this meme is missing the important step of
blaming Biden or Obama or Antifa or anyone!
Reportedly, some of MAGA are turning their pools green to stand in solidarity with Donnie’s algae infested pool. This is the most stupid thing I’ve heard in the past 10 minutes from a Republican. Stay turned for the next moronic idea they have.
LINK: Embroidered Slogan Hat!
Reflecting Pool’s “American Flag Blue” Turns Green Due to Algae... The new dark color may be exacerbating the pool’s algae problem, an expert says....
https://washingtonian.com/2026/06/15/reflecting-pools-american-flag-blue-turns-green-due-to-algae/
"The Scientific Method": Observe Reality, Collect Facts, Analyse the Data, Draw Conclusions. It's the Opposite of the Republicrime Method.
Their plan is: Write a Conclusion, Make Up "Facts", Pretend those "Facts" are Reality, Attack anyone who disagrees with their conclusion.
%20(1)%20(1)%20(1)%20(1)%20(1)%20(1).jpg "Elon Musk chainsaw freak out")
Heather Cox Richardson The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has become a metaphor for the Trump presidency. Beginning in early April, Trump boasted he was going to fix the reflecting pool after what he claimed was gross neglect by former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. He claimed the repairs, including sealing the pool and painting it “American flag blue,” would cost about $1.8 million and that it would all be finished by July 4, 2026, in time for the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Repeatedly, he bashed his predecessors over the pool, insisting that his skills would enable him to make it better than ever at minimal cost and that the repairs “could last for 100 years.”
The government declared the pool renovations complete on June 6, and water began flowing back into it. Trump immediately claimed it was a triumph. “Thank you President Trump,” he wrote on social media.
But the story was not over. David A. Fahrenthold of the New York Times reported that the repairs had, in fact, run far over budget, to at least $14.2 million. The administration had awarded a no-bid contract to a company Trump first said he had chosen and then said he didn’t know, and had agreed to a 20% profit margin, although a National Park Service analysis found that margin “inflated.”
And then, just a day after the reservoir filled with water, algae began to bloom in it. A spokesperson for the Interior Department said the algae were “residual” and a normal part of the process of refilling the pool. “President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the Reflecting Pool for good unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden,” she said in a statement.
Experts disagreed, saying that the darker bottom and the sealed seams meant the water would heat up faster than it had before and thus support more algae. By June 16, crews from the National Park Service were pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water to kill the algae that had turned the pool bright green even as Trump insisted the pool was perfect.
By Thursday, June 18, the new blue epoxy at the bottom of the pool was peeling off and floating in the vivid green pool. Fahrenthold reported in the New York Times that the National Park Service contracted not only the coating and painting of the pool under a no-bid contract, but also an additional $1.7 million contract for a water purification system.
That no-bid contract went to a firm whose ultimate owner is the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, led by Trump donor John J. Cafaro, whose wife chaired the 2017 International Red Cross Ball at Mar-a-Lago and who lives near Mar-a-Lago at a mansion that is listed as the water treatment company’s address in Florida corporate records. The name of the firm is Greenwater Services.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department said the White House was not involved in the choice of Greenwater Services and the department did not know of Cafaro’s political support for Trump when it awarded the contract.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz commented: “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.”
On Friday, former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn, 67, stopped by the pool on a 52-mile bike ride and reached into the water to feel what the detached material looked like. U.S. Park Police officers arrested him for destruction of government property, a misdemeanor. “I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn told David J. Lynch and Aaron Schaffer of the Washington Post. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
Friday night, Trump blamed “Radical Left Lunatics, most likely Dumocats [sic], who have spent their lives trying to ruin our Country,” for “some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool.” By this evening, he was blaming “multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll [sic]. 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.”
Until his second term in office, Trump has always been protected from the fallout from his own actions, and it appears he has become accustomed to simply describing his fantasy world and expecting that others will agree they see it. If his “fix” for the reflecting pool failed, someone else must be responsible, and they must pay for it.
The pattern Walz identified with regard to the pool applies to Trump’s debacle in Iran. And not only is the reflecting pool defying his narrative, so are Iran and Israel.
