For those unaware, the Reflecting Pool is part of the National Mall, running from in front of the Lincoln Memorial to near the Washington Monument. Trump decided---while ostensibly trying to run both a country and a war (into the ground)---that he would turn it into "American Flag Blue" as part of the 250th Anniversary of the United States. Trump seems obsessed with the Reflecting Pool. He even displayed graphics comparing its horizontal length to the vertical height of major buildings like the Empire State Building, as if that means anything. (Note: he did not compare it to China's Great Wall, so we're saved that absurdity, while substituting another.) Anyway, Trump seems to have an obsession with making sure people think things are bigger than they actually are, if you know what I mean. The manner in which this pool cleaning unfolded is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with both Trump and his tenure as the supposed leader of a major democracy. First, it is yet another vanity project, part of how his woeful personal insecurity drives him. Everything has to be about him, from trying to share glory with a beloved former President by installing his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, to his Trumpian Arch, to his giant banner displaying his mug on the supposedly independent Dept of Justice, to his celebratory concert that has morphed into another Trump rally for the 4th of July. (One wonders how prominent will be the mention of Arnold Palmer's junk?). Second, the $14.2 million contract to clean the pool and make it blue was dealt in a no-bid manner to a 2 major Trump donors, people who evidenced no ability to carry out the required pool changes. Third, the contractor did a very poor job. He drained the pool, supposedly cleaned it, and then laid down a blue tarp all the way along its bottom with what he thought was the right kind of glue to withstand years under water. Next he refilled the pool with unfiltered water from the Potomac River, instead supposedly utilizing some procedure called nanobubbler technology. The Potomac, being a natural waterway, contained algae. Now present in a shallow pool during a hot spring and summer in DC, the algae did what algae are wont to do: reproduce. Algae tends more toward a green color than blue, so the hoped-for American Flag Blue wasn't going to happen. The contractor decided the algae could not stand up to hydrogen peroxide, so he had crew pour hundreds of gallons of it into the pool. The liquid did wipe out some of the algae, albeit along the edges of the pool. The inner rectangle remained algae green. It's possible the hydrogen peroxide also interacted with the glue used to hold down the blue tarp, or perhaps the glue was just not meant to be soaked by water, or never properly set. In any event, the tarp began to separate from the bottom, with large pieces floating on top of the water. Unable to accept failure or blame, nor to be questioned as to why he awarded the contract in a no-bid manner to a donor, Trump made up excuses. He tried to find people to blame. Proof of involvement is not something necessary in MAGA and Trump's world; accusation equals guilt. Trump instantly "concluded" the pool had been sabotaged by "deranged radical leftists and Dumocrats", though obviously he made this accusation without evidence. An unfortunate visitor to the pool, who happened to be a former US Olympian, reached into the pool to examine a piece of the floating blue tarp. He was instantly arrested and charged with the vandalization of Trump's vanity project. Trump raged in a series of bizarre Tweets, and the Dept of the Interior issued an obviously false statement claiming the Reflecting Pool was "crystal clear", and using its statement both to disparage the rent-free resident residing in Trump's addled brain (Obama) and boast about Trump's war prowess. Yes, don't believe you lying eyes. So what can be done now? The entire $14.2 million was wasted. It's a total loss. To get the pool "American Flag Blue", the entire pool would have to be drained again and dried, so that a new and better blue tarp could be laid, and then something better than "nonobubbler technology" would have to be used to make sure algae did not reappear. So it's all a mess now. McArthur's Park has melted in the rain, so to speak. This is all so Trumpian: vanity, corruption, incompetence, US Taxpayer money wasted, failure to accept responsibility, blame of others, prosecution without evidence of a crime, and manufacturing of an alternate reality.
