The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool in Washington DC, renovated by Donald Trump for $14.7 million, has become a tourist attraction for all the wrong reasons. A massive algae bloom has turned the water a vivid green, emitting a foul odor that deters reflection but draws crowds of onlookers and TV crews documenting the failure.
Failed Renovation and Algae Bloom
Trump awarded a no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a company that had previously worked on swimming pools at one of his golf clubs. Within weeks of declaring the rehabilitation complete with an 'American flag blue' coating in time for the 250th anniversary of independence on 4 July, the pool was plagued by algae. A roughly 4-foot piece of the dark-blue liner was seen floating in the water.
Tour guide José Lebron, 32, said: 'He has a contrary of the Midas touch, which is everything he touches becomes crap. I’m worried because now the point of visiting the pool is seeing the whole spectacle of the mistake.'
Claims of Sabotage and Arrests
Trump claimed saboteurs caused a 300-foot gash in the pool, illegally polluted it with chemicals, and marked '86 47' in the grass. At least five people have been arrested, including former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who denied the charges. Trump threatened the culprits with 10 years in jail.
On Monday, Trump said: 'We had vandalism. It’s not a lot of damage, but we’ll probably have to let the water out and re-fix it. They went in there with a knife.'
Public Reaction and Symbolism
Jessica Diaz, 53, a nurse practitioner from Florida, called the pool 'a little cloudy, a little murky, a little disappointing.' Sherry O’Keefe, 69, a therapist, used the phrase 'not impressed' eight times, adding: 'It reflects that we’ve got somebody who is more concerned with appearances than with actuality.'
George Derek Musgrove, co-author of Chocolate City, said: 'Once he got involved and insisted on a specific fix that didn’t actually address the problem of algae blooms, and doled out a very questionable no-bid contract to an inexperienced contractor, it started to get this stink of corruption.'
Political Context
Sidney Blumenthal, a Lincoln biographer, remarked: 'Trump has wanted a monument to himself in Washington and he finally has one. It is this reflecting pool and it is a perfect metaphor of kleptocracy, failure, incompetence, a complete mess.'
The pool, once lined with crowds listening to Martin Luther King’s 'I have a dream' speech, now symbolizes a stagnant pond beneath Lincoln’s statue—a 2,028-foot national metaphor for Trump’s presidency.