Israel has said it does not consider itself bound by the memorandum of understanding Trump signed at Versailles on Friday. That MOU said the U.S. and Iran “and their allies in the current war” would immediately and permanently stop military operations “on all fronts, including in Lebanon.” Israel has been attacking what it says are Hezbollah camps in southern Lebanon and has occupied parts of the region as a “security zone.”
On Friday, Julian E. Barnes of the New York Times reported that a recent U.S. intelligence report assessed that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to continue striking Hezbollah despite the MOU. Hezbollah is funded by Iran and is continuing to strike northern Israel. David M. Halbfinger of the New York Times reported on Thursday that Israel was “stunned” by the U.S.-Iran MOU and sees it as “a cataclysmic disaster.”
Israel has continued to strike Lebanon, and after additional strikes last night, Iranian officials today announced that in the wake of these breaches of the MOU, they had, once again, closed the Strait of Hormuz.
This afternoon, Vice President J.D. Vance left for Switzerland to join the negotiations, but already Iran has indicated it intends to charge “insurance fees” for the ships going through the strait.
Trump appeared to try to pressure Iran by threatening to impose U.S. tolls on the strait if an agreement falls through. “There will be NO TOLLS in the Hormuz Strait for 60 days during the Cease Fire Period, and there will be NO TOLLS after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed, for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs.”
That Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy is also refusing to go along with Trump’s narrative shows how Trump’s power is crumbling. A former ally, Meloni is now publicly contradicting Trump.
Earlier this week, Trump told an Italian television host that Meloni had “begged” for a picture with him at the G7 conference and that he “felt sorry for her.” Meloni said his comments were entirely “made up,” and the Italian foreign minister cancelled a trip to the United States over the flap.
Meloni highlighted the damage Trump has done to our alliances and indicated allies are done pretending his behavior is okay. “I don't know why the US president behaves this way towards allies,” she wrote on Instagram. “I can only say it is regrettable he does not show the same determination towards the enemies of the West and towards the enemies of the US—[enemies] whose leaders he instead appears to be far more accommodating with. But there is one thing he needs to remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
But Trump couldn’t let it go. This morning, he posted: “Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France. She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!). She wouldn’t even let us use Italy’s landing strips or runways, a great logistical inconvenience, and this despite the fact the U.S. contributes hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year to protect Italy, and other “so-called” NATO Allies. Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her “numbers up.” No thanks!!!”
Using a vulgar colloquialism, the headline on the front page of the Italian newspaper Libero today translated to “Trump is an a**hole.”
Today it appeared that the National Guard is patrolling the area around the reflecting pool. Tonight, Trump posted that “[m]any additional people have been arrested having to do with the disgraceful Vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool.” The reflecting pool “worked perfectly, including the mirror like finish, perfectly reflecting the two Great Monuments, which it never had before! What these terrible Vandals have done is a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and should be dealt with accordingly.”
Although multiple cameras line the mall and no one has offered any proof either of additional arrests or of vandalism, and although we have all been able to see workers dumping chemicals into the pool to kill the algae, Trump claimed that vandals “took some form of a 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. They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool.”
“The Reflecting Pool was never so beautiful as it was just one week ago, even going back to 1922 when it opened,” he wrote. “We are very proud of what we have done with this magnificent structure, and we will get it repaired, quickly, to an equal level of Beauty.”
The government declared the pool renovations complete on June 6, and water began flowing back into it. Trump immediately claimed it was a triumph. “Thank you President Trump,” he wrote on social media.
But the story was not over. David A. Fahrenthold of the New York Times reported that the repairs had, in fact, run far over budget, to at least $14.2 million. The administration had awarded a no-bid contract to a company Trump first said he had chosen and then said he didn’t know, and had agreed to a 20% profit margin, although a National Park Service analysis found that margin “inflated.”
And then, just a day after the reservoir filled with water, algae began to bloom in it. A spokesperson for the Interior Department said the algae were “residual” and a normal part of the process of refilling the pool. “President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the Reflecting Pool for good unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden,” she said in a statement.
Experts disagreed, saying that the darker bottom and the sealed seams meant the water would heat up faster than it had before and thus support more algae. By June 16, crews from the National Park Service were pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water to kill the algae that had turned the pool bright green even as Trump insisted the pool was perfect.
By Thursday, June 18, the new blue epoxy at the bottom of the pool was peeling off and floating in the vivid green pool. Fahrenthold reported in the New York Times that the National Park Service contracted not only the coating and painting of the pool under a no-bid contract, but also an additional $1.7 million contract for a water purification system.
