Trump’s Failure to Give the Pool a New Coat of Paint

Trump left the Reflection Pool in Washington DC worse than it was before construction in May. Algae grew everywhere inside the pool, turning this landmark into a mix of aqua and peacock green instead of the sapphire blue Trump hoped it would be.

For America’s 250th birthday, Trump wanted to paint the Reflection Pool American flag blue. When a change like this remodeling is made, the government usually carefully chooses the company that does the work by looking at offers given by many companies. They would spend lots of time comparing companies and would choose the one they think is best. However, Trump was in a hurry and decided to skip the process. He chose Atlantic Industrial Coating company, who have never worked on government projects. Trump chose them because they did the swimming pool in Trump’s golf course.

Things went wrong a few days after filling the Reflection Pool with water. The Reflection Pool was first drained. Then, it was scrubbed, and any leaks they saw were fixed. After that, they painted the Pool and waterproofed it. But a few days after filling it with water, algae started growing. Soon, the Pool was full of algae. Some of the paint started peeling off. Workers tried to scrub it of with high tech tools made to clean the Pool, but it didn’t work.

Trump blamed it on vandals. He claimed, with no evidence, that some people were trying to stop his plan and decided to mess the Pool up. Five people have been arrested for this reason. One of them is former Olympic canoeist, David Hearn.

Scientists found out that there were chemicals in the water. This helped the algae grow at an alarming rate. It turns out that this water was indirectly from the Potomac river, a river full of farming chemicals.

This project cost Trump $16.6 million dollars. So far, he has paid $14.7 million. However, he’s hiring a different company, and soon, he will have more to pay.

https://newsforkids.net/articles/2026/06/24/trumps-rapid-reflecting-pool-repair-fails/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/23/donald-trump-reflecting-pool-metaphor