Crews are again draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as President Donald Trump’s effort to revamp the waterway pushes well past his initial goal of having it ready by July 4 to mark the nation’s 250th birthday. The project has already run into problems, including an algae bloom and peeling new coating on the bottom. Ordinary people get the blame. The work gets the contracts.
Who Pays for the Bosses’ Vision
Trump at first suggested the renovations would last a century. Within weeks of the project originally reaching completion last month, the water was beset by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating appeared to be peeling off the bottom. Trump has blamed the peeling on vandals, while critics have said it came from shoddy repair work. That split tells the whole ugly story: power announces a grand makeover, then looks for someone lower down to absorb the mess when the job falls apart.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose agency oversees the National Park Service, said in an interview released earlier this week with conservative podcaster Katie Miller that the new round of draining was planned. Burgum said the water might still contain debris from an extensive Independence Day fireworks display over the National Mall. “Drain the water, clean up the fireworks stuff,” Burgum told Miller, who is the wife of deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller. “Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again.” The language is neat, bureaucratic, and contemptuous. The apparatus drains, cleans, repairs, and moves on, while the public is left with the cost and the spectacle.
What They Call Repair
The work on the Reflecting Pool is one of several projects Trump has spearheaded across Washington. He demolished the White House’s East Wing to build a $400 million ballroom and plans to build a towering arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. These are not small beautification efforts. They are top-down remakes of public space, driven by presidential will and paid for through the machinery that serves it.
Trump initially announced his intentions to beautify the Reflecting Pool this spring, saying he wanted it completed before the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations. Water was drained and Trump directed that the bottom be painted what he called “American flag blue.” In May, he posted on his social media site: “The goal is to have it done, at this higher level, prior to July 4th — We are ahead of schedule!” The schedule wasn’t ahead of anything for long.
Court documents later showed that the National Park Service reported to the U.S. Park Police a June 9 incident in which a sharp knife or razor cut the pool’s new liner. On Thursday, former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn pleaded not guilty in D.C. Superior Court to deliberately damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn has said he reached inside the pool to examine the peeled sealant and let go of a chunk when he was told to by a park worker. His attorneys and other Trump administration critics have called the case an abuse of prosecutorial power and say he is being scapegoated for the poor job done fixing the pool.
The Courtroom and the Cover Story
At least three other people have been charged in the same court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the Reflecting Pool, according to online court records. All three pleaded not guilty during their initial court appearances Wednesday. The state’s answer to a botched project is familiar: charge people, sort out the narrative later, and let the machinery of punishment do its work.
The pool was closed for the Independence Day celebration, which featured what Trump said was the largest fireworks display in the world. Burgum has also said the Trump administration won’t seek bids for the new rounds of repairs. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” last weekend: “We’ll use the same company because they did a fantastic job.” That’s the circle closed tight. The same people keep the work, the same agencies manage the fallout, and the public keeps footing the bill.
Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor. Democratic senators and House members are investigating the pool project, including seeking answers about how much taxpayer funding is involved. The names change, the contracts stay, and the money keeps moving upward through the same channels.