Another Orange POTUS FuckUp - Lincoln Reflecting Pool
- Thread starter SaturnFan
- Start date
Apparently now it was 'criminally made algae' according to Dump. You really can't make this stuff up. No word yet if Trump ordered Patel to arrest plankton from SpongeBob SquarePants and have him charged with treason
Trump's administration won't seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration will not seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday as he faced new questions about the troubled project and the taxpayer money involved.
Like President Donald Trump, Burgum said he was 100% sure that vandals caused the damage to the century-old Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Trump has charged that a 350-foot gash was cut into the pool's liner in the midst of recent renovations, while Burgum described it as multiple cuts adding up to that figure. He also said the pool would have to be at least partially drained in the coming week to finish the repairs.
A man on a bike passes security fencing along the edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of America 250 July 4th celebration on the National Mall, Thursday, July 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)© The Associated Press
The repairs will not be opened up to new contractors, he said.
“We’ll use the same company, because they did a fantastic job,” Burgum told CNN's “State of the Union." ”Thankfully, the vandalism was small. It was bad. I mean, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, so then it could fall into a felony ... just like damaging any other government property could. But the job that was done to fix the Reflecting Pool was done extremely well."
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum speaks at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Friday, July 3, 2026, near Keystone, S.D. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)© The Associated Press
Trump this spring pledged to beautify the Reflecting Pool before the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations on July Fourth. Water was drained and the Republican president directed that the bottom be painted a color he called “American flag blue.” But after the site was restored, the water was plagued by an algae bloom for more than a week, and pieces of the new coating have appeared to be peeling off the bottom.
The pool was closed for the Independence Day celebration, but Burgum said that was due to a safety issue related to the fireworks.
The evolving debate over the Reflecting Pool has inflamed the broader fight over Trump's aggressive push to overhaul Washington landmarks, including the White House, nearly two years into his final term in office.
Authorities have arrested more than a half dozen people in relation to Reflecting Pool damage, including former Olympian David Hearn, who was indicted last week on a felony of property destruction.
The top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on the pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than $1,000 in damage. She accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerently toward an employee who told him to stop.
Hearn's lawyers, Democracy Defenders Fund co-founder Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, said the charges were “outrageous and should be alarming to every American.” Eisen and Dohrmann construed the case as representative of “the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”
A worker clears debris from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)© The Associated Press
Burgum was asked and did not answer directly whether there was photographic evidence of vandals cutting the pool's liner. He was also asked whether Hearn should face a 10-year prison sentence, which is the maximum legal penalty for his charge.
FILE - American David Hearn, of Bethesda, Md., makes his way through the C1 slalom course, Sept. 17, 2000, at Whitewater Stadium in Penrith, Australia. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)© The Associated Press
“Just because you were a former something doesn’t exclude you from the law today,” Burgum told CNN. “The courts will decide.”
Meanwhile, questions loom over the no-bid contracts for the project that were awarded to vendors with prior ties to Trump.
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.
About 10 Democratic senators and House members are investigating the pool project.
“Taxpayers deserve a full explanation of how these failures occurred and who will be held accountable for correcting them,″ said a letter signed last month by six senators.
Burgum also appeared on ABC's “This Week.”
Steve Peoples, The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration will not seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday as he faced new questions about the troubled project and the taxpayer money involved.
Like President Donald Trump, Burgum said he was 100% sure that vandals caused the damage to the century-old Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Trump has charged that a 350-foot gash was cut into the pool's liner in the midst of recent renovations, while Burgum described it as multiple cuts adding up to that figure. He also said the pool would have to be at least partially drained in the coming week to finish the repairs.
A man on a bike passes security fencing along the edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of America 250 July 4th celebration on the National Mall, Thursday, July 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)© The Associated Press
The repairs will not be opened up to new contractors, he said.
“We’ll use the same company, because they did a fantastic job,” Burgum told CNN's “State of the Union." ”Thankfully, the vandalism was small. It was bad. I mean, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, so then it could fall into a felony ... just like damaging any other government property could. But the job that was done to fix the Reflecting Pool was done extremely well."
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum speaks at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Friday, July 3, 2026, near Keystone, S.D. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)© The Associated Press
Trump this spring pledged to beautify the Reflecting Pool before the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations on July Fourth. Water was drained and the Republican president directed that the bottom be painted a color he called “American flag blue.” But after the site was restored, the water was plagued by an algae bloom for more than a week, and pieces of the new coating have appeared to be peeling off the bottom.
The pool was closed for the Independence Day celebration, but Burgum said that was due to a safety issue related to the fireworks.
The evolving debate over the Reflecting Pool has inflamed the broader fight over Trump's aggressive push to overhaul Washington landmarks, including the White House, nearly two years into his final term in office.
Authorities have arrested more than a half dozen people in relation to Reflecting Pool damage, including former Olympian David Hearn, who was indicted last week on a felony of property destruction.
The top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on the pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than $1,000 in damage. She accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerently toward an employee who told him to stop.