That no-bid contract went to a firm whose ultimate owner is the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, led by Trump donor John J. Cafaro, whose wife chaired the 2017 International Red Cross Ball at Mar-a-Lago and who lives near Mar-a-Lago at a mansion that is listed as the water treatment company’s address in Florida corporate records. The name of the firm is Greenwater Services.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department said the White House was not involved in the choice of Greenwater Services and the department did not know of Cafaro’s political support for Trump when it awarded the contract.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz commented: “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.”
On Friday, former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn, 67, stopped by the pool on a 52-mile bike ride and reached into the water to feel what the detached material looked like. U.S. Park Police officers arrested him for destruction of government property, a misdemeanor. “I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn told David J. Lynch and Aaron Schaffer of the Washington Post. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
Friday night, Trump blamed “Radical Left Lunatics, most likely Dumocats [sic], who have spent their lives trying to ruin our Country,” for “some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool.” By this evening, he was blaming “multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll [sic]. 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.”
Until his second term in office, Trump has always been protected from the fallout from his own actions, and it appears he has become accustomed to simply describing his fantasy world and expecting that others will agree they see it. If his “fix” for the reflecting pool failed, someone else must be responsible, and they must pay for it.
The pattern Walz identified with regard to the pool applies to Trump’s debacle in Iran. And not only is the reflecting pool defying his narrative, so are Iran and Israel.
Israel has said it does not consider itself bound by the memorandum of understanding Trump signed at Versailles on Friday. That MOU said the U.S. and Iran “and their allies in the current war” would immediately and permanently stop military operations “on all fronts, including in Lebanon.” Israel has been attacking what it says are Hezbollah camps in southern Lebanon and has occupied parts of the region as a “security zone.”
On Friday, Julian E. Barnes of the New York Times reported that a recent U.S. intelligence report assessed that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to continue striking Hezbollah despite the MOU. Hezbollah is funded by Iran and is continuing to strike northern Israel. David M. Halbfinger of the New York Times reported on Thursday that Israel was “stunned” by the U.S.-Iran MOU and sees it as “a cataclysmic disaster.”
Israel has continued to strike Lebanon, and after additional strikes last night, Iranian officials today announced that in the wake of these breaches of the MOU, they had, once again, closed the Strait of Hormuz.
This afternoon, Vice President J.D. Vance left for Switzerland to join the negotiations, but already Iran has indicated it intends to charge “insurance fees” for the ships going through the strait.
Trump appeared to try to pressure Iran by threatening to impose U.S. tolls on the strait if an agreement falls through. “There will be NO TOLLS in the Hormuz Strait for 60 days during the Cease Fire Period, and there will be NO TOLLS after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed, for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs.”
That Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy is also refusing to go along with Trump’s narrative shows how Trump’s power is crumbling. A former ally, Meloni is now publicly contradicting Trump.
Earlier this week, Trump told an Italian television host that Meloni had “begged” for a picture with him at the G7 conference and that he “felt sorry for her.” Meloni said his comments were entirely “made up,” and the Italian foreign minister cancelled a trip to the United States over the flap.
Meloni highlighted the damage Trump has done to our alliances and indicated allies are done pretending his behavior is okay. “I don't know why the US president behaves this way towards allies,” she wrote on Instagram. “I can only say it is regrettable he does not show the same determination towards the enemies of the West and towards the enemies of the US—[enemies] whose leaders he instead appears to be far more accommodating with. But there is one thing he needs to remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
But Trump couldn’t let it go. This morning, he posted: “Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France. She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!). She wouldn’t even let us use Italy’s landing strips or runways, a great logistical inconvenience, and this despite the fact the U.S. contributes hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year to protect Italy, and other “so-called” NATO Allies. Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her “numbers up.” No thanks!!!”
Using a vulgar colloquialism, the headline on the front page of the Italian newspaper Libero today translated to “Trump is an a**hole.”
Today it appeared that the National Guard is patrolling the area around the reflecting pool. Tonight, Trump posted that “[m]any additional people have been arrested having to do with the disgraceful Vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool.” The reflecting pool “worked perfectly, including the mirror like finish, perfectly reflecting the two Great Monuments, which it never had before! What these terrible Vandals have done is a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and should be dealt with accordingly.”
