Trump’s $14M reflecting pool paint job is now peeling off and floating to the surface
Donald Trump positioned himself as a swimming pool expert as he touted the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovations he ordered this year, having put in “more than 100” over his career.
But after spending $14 million in taxpayer funds, the Reflecting Pool now looks arguably worse than it did before.
Aside from the bright green hue of the water — the product of what is reportedly one of the largest algae blooms in recent years — the “industrial-grade swimming pool topping” that Trump chose is already peeling off in sheets.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trumps-14m-reflecting-pool-paint-job-is-now-peeling-off-and-floating-to-the-surface_n_6a34496de4b057a50ced3765Open linkView original on lemmy.world602
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US not being able to tame a knee-deep pool is peak empire collapse indicator.
🤣 This is actually really funny... The orange shitbag bragged about all his amazing pools, that's when I knew there is zero chance he knows jack shit about pools
The country that developed atomic energy and manned spaceflight.
The country that had the first nuclear reactor connected to the grid was the USSR with Obninsk. The scientist first discovering nuclear fission were the chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann and physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch (all german and austrian).
The first manned spaceflight was Vostok 1 with Yuri Gagarin (USSR).
Yeah wrll, maybe it's just Obama's fault and we can all move on
They literally tore out the filters that Obama had installed that would have helped to prevent this.
This story gets more hilarious by the day lol
Perfect microcosm of this administration.
This is my favorite Trump scandal.
It sucks we’re blowing through cash because we have an idiot for president, but I feel okay laughing at it because it doesn’t involve bombing a school in Iran, destroying immigrant families, tanking the economy, child sexual abuse, taking rights away from minorities, or stealing elections…to name a few.
Thank god he also wrecked a pond.
A no bid contract I would add.
If you put down new paint, you need to clean and dry the surface. Any real contractor would know that.
One is cdertain the contractor paid kickbacks to the administration for that contract, and that everyone is paying kickbacks for everything at this point. We have organized crime ruling the country.
Ok, ok, ok, people are giving the obese orange child rapist shit for this BUT let's think of it a bit differently...
Aren't we all now, in a way, 'reflecting' about how shitty the job was? And the obvious corruption of handing out all that cash to mate who is a pool guy? And about how it is 'reflective' of the "Draining of the Swamp" the mushy brained syphilis filled realty TV 'star' would get his horde of idiots to chant?
If we look at it this way then that pool is doing a lottttt of reflecting!!!
Taxpayers are getting hosed by any measure. They can't water down this fuckup.
How could Obama do this?
With his tan suit and Dijon mustard!
Drain the water and replace it with Blue Gatorade. I've seen a documentary in which this kills the plants..
No it doesn't, the plants need electrolytes.
This is probably for the best. Just scrape it up and let it be.
It acted like a natural pond. Water slowly filtered out through the granite and was replaced, filtering it, keeping it clean, but also letting it be still.
Which. Only still water reflects.
If you add a pool filter and circulation system (and that would be a massive, useless expense,) it won’t reflect like it was designed to do.
This is what happens when you vote for geriatric imbeciles more concerned with grifting a nation and fucking kids than working for Americans as president.
I heard a theory that Trump literally just doesn't know what a reflecting pool is. He thinks all pools are swimming pools, so he's turning it into a swimming pool. I have no proof for this but like... it fits.
Well, he did bleat out that stupid AI image of him, some of his staff, and some woman, swimming in it as if it was a pool.
He KNOWS it's taller than a skyscraper if you stand it on end.
I mean... I'm pretty sure Trump was always a dumb fucker, but these day's he's probably so heavily dosed with shit he's got a longer drug test report than Musk and Kash combined.
Like his military parade
Like his concerts
Like his marriages
Like his administration
Half-arsed shit
Other than stealing tax dollars, grifting his base and destroying institutions, he's absolutely shit at everything else in life.
Pure anti-Christ shit
Dang, guess they'll need another $14 mil paint job done lol
$25 mil.. Because he was initially trying to save tax payer money... And it's seriously an emergency now before the 4th of July... And everyone laughs at his stupidity
Whats the worst thing of the last month.. The reflecting pool or the Iran peace deal?
Probably the reflecting pool, because it exists.
Probably due to all the caustic chemicals they dumped in it to kill the algae.
Not unbelievable that these morons didn't select a chemically resistant coating, but it's more likely this is due to bad surface prep than the hydrogen peroxide - if it was the result of the peroxide we'd be seeing far more damage than the few chunks spotted thus far. Though, time will tell on that front...
The fact that it comes off in sheets is a really good indicator that it never really stuck to yhe surface. Can't wait until it all comes off and he takes credit because it looks better now.
An allegory for this entire administration.
A costly grift that paid someone a lot of money who is not an expert to do a shitty job, try to fix it the wrong way multiple times, while the whole thing falls apart and trump talks about how great a job was done.
Apply that to everything he does except manipulate stocks.
The rational solution here is to drain off the nasty green water, replace it with peroxide, then mount a toilet puck every five feet around the rim.
The water will be nice and blue like the water features at his favorite mini golf course, and it'll smell just like his office.
Look at those protestors flying the Algae-BT flag. I bet they're behind all of this!
