Like the Narcissus from ancient Greek mythology, president Donald Trump has been peering into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to look at his own reflection — or at least his looming legacy. But unlike the mythical hunter, Trump did not like what he saw.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, Trump has been going to extreme lengths to turn the 2,000-by-600-foot body of water into a crystal clear pool fit for Mar-a-Lago. He spent a whopping $14.7 million on a no-bid contract with a Virginia-based company — which coincidentally had existing business ties to the president — to seal the pool’s concrete slabs with an “American flag blue” sealant in early June.
But after the procedure, algae quickly turned the monument into a swamp, and Trump had to once again pull out the taxpayers’ wallet, spending $1.7 million to install “nanobubblers” that emit ozone intended to kill algae and bacteria, while National Park Service workers dumped in gallons of chemicals, including hydrogen peroxide.
Yet Mother Nature was once again no match for the “AlgaeBTQ” agenda, a colorful expression that appeared on signs at Pride Month celebrations, digging fun at Trump’s extremely regressive stance on LGBTQ+ civil rights. The pesky green organisms once again returned to the waters, with aerial photographs showing workers using what appear to be pool skimmer nets fishing out the unwanted growth over the weekend.
In short, the whole situation sounds an awful lot like a metaphor for the current state of Trump’s presidency.
“He has a contrary of the Midas touch, which is everything he touches becomes crap,” local tour guide José Lebron told The Guardian.
In yet another embarrassing setback, the expensive sealant coating has since started peeling away from the bottom of the pool, infuriating Trump.
Over the weekend, the president claimed without evidence that vandals had sliced open the sealant “probably in the dark of night,” saying that six “sharp knife or razor”-wielding people had been arrested.
However, as the New York Times reports, internal records don’t offer any credence to his comments.
Even the nanobubblers failed to keep the algae blooms at bay, according to the records — a turquoise-colored bruise and PR disaster casting a major shadow over planned celebrations for the United States’ 250th birthday just over a week from now.
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