Although multiple cameras line the mall and no one has offered any proof either of additional arrests or of vandalism, and although we have all been able to see workers dumping chemicals into the pool to kill the algae, Trump claimed that vandals “took some form of a 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. They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool.”
“The Reflecting Pool was never so beautiful as it was just one week ago, even going back to 1922 when it opened,” he wrote. “We are very proud of what we have done with this magnificent structure, and we will get it repaired, quickly, to an equal level of Beauty.”
Surprise, surprise…
Trump has spent the past week freaking out about the algae and the paint peeling in the newly renovated Reflecting Pool, blaming antifa vandals in a fit of paranoid delusion.
But, unsurprisingly, there is a much simpler explanation. The company he gave a no-bid contract to did a terrible job.
James Henry, a DC9 union painter with 30 years of experience, broke it down on Twitter (@Jameshenry1970).
“As a DC9 union painter with 30+ years in coatings, I’m looking at the failure not a conspiracy theory.”
“When a coating is lifting off in large sheets like this, that points to an adhesion failure: improper surface preparation, contamination left behind, the wrong coating system, poor recoat timing, or water introduced before the system fully cured.”
“A quality two-part epoxy system can perform well but the product is only as good as the prep and application. The substrate has to be properly profiled/cleaned, the specified primer or first coat applied correctly, recoat windows followed, and the full system allowed to cure before being put back into service.”
“That is not ‘vandals.’ That is a coating failure that deserves a real independent inspection and an explanation of exactly what system was specified and how it was applied.”
This is the least surprising thing we’ve ever heard. Incompetence, failure, graft, and corruption has followed in the wake of Donald Trump his entire career.
Why would this be any different?
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Oh, this is just embarrassing. They brought in a mobile surveillance truck to protect the Reflecting Pool from the imaginary vandals Trump conjured to deflect attention from how badly he screwed up.
The Trump administration is now blaming Obama after the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool turned green shortly after a $14 million renovation.
Yes, really.
After spending millions to restore and repaint the historic pool, algae returned almost immediately, turning the water from patriotic blue to embarrassing green. Instead of simply owning the problem, officials pointed back to the Obama-era reopening, claiming the pool had suffered from similar algae issues before and calling that earlier project a disaster.
The Interior Department says its new nanobubbler technology is killing the algae and that crews are vacuuming it out. But critics say the bigger issue may not be political at all. It may be the pool’s long-running maintenance and infrastructure problems, which have caused water-quality headaches for years.
That is what makes this whole story so ridiculous.
A national landmark turns green after a costly renovation, and somehow Washington still finds a way to turn algae into a partisan fight.
Maybe the problem is not Obama.
Maybe the problem is bad planning.
Don't worry, Trump, the FBI, the CIA, Secret Service, National Guard, every Police Department, every branch of Armed Services, are all working 24/7 to find and prosecute these extremely dangerous "Pool Terrorists"
The Greatest Reflecting Pool since Moses at the Red Sea. Everybody's saying so...
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Built in the early 1920s as part of a long‑term plan to turn what was once swamp and mudflats into a grand public space, the Reflecting Pool was designed to mirror our highest ideals back at us: democracy, accountability, and the unfinished work of justice. It has watched over generations of Americans pushing this country to be better, from Marian Anderson defying segregation in 1939 to the March on Washington and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, when hundreds of thousands filled the Mall demanding civil rights.
But the pool hasn’t just belonged to presidents and history books — it’s belonged to regular people. Tourists who can’t resist dipping their feet on a scorching August day. Protestors wading in after hours of marching for civil rights, immigrant justice, LGBTQ+ liberation, abortion rights, and Black lives. Even the brave (and slightly reckless) souls who’ve tried to ice-skate across its thin winter skin, breaking the rules because they understand something deeper: this is our space. We paid for it. We maintain it. We fill it with meaning.
Now that same civic monument is ringed with armed National Guard, barricades, and cops ready to arrest people for daring to step too close — or to turn it into a backdrop for carefully curated social media photos while anyone who treats it like a living public space is treated like a criminal. The message is clear: they want the symbolism without the people, the monument without the movement.
We don’t have to accept that.
