Trump forced to drain his $14 million pool again after just 16 days
Donald Trump announced this weekend that he will likely have to drain the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool again, only sixteen days after refilling it following a $14 million renovation he promised would deliver clean water and last “100 years.”
Workers spent days treating algae blooms in the pool, and now sheets of paint are peeling off the bottom and floating to the surface. The Interior Department tried hydrogen peroxide and what it called “high tech nanobubble ozone technology” to control the algae, but the pool kept getting worse anyway.
Trump said he met with contractors at Camp David and will “probably be forced to release and drain much of the water in order to do the necessary repairs.” He blamed the damage on “disgraceful Vandalism,” claiming someone cut a 250 foot gash into the pool and dumped corrosive chemicals into the water. The Washington Post could not verify either claim.
Pool experts who reviewed footage of the peeling paint pointed to something much simpler. They said the surface likely was not prepared correctly before the coating was applied, which is exactly the kind of failure that causes paint to peel off in sheets.
The one arrest connected to the supposed vandalism was three time Olympian David Hearn, who told the Post he reached into the water after spotting a piece of paint already coming loose, and that he never damaged or vandalized anything.
So sixteen days after his big beautification win, Trump is back to draining the same pool, blaming invisible saboteurs instead of the contractors he hired, just as his Great American State Fair prepares to open blocks away.