Among the renovations that the administration of US President Donald Trumphas made in Washington DC, the reflecting pond is one of the few completed projects. And it has turned out to be a disaster. Costs have skyrocketed, there is a massive algae bloom, new paint is peeling, and last weekend dead ducks were found in and near the water. The entire pool will probably have to be emptied. A fair to commemorate the 250th anniversary of US independence, which will feature Trump as the main figure, is scheduled to open this week near the body of water. This is what is happening.
How did all this start?
The reflecting pool is an emblematic element of the American capital. This 2,000-foot-long shallow pool stretches between the monuments of the National Mall.
Its maintenance has been complicated for a long time, with constant leaks. It is more than a hundred years old. The last renovation before Trump’s was in 2012. Trump said he would have it fixed in less than a week, citing his experience building resort pools and promising clean water that “could last a hundred years.”
He said he was inspired to undertake this project after a friend visiting from Europe told him about the water, and he chose an “American flag blue” paint to cover the original stone bottom after renovating it. The project lasted six weeks and cost approximately $15 million, a figure higher than the $2 million estimated by Trump. Still, everything moved quickly. Heritage advocates sued to stop the renovation, relying on a law that requires the intervention of Congress in modifications to historic sites, but construction ended before a judge could rule on the matter.
There is concern that something similar is happening with the ballroom that Trump plans to build in the White House. “I’m very proud of it,” Trump said earlier this month, when he declared the reflecting pool project finished. “I’m very good at building things,” he said. Almost immediately, the intense summer heat and humidity contributed to the pool becoming covered in algae, followed by more problems including peeling paint and leaks.
The Trump administration awarded the repairs to a single contractor at a high price
Trump has declared that he wants to redesign and beautify Washington before the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Nation this summer, although some projects have longer deadlines.
He is working against time to build a massive White House ballroom, a towering arch and a statue garden, among other projects. At times, it appears to be ignoring regulations designed to protect historic sites. In the reflecting pond case, repairs were awarded to one contractor without allowing others to bid.
The contractor made an inflated profit margin and had difficulty repairing the leaks, it was reported. The New York Times. He Times also reported that a company made up of former Trump employees regularly receives contracts from the Trump administration, including for events on the occasion of the celebration of Independence. Echoing the views of other Democrats, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut recently said the Trump administration’s beautification projects have revealed “troubling patterns of waste, fraud and abuse.”
“The public is now witnessing what happens when agencies instead press ahead with ill-conceived plans in a hasty manner to meet an arbitrary deadline imposed by the White House,” the Cultural Landscape Foundation, an educational and advocacy organization that sued to stop the project, wrote in a new court filing to block Trump from trying to fix the problems.
Now people are being arrested
As the pool’s problems have become more evident in recent days, Trump has blamed everyone, including former presidents and vandals. He pointed out, rightly, that former President Barack Obama He tried to fix the pool and had difficulties. With little evidence, Trump has accused vandals of dumping fertilizer into the pool to create algae, destroying nearby grass and using a knife to make a 300-foot crack in the bottom of the pool.
Police are investigating who made giant carvings of numbers that could be interpreted as political violence against Trump on the grass of another section of the National Mall.
“They went in there with the knife,” Trump said in the Oval Office last Monday, referring to the pool. “Who would have thought that someone would walk into a pool, grab a knife and start cutting it?” Members of the National Guard and Park Police patrol the area.
Authorities warned a Washington Post reporter not to photograph the painting, despite it being on public land. A cyclist was arrested for vandalism after claiming he had reached in and touched the painting. The Trump administration says at least five people were arrested for vandalism and five others were fined. Conservative journalists have toured the area with their phones in hand and have posted videos of alleged offenders on social media.