The Reflecting Pool is not a prop for politicians or a militarized photo op — it’s a public good funded by our tax dollars, a gathering place for everyone who believes this country can be more just, more equal, more free. We have a right to cool our feet in it, to organize by it, to march around it, to reclaim it as a place where the people — not the powerful — are centered.
You spend $14 million of public money slapping “American flag blue” paint on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, skip the hard work of fixing the actual plumbing and filtration issues that cause the algae, and within days it turns into a neon green science experiment again.
Trump called this a “state‑of‑the‑art” renovation. The reality? A no‑bid contract that ballooned from under $2 million to over $13–14 million, handed to a politically connected firm, to repaint a historic landmark instead of repairing the systems that have caused algae blooms for decades.
Now the National Park Service is literally dumping hydrogen peroxide into a newly repainted pool to fight the bloom — a “quick fix” that’s already causing chunks of paint to peel off the bottom. The water is still murky, the algae will come back, and taxpayers are left holding the bag for a cosmetic job that’s already falling apart.
This is the Trump approach to governing in one object lesson: prioritize the photo op over the plumbing, the ribbon‑cutting over the repair, the contract for friends over the long‑term public good. We didn’t just waste millions on a pool; we funded a monument to Republican incompetence and corruption — and it’s literally peeling before our eyes.
The Democratic Voice
THIS is how you do it!!
Trump melted down when the reporter asks for proof of his 350-foot “knife” claim – O'Keefe simply asked a one easy question: where’s the evidence?Trump fired back: When you have a 350-foot slit, do you think that's proof?
O'Keefe wasn't buying it.
O'Keefe: Reporters have been down there today looking for that slit you mentioned. There's no evidence.
Trump insisted the Parks Department would back him up.
Trump: All you have to do is see the parks department. They'll show it to you. But I saw it. They cut it, they cut it very violently.
Yeah. Right. The obvious question remains: if the damage is as clear as Trump says, why are reporters struggling to find it?
Any independent-minded person would see what Trump's doing as an obvious lie. THIS is what a journalist does -- demand answers, and keep pressing.
Trump went on to insult O'Keefe baselessly, but much to Donald's dismay, O'Keefe didn't budge.
Like and Share if you support reporters asking for evidence before accepting a Trump's BS
%20(1)%20(2).jpg "q")
WASHINGTON — President Trump says he personally discovered a 250-foot gash running through the bottom of the National Mall Reflecting Pool, describing it as “one of the largest and most vicious gashes ever inflicted on government water.”
The discovery immediately raised an obvious question: How could anyone carve a 250-foot trench into one of the most photographed locations in America without appearing on the security camera aimed directly at the pool 24 hours a day?
Administration officials say there are at least seven perfectly reasonable explanations.
1. THE SABOTEURS USED TIME TRAVEL
Investigators believe the perpetrators may have traveled back to 1974, cut the gash into the pool before modern surveillance existed, and then returned to the present without disturbing the space-time continuum.
“This could have been sitting there for 52 years waiting to embarrass President Trump,” one official explained.
2. THEY WERE WEARING INVISIBILITY PONCHOS
The Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether Antifa recently acquired military-grade invisibility ponchos from China, Iran or the Harry Potter wing of the Democratic Party.
The ponchos reportedly make wearers invisible to cameras but not to patriotic presidents inspecting concrete from a golf cart.
3. THE CAMERA BLINKED
White House officials say the camera may have blinked at the exact moment the 250-foot gash was created.
“It only takes a fraction of a second to blink,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “We do not yet know how quickly these people can dig.”
4. THE PERPETRATORS DISGUISED THEMSELVES AS DUCKS
Investigators are reviewing footage of several ducks that spent an unusual amount of time near the damaged area.
Officials now believe at least three may have been adult human saboteurs wearing highly sophisticated duck costumes and carrying miniature underwater jackhammers.
5. THE GASH WAS CREATED FROM UNDERNEATH
Another theory holds that the attackers entered a secret tunnel beneath Washington, drilled upward through the pool and escaped through an abandoned Metro station used by Hillary Clinton.
“This would explain why we never saw anyone standing in the pool,” an investigator said. “They were technically below it.”
6. THE CAMERA WAS WATCHING JONATHAN KARL
Officials said the surveillance system had temporarily rotated away from the pool to track ABC reporter Jonathan Karl, who was reportedly walking nearby carrying a suspicious bag of duck pellets.
