DC reflecting pool before-and-after photos show Trump's 'beautiful' renovation

[mysteryowl]

Source: The Guardian/US

President steered no-bid contract for project that went from $1.8m to $14.2m to company that worked on his golf resort.
The final drops of water have been added, and the nanobubbler switched on. Donald Trump’s “beautiful” makeover of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, one of Washington DC’s most historically symbolic attractions, is officially complete, and the public is getting its first glimpse of how the project’s $14.2m was spent.

Contrary to the president’s predictable assertion that it was receiving “rave reviews”, however, early impressions are decidedly mixed. Some of the first visitors declared themselves underwhelmed by the 2,000ft pool’s somewhat dull color – American flag blue, according to the specifications.
A combination of satellite images created of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on 10 June 2023 (left) and on 7 June 2026 (right).

Others were bemused to see workers scraping algae from the bottom on Wednesday, just days after it had been filled with about 6.75m gallons of fresh water following the completion of renovation works.

“What you are seeing is residual algae from the supply lines, which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place,” Katie Martin, a spokesperson for the US Department of the Interior, told CNN, insisting the algae was “part of the normal startup process”.

She cited the National Park Service, which is responsible for maintaining the 104-year-old pool, purchasing a “state of the art” nanobubbler filtration system that would keep algae at bay.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden were guilty of making “failed and extremely costly” attempts at refurbishments, she said, regurgitating long-debunked allegations. “President Donald J Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the Reflecting Pool for good,” said Martin.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/11/washington-dc-reflecting-pool

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Go to the link to see pictures of before and after. It now looks black!

And of course corruption is involved in the NO BID job that was raised by millions.

[slightlv]

1. Count me in as one of those "undewhelmed" by how the 14 million dollars

was spent! I agree it looks black, but then the "before pic" looks green. Could be just the lighting of the day, or color rendition on my system... but it doesn't look blue to me! I've seen the reflecting pool personally, and loved the way it was. This was at least a couple of decades ago, so time may have changed it, to be sure. But sitting at one end and looking out, one couldn't hope to do anything but reflect on our history, the people involved, and what was happening in the nation at that time. That's what it was meant to achieve; it was not meant to be a vanity pre-memorial to a narcissistic man. ETTD. This included, I'm afraid. Instead of achieving the goal of personal and national reflection, all talk and thought will be based around what he did, why he did it, and the horrible mess of our country in this current day. 14 million dollars, down the drain, IMO.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. I say we fill the whole thing with organic matter and plant roses in it. ❤️

[Yellowdog-1966]

14. Make sure he is laying on the bottom before the filling.

[littlemissmartypants]

15. After he's been processed into biochar, sure.

It's probably the only thing his animal based biomass is good for.

[dave99]

3. $12 Million in shitstain's pocket and $2 Million for the underpaid contractors that will actually get rooked

[chowder66]

4. Looks like a newly paved runway strip. No longer blends in with the landscape.

[purr-rat beauty]

5. Ski-doo rentals are gonna be lit!

[littlemissmartypants]

6. Snort!

[popsdenver]

7. Interesting

President steered no-bid contract for project that went from $1.8m to $14.2m TO A COMPANY THAT WORKS ON HIS GOLF COURSES.......

Interesting, I have personally seen CEO's pay ludicrously low prices for work on their own residences by the contractor who does work for their corporation, with the understanding that the contractor will just add what it should have cost for the CEO's residence onto some other invoice for work done at the Corporate building by that contractor..........

[modrepub]

8. Probably Helped By Changing The Water

Seriously. Haven’t been to the mall in decades but I remember the reflecting pool being filled with trash, muck and algae. Removing all the water and cleaning debris from it on its own would probably improve the look from satellite images. Not going to last and a simple clean out would have probably been cheaper.

[Nasruddin]

9. Residual algae

It must be the Joe Biden algae. It's gonna take time to get this out of our system!

[Botany]

10. "President Donald J Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the Reflecting Pool for good," said Martin.

Except it doesn’t reflect anymore. And I thought the water for the reflecting pool came from the tidal
basin and went through filtration and treatment and then after time it was put back into the Potomac
and new water replaced the old water. “It” was working just fine and “it” didn’t need Trump’s expertise.

[Luciferous]

11. I wish they had spent that money on

something useful.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

12. Is that Democratic Party blue?

Nice of him to honor us and damn glad he didn't do it in MAGAt red......

Our next president is going to have a huge list of messes to clean up. That needs to be in our 2028 campaign platform; i.e.,

Demolish every damn thing Drumph has done to any federal property!...

[SergeStorms]

13. He said, "Sir.......

how would you like your $10 million kickback paid to you. In U.S. dollars or Trump$ crypto currency?" "He had tears in his eyes