipping the part where you compare prices.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the cherry on top: A separate $1.7 million no-bid contract to install an algae-killing \u201cnanobubble\u201d system went to a company owned by John J. Cafaro, a longtime Trump donor, a Mar-a-Lago neighbor and a man who once pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a congressman.<\/p>\n

The name of the company (and I swear this is not made up) is Greenwater Services.<\/p>\n

The pool reopened. Within weeks, the algae returned with a vengeance \u2014 satellite imagery showed it at a five-year high. The \u201ccrystal clear\u201d water the Interior Department triumphantly announced on social media turned a shade of green best described as \u201cgross.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the blue paint began floating to the surface in sheets. Workers were photographed dumping gallons of 12% hydrogen peroxide into the water, a concentration strong enough to burn skin and endanger wildlife. A few ducklings have since been found dead in the pool.<\/p>\n

Oh, and by the way, that peroxide solution? Strong enough to break down paint.<\/p>\n

Now, surely, the president took responsibility for this multimillion-dollar belly flop? Reader, you have not been paying attention.<\/p>\n

No, the problem was vandals. Saboteurs. \u201cSICK, DERANGED PEOPLE!\u201d Mr. Trump declared on Truth Social, claiming that shadowy figures had taken \u201csome form of knife or blade\u201d and carved a gash into his masterpiece.<\/p>\n

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The gash was 250 feet long. Then it was 300 feet. By Monday, in the Oval Office, it had grown to 350 feet, allegedly cut \u201cfrom one end to the other\u201d with a box cutter.<\/p>\n

Reporters went to the site. They found no slit. Asked for proof \u2014 a photo, a video, anything \u2014 the president offered a master class in evidence-free conviction: \u201cWell, let\u2019s put it this way, when you have a 350, I think it\u2019s 350, not 250, when you have a 350-foot slit, from one end to the other, you think that\u2019s proof? You think that\u2019s proof?\u201d<\/p>\n

No, Mr. President. That is the opposite of proof. That is a number you said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump promised that the evidence would surface \u201cin court.\u201d He suggested someone might have secretly added fertilizer to grow the algae. He floated that the same mysterious chemicals used to etch an \u201c86 47\u201d message into nearby grass had been deployed in the pool.<\/p>\n

He accused an ABC reporter of personally trying to \u201crip the rubber off the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he is now threatening to sue ABC for daring to report that the project cost $16 million, insisting \u2014 again without evidence \u2014 that Presidents Obama and Biden spent \u201cover 100 million dollars\u201d on a pool that \u201cnever worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grand finale? After all this \u2014 the no-bid contracts, the algae, the peeling paint, the dead waterfowl \u2014 Mr. Trump announced he will drain the whole thing and start over.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met with contractors today, will probably be forced to release and drain much of the water,\u201d he wrote. Fifteen million dollars and several deceased ducks later, the solution is to pull the plug and try again.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump has been dying for a legacy in Washington. He tacked his name onto the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts \u2014 at least until a judge ordered it removed. And he wants to build an \u201cArc de Trump,\u201d a 250-foot arch covered, as usual, in gold.<\/p>\n

But the president now has the perfect memorial to his presidency. Murky, mismanaged, blamed on everyone else and about to be drained and done all over again. The Trump presidency in a nutshell.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

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There’s a certain poetry in the fact that President Trump’s grandest Washington beautification project has become a stagnant, pea-green swamp that smells like a gym bag left in a hot car.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1185],"tags":[14,1740],"class_list":["post-2710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-political-theater","tag-donald-trump","tag-greenwater-services"],"yoast_head":"\nHow one algae-choked pool became the perfect reflection of Trump\u2019s presidency - Home Buyer Relocation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2710\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How one algae-choked pool became the perfect reflection of Trump\u2019s presidency - 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