“The camera had to make a choice,” an official said. “It chose national security.”
7. BIDEN ERASED THE FOOTAGE BEFORE IT HAPPENED
Trump has suggested former President Joe Biden may have issued a secret preemptive pardon for the video itself, allowing the footage to delete itself before the crime occurred.
“Nobody knew video could be pardoned,” Trump said. “But Crooked Joe knew.”
8. THE CAMERA IS PART OF THE DEEP STATE
The final theory is that the camera captured everything but is refusing to cooperate.
Justice Department officials are considering indicting the camera for obstruction, destroying evidence and displaying insufficient loyalty to the president.
Trump said the lack of footage proves the attack was extremely sophisticated.
“When there is no video, that tells you they were very professional,” he said. “Possibly foreign. Possibly Democrat. Possibly ducks. We are looking very strongly at all three.”
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And what happens? The paint peels. The algae blooms. The coverup floats to the surface.
And suddenly the whole thing becomes the most perfect picture with this depraved, corrupt presidency, anyone could have designed.
Except nobody designed it. It just happened. The way truth always happens eventually. Whether you want it to or not.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Built in the 1920s. One of the most iconic landmarks in the world.
Millions of people have stood at its edge. It is one of those places that reminds you this country once built things meant to last.
Trump looked at it and decided it needed to be blue. Not because it was failing. Because he wanted it to look better in photographs.
It’s about the image.
Trump “always” cares about the image. Never about the substance.
So Trump hired a convicted felon friend in Florida, his neighbor, in a no bid contract, spent $14 million of our hard earned taxpayer money painting the bottom of a historic American landmark American flag blue.
Trump called it beautiful. He told the world it would be perfect. And within days of refilling the pool the whole thing turned green. Bright neon algae green. Because dark blue paint absorbs heat. And heat creates the perfect conditions for algae to bloom.
Any pool expert could have told him this. But Donald Trump does not listen to experts. He told law enforcement personnel in Washington last August: I know more about grass than any human being I think anywhere in the world.
This is the man who painted the reflecting pool blue in knee deep water.
When the algae came he sent workers to pour “hydrogen peroxide” into the water.
To vacuum algae off the bottom.
To install something called an ozone nanobubbler.
With the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool none of it worked. Because you cannot fix a fundamental error with chemicals.
The problem was not the algae. The problem was the paint. The problem was the decision. The problem is the man in the Oval Bordello who made it.
And then the paint started peeling.
Within a week blue paint started detaching from the bottom and floating to the surface in sheets.
People documented it on their phones. The whole world could see what $14 million bought. Green water. Peeling blue paint. A dead duckling floating on the surface. They drained it. Then drained it again.
If this happened in your backyard what would you do? You would not blame vandals. You would not arrest the neighbor who came to look at it. You would say who screwed this up. This is what normal people do. But we don’t live in normal times!
Instead a former Olympian touched a piece of paint that was already peeling and suddenly he became the story.
David Davey Hearn. Champion canoeist 67 years old, he bent a loose flap of paint with his finger the way any curious person would. Trumps Goons arrested him.
Mr. Hearn told the BBC: “I didn’t destroy, rip, tear, peel or remove any part of the paint. The condition of any part of the reflecting pool didn’t change. He called it an arbitrary capricious prosecution.”
Mr. Hearn is facing charges of destroying government property. Five people arrested. Five more cited. Fourteen police reports filed.
And Trump inspected it. From his helicopter flying over the Reflecting Pool.
He then posted on Un-Truth Social:
“I just inspected it and could only say to myself WOW who would do such a thing. SICK DERANGED PEOPLE.”
Trump later posted that work would begin immediately to fix the pool. The post ended with a question mark.
If you have been watching this feckless man for any length of time you recognize this move.
Something goes wrong. He covers it with something flashy. The flashy thing makes it worse. He blames other people. Creates chaos around the blame. And we lose the thread.
If you are arguing about the canoeist and not asking why the pool is green.
If you are mad about vandalism, you are not asking who approved the paint and the $14 million no bid contract.
That has always been the trick.
The whistleblower becomes the problem.
The journalist becomes the problem.
The protester becomes the problem.
The truth teller becomes the problem.
The person who points to the crack in the wall becomes the problem.
Not the crack. The person who noticed it.
