WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump had the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool painted blue as part of his capital city redecorating spree, but instead of looking like a swimming pool, it looks pretty much the same as before ― a bit green.
The Trump administration blamed leftover algae in the pipes, and this week Department of the Interior workers tried to clean up the algae with nanobubblers, vacuums and hydrogen peroxide. On Wednesday evening, the agency declared victory.
“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool – just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” the agency said late Wednesday on social media.
The agency even claimed the water “is now so ‘blue’ that the Fake News Media, which has been staked out at the Reflecting Pool for weeks, has fled!”
But HuffPost happened to be there on Wednesday afternoon, and the water was not blue. See for yourself:
From a low angle, the water could reflect the sky and look blue, as in the photos the Trump administration posted Wednesday.
The view from the side, however, revealed a striking slime green.
Up close, you could see bits of algae floating on the surface, and it was not possible to see the “American flag blue” color recently painted on the bottom beneath a layer of green plant matter. HuffPost observed two ducklings paddling in the water.
An analysis of satellite imagery suggests the reflecting pool’s recent algae bloom is its worst in years, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Experts have speculated that the dark blue surface may have helped the algae by making the water warmer on hot sunny days.
In short, to borrow the administration’s analogy, the Trump administration has done about as well at cleaning up the reflecting pool as it’s done at regime change in Iran.
