A $14 million Reflecting Pool project on the National Mall was declared finished just last week, with President Donald Trump calling the water “beautiful” and blaming “garbage-ridden” conditions on previous administrations. But days after the pool was refilled
Last week, President Donald Trump celebrated the completion of a $14 million “vanity project” on the National Mall: the draining, cleaning, repainting, and resurfacing of the Reflecting Pool.
Trump said the pool now has “beautiful, clean water” and placed blame for what he described as “terrible, disgusting … garbage-ridden” conditions on previous administrations. The claim landed with the force of a fresh finish. The reality, for anyone walking near the World War II Memorial, arrived quickly.
Less than a week after the pool was refilled, Washington Post photographers captured images showing algae back in the newly resurfaced water. The Post reported that a large patch of algae near the World War II Memorial grew significantly larger during a rainy Wednesday.
When asked about the sighting. a Trump official passed the blame forward—not to the renovation work itself. but to what came before it. Katie Martin. an Interior Department spokesperson. said in a statement to the Post that “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. It’s part of the normal startup process.” She added: “We are removing the algae. and the nanobubblers will maintain the pool and keep it algae-free.”.
Trump’s message during the celebration has been more certain than that explanation. On Thursday, he bragged to reporters in the Oval Office about the resurfacing of the basin. “It always leaked because it was done in stone,” Trump said. “Now it’s done properly. It’s not going to leak at all.”
The Reflecting Pool’s algae problem has a history. The Post reported that algae reappeared in the pool in 2012 after a $34 million renovation.
For now. the timeline has created a stark contrast: a project Trump framed as a lasting fix followed by algae showing up again within days—even as officials insisted the situation was part of a “normal startup process” and that removal is already underway. The pool’s surface was rebuilt and promised to be kept algae-free; the visible return of algae is what visitors—and photographers—are seeing.
United States politics Donald Trump Reflecting Pool National Mall Interior Department algae Oval Office Katie Martin World War II Memorial renovation nanobubblers Obama Biden
How does a $14 million pool still get algae in like a week? Come on.
They’re saying it’s “residual” from the supply lines like that’s supposed to make it better lol. So it was fine before the project but now it’s “normal startup”? Sure.
Trump said it leaked because it was stone?? I don’t even know what that means but sounds like they broke it worse. Also who decided to put nanobubblers in a pool on purpose.
This is just another “vanity project” where they slap paint on it and then act shocked when nature does its thing. But also the article says it happened in 2012 after a way bigger renovation so maybe they’re just lying about the cause every time. Either way, algae already looks gross, sorry.