I know something about that personally. This is what insecure power does. It punishes observation. It criminalizes curiosity. It attacks witnesses. Because the witness threatens the performance! And Trump is all about his image and performance.
Looking at another fucked up decision by Trump, many of us thought there was a bottom.
As it turns out, the algae filled reflecting pool was given to an incompetent contractor.
But wait there’s more.
At the bottom of this reflecting pool is a murky narrative to blame this incompetence on an array of suspects. We’ve seen the stories in the media.
So now, there is no bottom to this entire project. It will just keep getting worse as more alleged suspects will get thrown into the knee deep end of the pool.
There is no bottom.
This is who Donald Trump has always been. The gap between the image and the reality has always been the defining feature of the man.
The bronzer and the combover and the suit that never fits and the towers that bear his name that he does not actually own and the steaks and the university and the charity and the bone spurs.
The same man who took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the execution of five innocent Black teenagers in Central Park.
Who built a political movement around the lie that Barack Obama was not born in America.
Who has spent his entire life confusing attention with achievement. Covering failure with flash. Burying the truth under the next outrage and the next distraction and the next villain.
In Greek mythology Narcissus looked into a pool of still water and fell so deeply in love with his own reflection that he could not leave. Could not eat. Could not sleep. Until he wasted away and died alone at the edge of that pool gazing at an image that was never real.
Trump is Narcissus. In love with the image.
He’s destroyed by the gap between the image and the truth. Unable to see past his own reflection long enough to notice that the water is turning green and the paint is coming off in sheets and an Olympic athlete is in handcuffs for touching the evidence.
But Narcissus only hurt himself.
Trump is taking the rest of us with him.
The South Lawn is now dirt and dead grass. The reflecting pool is green and peeling and being drained for the second time.
The $80 billion bill for a war he started is sitting on congressional desks. The Strait of Hormuz he declared permanently toll-free now has a fee structure being drafted in Tehran.
The spy agencies are being run by an incompetent housing official.
The portrait of the first Black four-star general in American history has been removed from the Pentagon wall.
A reflecting pool only has one job. To show us what is there. Not what we hope is there. Not what we have painted over with $14 million worth of the wrong color.
What is there?
The paint is peeling. The water is clearing. Wildlife is dying because he poisoned the water. The reflection is getting harder to ignore.
Narcissus died at the edge of that pool. Staring at something that was never real. Alone. Because everyone around him watched and waited and said nothing.
The pool is still here. The truth is still here.
And so are we.
Robert Reich
Friends,
Referring to the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, Minnesota governor Tim Walz commented on X: “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.” (Walz could have added: “blamed others for his failure, conjured up a conspiracy, then prosecuted them.”)
One remarkable aspect of Trump’s horrendous reign is how many crises and problems he’s brought on himself — created them out of thin air. Then he brags about how well he’s handled them. And when they go wrong — as they inevitably do — he casts blame on others or on his political opponents.
Four examples from the last few days:
I. The Return of Operation Metro Surge
U.S. prosecutors in Minnesota last Tuesday announced charges against 15 people they say conspired to “violently oppose immigration law enforcement.”
But when repeatedly questioned by the press, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen failed to describe a single example of injuries to federal agents.
Rosen has a dubious track record with this kind of prosecution. In the months after “Operation Metro Surge,” launched by the Trump regime last December, federal prosecutors charged three dozen Minnesotans in a first wave of cases allegedly involving assaulting or impeding federal immigration agents. Most were dismissed or downgraded.
So why is Minnesota’s U.S. attorney announcing new charges? Rosen’s predecessor as U.S. attorney, Joseph Thompson, said he doesn’t understand it. “I think most people, on both of the sides of the political aisle, viewed [Metro Surge] as a disaster for the administration,” Thompson told The Wall Street Journal. “Why you would want to go back and re-litigate this is beyond me.”
One clue lies in the timing of the new charges — coming just two weeks after the John F. Kennedy Library awarded its 2026 Profiles in Courage Award to the people of the Twin Cities for their resistance to Operation Metro Surge.
