The Other 98
Just twelve days after trump blew $14.2 million of your tax dollars painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool a patriotic "American flag blue," workers were on their hands and knees this morning pouring what looked like Walmart pharmacy bottles of hydrogen peroxide into what is now a very green, very algae-covered swampy national embarrassment that looks like something RFK Jr. would take his kids swimming in.
Pool renovation expert Steve Goodale had literally predicted this exact outcome, warning that darker paint absorbs more sunlight, raises water temperature, and makes algae blooms inevitable. It was, in his words, "a foregone conclusion."
And here is the kicker: to actually treat 6.5 million gallons of water properly, you would need a minimum of 8,000 liters of 12 percent hydrogen peroxide injected directly into the filtration intake so it disperses evenly throughout the entire pool, not guys kneeling at the edge dumping gallon jugs in one spot like they are cleaning a bathroom.
(The $1.7 million no-bid contract to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool went to a company
ultimately owned by Trump donor John J. Cafaro, who previously pleaded guilty in separate federal cases involving bribery and campaign finance violations. The company's name? Greenwater Services.)
As one doctor put it on social media, "is this what happens when you have zero scientists in your administration?"
The whole spectacle would be funny if it were not so expensive and so completely on brand. The actual fix here is embarrassingly simple: repaint the pool the original light grey, which does not absorb heat, does not supercharge algae growth, and did not cost $14 million dollars.
Instead, this administration would rather send workers out daily with bottles from the medicine cabinet than admit the dark blue paint was a vanity mistake that any pool professional could have told them not to make, and in fact did tell them not to make, loudly and publicly, before they did it anyway.
This is what the trump administration does. It does not solve problems, it performs solving them. The reflecting pool is green, so they pour something in it and hope you stop looking. The underlying issue stays broken, the band aid goes on top, and everyone moves on until the next embarrassing photo goes viral.
From the Kennedy Center tarp hiding where they removed his name, to the Epstein files they have fought to keep buried, the whole operation runs on the same logic: if you can cover it up fast enough, maybe nobody will notice.
But we notice, Donald. We always notice.
