The Trump administration has downplayed the accidentally verdant algal bloom in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as a minor setback. The green slime taking over the 2,000-foot pool after President Trump’s $14 million no-bid renovation is simply “residual algae from the supply lines,” an Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement last week.
But the photos tell a different story. An analysis of satellite data by the Washington Post shows that the pool has more algae this June than the previous five years. June is naturally a tough month for algae, since the single-cell organisms thrive in warm weather. But the pool is having its worst June since 2021, despite Trump’s promise to paint its basin so that it looks “American-flag blue” for America’s 250th anniversary this Fourth of July.
The pool looks pretty gross at the moment, even as workers pour nowhere-near-enough bleach in the 6.75 million-gallon feature to kill the algae. But now it looks like the paint isn’t holding up either. Multiple videos show what looks like blue paint peeling in the heat:
If the president was hoping for a beautiful White House and National Mall for the 250th celebration, the clock is ticking. The big pool is green and the East Wing of the White House — home to the future ballroom, maybe — is a construction site. And while the claw structure from the UFC event is being dismantled this week, the White House South Lawn is still torn up. It will take at least $700,000 from the UFC and a $1 million donation from Scotts Miracle-Gro to resod the lawn.