Hearn's lawyers, Democracy Defenders Fund co-founder Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, said the charges were “outrageous and should be alarming to every American.” Eisen and Dohrmann construed the case as representative of “the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”
A worker clears debris from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)© The Associated Press
Burgum was asked and did not answer directly whether there was photographic evidence of vandals cutting the pool's liner. He was also asked whether Hearn should face a 10-year prison sentence, which is the maximum legal penalty for his charge.
FILE - American David Hearn, of Bethesda, Md., makes his way through the C1 slalom course, Sept. 17, 2000, at Whitewater Stadium in Penrith, Australia. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)© The Associated Press
“Just because you were a former something doesn’t exclude you from the law today,” Burgum told CNN. “The courts will decide.”
Meanwhile, questions loom over the no-bid contracts for the project that were awarded to vendors with prior ties to Trump.
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.
About 10 Democratic senators and House members are investigating the pool project.
“Taxpayers deserve a full explanation of how these failures occurred and who will be held accountable for correcting them,″ said a letter signed last month by six senators.
Burgum also appeared on ABC's “This Week.”
Steve Peoples, The Associated Press
trump calls the head of FIFA to get a red card on an american removed.
That should be immediate an immediate ban on US at FIFA.
trump ruins everything
That should be immediate an immediate ban on US at FIFA.
trump ruins everything
trump successfully identifies MAGA as the source of 91% of crime.
Trump's Reflecting Pool vandalism claim gets legal check: 'Rushed and poorly conceived'
The Trump administration has been accused of concealing evidence disproving, as they claim, that the Washington, D.C. Reflecting Pool was attacked by vandals, court records show.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation on Thursday filed an emergency motion against the Interior department to preserve evidence protected by a large fence while the Reflecting Pool is drained, Legal AF's Michael Popok reported Saturday.
"They just don't want to admit that they effed up the job because they didn't competitively bid it," Popok said of the Trump administration. "They didn't involve scientists."
The Reflecting Pool was drained after July 4 following controversial renovations that left it green. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum argued this was an effort to "clean up the fireworks stuff" and "repair the [alleged] vandalism" to the pool's broken liner.
But the preservationists contend the Reflecting Pool's ruined state is "the product of Defendants' rushed and poorly conceived plans."
The drained pool provides "a unique but temporary opportunity" to collect and preserve evidence to support this contention, the motion argued.
It requests the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia allow access to the dry basin, mostly to take photos, before it is refilled.
"Unfortunately, Defendants have erected a fence around the Reflecting Pool and generally prohibit members of the public (including undersigned counsel) from approaching the Pool or the sidewalk surrounding it," the motion reads. "Within days, Defendants will make additional modifications to the basin and then fill it with water."
Refilling the Reflecting Pool means "forever eliminating" the chance to document the pool's current state and "destroying potentially relevant evidence," the motion argued.
The Trump administration notably indicted former Olympic canoeist David Hearn on a felony destruction-of-property charge for allegedly ripping up part of the pool's liner. One of his attorneys is from the same firm that filed the Cultural Landscape Foundation's motion.
Popok called the case against Hearn absurd.
"I think the judge here is itching to dismiss the indictment," he said. "It's a ridiculous indictment."
The Trump administration has been accused of concealing evidence disproving, as they claim, that the Washington, D.C. Reflecting Pool was attacked by vandals, court records show.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation on Thursday filed an emergency motion against the Interior department to preserve evidence protected by a large fence while the Reflecting Pool is drained, Legal AF's Michael Popok reported Saturday.
"They just don't want to admit that they effed up the job because they didn't competitively bid it," Popok said of the Trump administration. "They didn't involve scientists."
The Reflecting Pool was drained after July 4 following controversial renovations that left it green. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum argued this was an effort to "clean up the fireworks stuff" and "repair the [alleged] vandalism" to the pool's broken liner.
But the preservationists contend the Reflecting Pool's ruined state is "the product of Defendants' rushed and poorly conceived plans."
The drained pool provides "a unique but temporary opportunity" to collect and preserve evidence to support this contention, the motion argued.
It requests the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia allow access to the dry basin, mostly to take photos, before it is refilled.
"Unfortunately, Defendants have erected a fence around the Reflecting Pool and generally prohibit members of the public (including undersigned counsel) from approaching the Pool or the sidewalk surrounding it," the motion reads. "Within days, Defendants will make additional modifications to the basin and then fill it with water."
Refilling the Reflecting Pool means "forever eliminating" the chance to document the pool's current state and "destroying potentially relevant evidence," the motion argued.
The Trump administration notably indicted former Olympic canoeist David Hearn on a felony destruction-of-property charge for allegedly ripping up part of the pool's liner. One of his attorneys is from the same firm that filed the Cultural Landscape Foundation's motion.
Popok called the case against Hearn absurd.
"I think the judge here is itching to dismiss the indictment," he said. "It's a ridiculous indictment."
Trump's not even good at lying - most 3 year olds can come up with better stories than him. What is remarkable is that his people go along with it and open investigations that they know are completely ridiculous
Now that the charges are safely dropped and do not have to be proven in open court, MAGA has returned to claiming that "vandalism" destroyed the reflecting pool.....
