Trump gave $6.9M contract to his ‘pool guy’ under exemption for ‘urgent’ situations
Donald Trump used a government exemption to give a $6.9 million no-bid contract to his “pool guy” to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to an ocean-blue color after complaining it “never looked great.”
The exemption is typically reserved for urgent situations to prevent “serious injury, financial or other, to the government”, according to documents reviewed in an exclusive report by The New York Times.
But Trump used the exemption to get the company, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, to quickly begin work on the memorial as part of an array of building projects and refurbishments taking place across Washington D.C. ahead of America’s 250th birthday this year.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-reflecting-pool-washington-contract-b2973560.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
39 replies
Is there a more apt metaphor for the Trump administration than this?
In a time of unparalleled uncertainty, war in the Middle East, rising energy prices and inflation, pedophile billionaires in the highest positions of government, rising unemployment and a backsliding of minority rights.
What is the Trump administration spending our tax dollars on to help Americans?
Painting the fucking reflection pool blue.
Surprised he didn't paint it orange with gold accents.
Narcissus Orange
I don't know about everyone else but definitely know having a national monument painted that tacky default pool bottom blue really helps me sleep better at night.
Who needs to do any reflecting in this day and age anyway?
What, you don't like a giant wading pool?
He is painting it to remove the ability to reflect. Absolutely no more apt a metaphor.
Not his fault system is designed the way it allows such things
Right. Only his fault that he is doing such things.
We should not rely on good hearts of politicians
You paint Bernie and AoC with the Trump brush?
I dont paint shit, stop talking nonsense. I don't trust you to make a right choice
True.
Non-sequitor, but true.
I mean, it's not a swimming pool. Like, it doesn't need to be free of algae and it's not full of disinfecting chlorine.
Like, you wouldn't point at a lake and say "eww, gross, it's full of living things and dirt".
EDIT: Okay, upon further reading, maybe he does think that it's intended for swimming or wants it to be used for that.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2026/05/04/donald-trump-reflecting-pool/89926382007/
Of course he does. He's that stupid.
wouldn't be called a 'pool' if it wasn't fer swimming. /s
You know for a fact, somebody is going to shit in it.
Trumps hoping people piss in it so he can go for a splash.
It does need to be algae free, and to that end the water is pumped with ozone rather than chlorine. The last rebuild, during Obama, needed a full draining soon after recommissining to clear out the algae again, at some cost. They since ramped up the ozone levels to kill anything in the pool.
Also, as if "more than 100" swimming pools is supposed to be a lot when you're talking about a project of this scale and purported significance.
Pool Guy probably thinks he's going to get paid.
Not trump's money so he might. That's our money as taxpayers.
100% chance he took this as an opportunity to actually get the money Trump hasn't paid him previously. And I can't really fault him much for that honestly.
Someone was going to get paid for this stupid shit, might as well be someone who's been fucked over in the past to try and make them whole.
I fully believe he thinks its a swimming pool.
He's posted AI pictures of him and the cabinet swimming in it.
Yeah I saw that, how tiny are their legs?
Not tiny at all! Didn't you know Trump is 6'23"?
He drove the goddamn presidential motorcade through the reflecting pool
https://people.com/trumps-motorcade-drives-over-the-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-amid-efforts-to-make-dc-beautiful-again-11970042
I thought it was a joke. I read the article, this fucker is giving a pool service company the job. This is genius or sheer ludicrosity. I made that word up.
It's about the kickback... Why are you surprised?
How could this possibly be considered genius?
How does painting a pond that size cost 7 million?
It’s a grift.
Properly emptying and refilling it would probably cost a good amount.
Labor isn't cheap, and government contracts (hopefully) use prevailing wage, which is pretty high.
A proper contractor would clean it first, and then add several coats of a what is probably supposed to be a special type of paint. That's pretty expensive.
In this case however, it's a grift, so it won't actually cost them nearly that much because that's the point.
Didn't the last evaluation of maintenance come in at 300k? Which included everything except the paint because it's not meant to be that kind of pool
I don't know, I'm not following the grift that closely
someone has an opportunity to do something really funny
It’s to clean out all the dead kids
Apparently theres more to the type of blue, they used, too.