A bipartisan committee praised the community for defending constitutional rights and demonstrating civic courage:
“Tens of thousands took to the streets to peacefully protest federal overreach and threats to immigrant families and constitutional protections, while others documented enforcement activity and alerted neighbors to federal agents’ presence. Faith leaders organized demonstrations, community groups built rapid-response networks, labor leaders and small business defended workers, and volunteers provided critical support and resources. Across religious, racial, and political lines, a broad coalition of residents of the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs united in peaceful resistance despite violent confrontation and real personal risk, defending their neighbors’ rights and strengthening the national movement to protect American democracy.”
Trump is presumed to have a grudge against the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award because last year’s award went to his former vice president, Mike Pence, for explicitly resisting Trump's demands to overturn the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021.
II. Trump’s Unedning War in Iran
On Sunday, negotiators for Iran and the United States met in Switzerland for a little over an hour. No progress was made. Iranian negotiators insisted on an end to the war between Israel (a U.S. ally) and Hezbollah (an Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon) as a condition for further talks, according to Iranian state media.
The talks were also strained by Trump’s renewed threats against Iran. Fox News reports that Trump, in an interview, said he had spoken with Iranian officials Saturday night and warned them not to close the Strait of Hormuz. “You close it, and you won’t have a country,” Fox said, quoting Trump. “You won’t even make it back to your f—ing country.”
The Iranian delegation in Switzerland decided to suspend the talks due to Trump’s threats, according to Nour News, which is affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. IRIB, Iran’s state broadcaster, said it was unclear if the talks will resume.
Iran’s lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on social media that the United States should be careful about issuing threats, adding that Iranian armed forces were prepared to respond. “No matter how much they talk, it is we who act,” he wrote.
Iran says the strait is once again closed. World oil prices are again rising.
One Republican senator described the war in Iran and the sputtering peace talks as “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
Trump continues to look for a way out, at least for himself. “If it works out, I’m going to take the credit,” Trump said of the peace agreement, only half in jest. “If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD.”
III. Prices Continue to Rise
On Sunday, Trump celebrated Father’s Day with a social media post touting that the U.S. has the “BEST ECONOMY EVER.”
“Happy Father’s Day!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Our Country is doing GREAT. Record Jobs Numbers and Stock Market, BEST ECONOMY EVER! Greatest Military in the World, by far. We are WINNING on all fronts, WINNING LIKE NEVER BEFORE. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!”
Inflation in May increased to 4.2 percent, its highest point in three years, with the food index seeing a 3.1 percent increase over the past year and a nearly 4 percent bump in energy prices. Wages are not rising as fast, which means most Americans are becoming poorer.
The latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released last week shows that only 33 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, his lowest point in both of his terms and 3 points lower than former president Biden at his all-time low.
Trump has long dismissed “affordability” as an issue Americans are concerned about, saying last week that affordability is a “fake word, made up by the Democrats.”
IV. The Reflecting Pool Worsens
All of which brings us back to the Reflecting Pool. Two weeks ago, Trump declared that his decision to repaint the Pool “American Flag blue” was not simply a “paint job” but “highly sophisticated material, industrial strength, that could last for 100 years.” The dark blue paint that Trump insisted on is now peeling, and green algae are returning.
But the blue paint is now peeling and the algae are back.
On Friday night, Trump blamed “Radical Left Lunatics, most likely Dumocats [sic], who have spent their lives trying to ruin our Country” for “some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool” and linked it to the etching of “8647” into the grass on the National Mall days earlier, adding that law enforcement is investigating.
Then on Saturday, Trump doubled down, claiming that “multiple individuals” had taken “some 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. These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair.”
So far, five people have been arrested for vandalizing the Reflecting Pool, according to Trump officials. But the evidence against them is weak at best. For example, former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn, 67, was arrested after he touched a flap of blue material partially detached from the bottom of the pool. Hearn, who says he has a background in material science, told CNN he checked out the pool after reading reports of algae in the water and paint or sealant peeling off the bottom. “I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn told The Washington Post. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
Yet the Reflecting Pool’s new blue surface isn’t plastic like a typical pool lining, which can be cut. It’s a coarse coat of dark blue paint. It’s peeling because the paint job — done by a Trump donor who had been given the no-bid contract — was obviously done badly, as well as being way over budget. And the algae have returned not because of vandalism but because the dark blue paint has trapped more heat, rapidly creating a friendly habitat for the algae.
As Tim Walz says, it’s the entire Trump presidency in a nutshell.
What do you think?
Baptism in the swamp!
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