Excluding the last few weeks, I believe I’ve thought about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool approximately 0 times in my entire life. Actually make that one time, because we know some people who saw it while travelling some years ago and told us about it when they came back. They thought it was nice, as I recall. I wonder what they’d think of it now.
National Park Service employees and contractors to trying hard to clean the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. So far the algae seems to be winning. As for the American flag blue paint, it’s starting to peel from the bottom of the pool — a short-lived $14 million paint job. pic.twitter.com/32cGQqLXaQ
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) June 18, 2026
Trump’s ability to ruin literally everything he touches is amazing, isn’t it? Pools, businesses, marriages, millions of innocent lives, the world as we know it…at least the guy’s consistent, I suppose.
But what if, just once, everyone else is wrong and he didn’t fuck up? It sounds crazy, but stay with me.
I submit for your consideration the theory that this Reflecting Pool thing isn’t actually an expensive debacle. On the contrary, it’s a rare case of Trump getting every single dollar’s worth of exactly what he ordered the public to pay for. It has to be, because when he handed the job to a company called Greenwater Services, what else could he have possibly expected?
Oh, and the guy who owns that company is a total crook, just in case you somehow weren’t sure how he wound up in Trump’s orbit.
The head of the company that owns the firm responsible for part of the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool pleaded guilty to bribing a congressman, The New York Times reported on Thursday night.
President Donald Trump fixated on the Reflecting Pool in recent months, taking a personal interest in seeing to its renovation. He frequently brought up the topic during press gaggles, even when reporters had not asked him about it. Since the job was completed, the pool has been plagued by algae blooms. This week, passersby at the pool began to notice paint starting to peel away from the bottom. Rather than reflect the color Trump chose for the bottom – American flag blue – the algae has given the pool a distinct green hue.
As part of the renovation, Trump awarded a $1,7 million no-bid contract to an Ohio company to install a water purification system. The name of the company is – and this is true – Greenwater Services.
The congressman he bribed was Ohio Democrat James Traficant, who was himself convicted of bribery and racketeering back in 2002.
Only the best people.