Trump’s algae crackdown falters as pool repairs drag

As algal blooms and peeling paint keep taking over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the National Park Service has begun draining it for repairs that will not be finished by July 4—despite spending and rushed prior work in the Trump administration. On the

When the sun hit the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on a holiday weekend, the scene looked orderly from a distance: tourists taking pictures, a band preparing to play folk music for a summer solstice observance, and volunteers and uniforms keeping watch.

Up close, it was a battle playing out in green-tinted water—while the National Park Service drained the pool for repairs that a contractor said would not be finished by July 4.

The Trump administration has been fighting algae at the Reflecting Pool for months, but the latest round of work is unfolding under a simple reality: the prior rehabilitation, carried out quickly with no-bid contracts and more than $14 million in spending so far, has failed.

On Monday, the National Park Service began draining the pool for repairs. A contractor performing the work told E&E News that the repairs would not be done by July 4. That timeline undercuts the administration’s push to stop the blooms and the peeling paint problem that locals and visitors have been watching.

Trump has blamed the ongoing problems on vandalism, and he has sent a patchwork of law enforcement to protect the pool from what he has called “Radical Left Lunatics,” adding that they should face “Years in jail!”

On Saturday, the poolside patrols were the first thing visitors noticed. By about 4 p.m. ET, at least seven U.S. Marshals were visible, including some in “fugitive task force” tactical gear. They were backed by around 30 local police officers—volunteers who said they had been deputized for 30 days by the Marshals Service to help provide security for 250th anniversary celebrations. The officers came from Oklahoma City; Idaho Falls; Sarpy County. Nebraska; and from Ontario. Wayne and Monroe counties in New York. Many stood in the shade and looked, in the moment, more bored than combative.

They coordinated with a handful of Park Police officers and possibly a dozen National Guard troops from Georgia and Louisiana. Over the preceding days, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement had also appeared poolside.

When radio frequency connections became an issue on Saturday, a mounted Park Police officer rode a white horse between groups of officers to share information about potential threats. The officer said the horse’s name was Delilah, and that she was 21 years old.

In the water, park employees were doing the work the security operation was meant to support. Wearing boots. waterproof overalls. and NPS hoodies for the 86-degree heat. seven or so Park Service employees vacuumed up algae using pumps attached to long poles. They had by then given up pouring in hydrogen peroxide. Machines pushed what looked like white foam into the pool—described by the administration as “high-tech nanobubble ozone technology” meant to kill the algae. Generators powering the pumps hummed loudly as green-tinted water poured out into drains on the Mall.

Another dozen or so Park Service employees watched from the shade. On the north side of the pool, a duck and eight ducklings sat along the water’s edge. A park ranger told onlookers that neither the algae nor the cleaning efforts would hurt them.

The enforcement and the cleaning were happening while people treated the spectacle as part of the holiday atmosphere. Tourists posed from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. A tourist shop nearby sold $18 water bottles with stickers advertising Freedom 250. the semi-private group Trump is using to organize highly personal celebrations tied to the 250th anniversary.

At the pool, a person in a pink frog costume held up a “Team Algae” sign and heckled two National Guard troops. The frog chanted, “Let’s go algae, let’s go,” along with something about “pond scum.”

A small boy in an ice cream cone shirt asked his mother if the critics were protesting the algae. “No,” she answered. “They’re mad at the president.” He then asked, “Did he mean to grow the algae?” She replied, “No,” and they went to get ice cream.

Nearby, an older couple—possibly in their sixties—picked through the grass for loose pieces of blue paint. They first checked with Park Police that doing so was allowed.

The rules were clear, at least from the officers’ explanations: visitors could take paint chips if they were already detached, and they could put their hands in the water. But peeling paint still attached to the pool was forbidden.

The administration said Monday that Park Police have made five arrests and issued five citations for alleged vandalism. Yet an officer on the scene Friday evening said they had also detained more than 20 people, in many cases without further action, for suspected pool tampering.

On Sunday afternoon, Trump posted that he had “just inspected the pool” and decried the vandalism he said he observed. “WOW, who would do such a thing?,” Trump wrote. “SICK. DERANGED PEOPLE!” Trump. however. appears to have formed his impression from a helicopter as he returned to the White House from Camp David. not from standing directly by the water.

Below the surface of all the messaging, the pool’s living residents were part of the story too. On Sunday afternoon, one of the ducklings was photographed floating dead in the water. Experts noted that most ducklings in the wild die before reaching maturity. and they said it was not clear whether the algae or the chemicals used to clean the pool were to blame.

Late Saturday afternoon, the security operation tightened around an individual suspected of removing paint. Around 5:30 p.m. the radios of the marshals the reporter was walking past barked: “One male. black shoes. white socks. currently being detained.” “Eleven Charlie moved to intercept.” Two officers sped away in a golf cart.

Across the pool, Delilah cantered toward a group of National Guard troops surrounding a young man with white socks seated with his ankles crossed on the north side of the pool. A Park Police cruiser pulled up with its siren on.

By the time the crowd reached the area. a half dozen of local police. seven National Guard troops. and a couple Park Police officers surrounded the suspected vandal in a semi-circle facing onlookers. After a few minutes, officers let him go. He declined to give his name, but said he was from Indiana. He said he had stuck his hand in the water and pulled out a piece of floating paint. Officers had suspected he pulled it off, and he said he received a citation. He walked away with his family, looking embarrassed.

After the episode, the officers dispersed. A large pile of poop sat where Delilah had stood, and in the water the federal and Park Service crews continued vacuuming algae.

The episode at the pool captured the tension at the center of the administration’s strategy: big enforcement around the Reflecting Pool, aggressive steps to remove algae, and a rehabilitation effort that has still not solved what’s in the water.

As the National Park Service drains the pool again for repairs, the contractor’s estimate that work will not finish by July 4 leaves the public staring at the same question—whether security and rapid claims can keep pace with the practical failures of a problem the pool keeps producing.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool National Park Service algae Donald Trump U.S. Marshals National Guard Park Police hydrogen peroxide ozone nanobubble technology vandalism Freedom 250 250th anniversary