This is the such an unbelievably dumb story. They've kept this reflecting pool clean for decades, but now some moron keeps skimping somewhere and nobody can figure out how to keep it clean anymore. And we are blowing through more money than previously necessary, all because some giant asshole keeps grifting the American people.
Step 1. Create a swamp Step 2. Drain the swamp
Step 3. Create a war Step 4. Lose the war
Step 5. Complain that everyone is still yelling to release the fucking Epstein files.
Guys.
Guys.
... It can't last FOREVER.
History proves it can
Reality will soon prove the same
I'm just talking about the paint
The blue or the orange?
Sure buddy, explain it to your FBI operative
Anyone who has ever painted a boat, fountain, or pool, will tell you it is an uncle fucker to get durable results, even if you use those special marine paints.
Dunno why they'd spend this much to apply a coating guaranteed to degrade and look like shit almost immediately.
ITS TO STEAL MONEY THAT'S ALL TRUMP DOES THAT'S THE ANSWER TO ALL THESE QUESTIONS HE DID IT TO STEAL MONEY IT'S VERY OBVIOUS
Could you break down how money is stolen through a situation like this?
Hire a friend to do it, friend gives him kickbacks.
He hired 'his pool guy' to do it. So it's just an exercise in funneling some money to an acquaintance.
I don't think they care/know much about pussy shit like planning. I think the only goal was to put that $18M into his slob friend's hands and then just say it was Obama's fault. The name of the company that did this is named Greenwater Services. This is all so stupid and wasteful and benefits nobody other than one of his thralls wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
They spend this much so Trump's buddy could pocket the money of course.
Well...in the case of boats, the paint is kind of designed specifically to wear off. Ironically, to control biological growth!
He probably hoped to be dead untill it comea off
They don’t care if it looks good on July 5th. Just needed to make it to his birthday and the holiday. They couldn’t even go that right.
They're already saying it needs protection from democrats who want to damage it
So.. already setting up the scapegoat
So dumb
Honest questions. If he wanted it blue, why not stain the concrete? Was it cracked? Did it actually need repair?
That might have happened if he sought competing bids from experts, but he just funneled the job to his pool guy, who was out of his depth.
It's a pretty shallow pool too
I thought the bottom was granite, and fairly dark so probably not able to be stained.
Ah. So applying a layer of dark colored epoxy might have ruined the granite forever?
Had to go and check because I thought that too and no, according to wikipedia it's concrete!
Crazy, that's a lot of concrete, I'm sure it is less expensive than granite and I guess I feel it is less stupid to paint concrete than granite blocks.
It was dark before to create the mirror effect. Don't think a stain would show up.
The pool paint job is still going better than more than half the things the Trump administration has undertaken. That should say a lot.
I hope they kept the receipt, but I think pouring bleach into the pool void the warranty
I bet if you got a film company who use mostly practical effects in to use the reflecting pool in their movie they would hire the right people to come in and deal with the algae and paint job and make it shine again. They would use their own money and trump would look even worse. Heck let me at it an di think i could work out what is needed with enough research and send him a bill.
I mean, i would definitely sub contract, but it would be to experts. Not idiots.
Got to be practical effects, because the green of the pool now is quite good for CGI
So what? 🤷♂️ his birthday is over.
If only there were a department to investigate waste, fraud and abuse.....
Holy crap!
Sounds like a bad contractor.
Arguably? What a weasel word. It looks worse than it did before. There's no sane person who could argue that a massive algae bloom and paint peeling off the bottom don't make it look worse.
The Reflecting Pool now looks much much worse than it did before.
There is beauty to be found in an algal bloom, just as there is beauty to be found in hyenas eating an antelope alive. /hj
Natures healing :')
It looks natural
The universe finding it's ballance.
/hj = handjob tag?
Half joking.
dafuq does /hj mean?
Half joking.
I think I like the other person's suggestion that it's a tag for "hand job"
Not that it matters at all because we're just randos on lemmy but isn't this just the same thing as a /s tag? /hj
I think it's half joking rather than completely sarcastic because I genuinely do think that you could look at a pond full of algal bloom and find beauty in it, but at the same time I would definitely agree that it's not what you want in a "reflecting pool".
We need to get some daphnia and moina in there with all that green water, so we can have a never-ending supply of fish food. Just net out some of the critters any time you need to harvest some.
Keep some of the paint that peels off. It'll be a good reminder of the stupidity of Trump and the American people for electing him. It's part of your history.
The next President should frame a piece and make it Trump’s official White House portrait.
I'm surprised he didn't make it gold leaf or fake gold leaf.
Then he'll have less money to pocket for himself, the goal is to spend as little actually doing the work but pay over as much so he can get a cut
Sell pieces of those defective paint sheets just like trump sold little pieces of his suit. This would be a big sale deal for most just thinking individuals. Having a piece of history like that would be incredible! (
Shhh...don't tell trump though).And assuming you're a tax payer, you fucking paid for it so it's yours.
Money well vandalized! Lord Feltersnatch and his buddies made buck!
what a metaphor
You can't make this shit up
Well, it's nice to see that the American taxpayers got their money's worth for the workmanship and materials of the project.