In May Donald Trump said his Reflecting Pool renovation would last ’50 years’ – 2 months later it’s being drained and renovated once again

It was just two months ago that Donald Trump proudly boasted about his now-notorious Reflecting Pool renovation.

As reported by The New York Times, he said the Pool was “filthy, dirty — the water’s disgusting looking”, that once he’s done, “There’ll be no leaks; there’ll be no anything. It’ll look gorgeous, beautiful”, and that the renovation he was commissioning would last “for 40 or 50 years”.

Smash cut to the present, and new images posted by The Guardian show that the Reflecting Pool has been drained, leaving little trace of the “American Blue” paint job Trump picked out, and revealing caked-on dirt and filth.

“Give me a good price”

The New York Times reports that the last time the Pool was renovated was under the Obama administration, which spent around $30 million on the job. Trump openly stated he wanted to do it more cheaply.

Trump said, “What we’re going to do is I’m going to call all three of these people that have worked for me in the past doing swimming pools.” He then reportedly pressured contractors to “give me a good price”

In the end, (as per The Guardian), Ohio-based company Greenwater Solutions was given a $1.7 million contract to purify the water, with Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings being given a $14.7 million contract to repaint and waterproof the bottom.

To celebrate the renovation, Trump chose to drive his motorcade across the drained pool, resulting in multiple SUVs driving the length of the drained pool. Soon after the pool was refilled, it became apparent that the new lining was peeling away, and the water turned green from an algal bloom.

Without citing any evidence, Trump blamed “vandals” for this, saying persons unknown “poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool and that they used “some form of knife or blade, and put a 250-foot-long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete.”

Multiple people have now been detained and charged after interacting with the pool, including former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who is facing up to a decade in prison.

This line has been followed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. He told podcaster Katie Miller that this second renovation is simply to “Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again.” 

As per NewsWeek, scientists, materials engineers, and aquatic/pool experts have analyzed the remains of the new blue lining and say it’s far more likely to be an installation and application problem than intentional vandalism, and also point out that the darker “American Blue” color chosen by Trump absorbed more solar heat and so encourages algal blooms.