Donald Trump caused the reflecting pool to become toxic and the Strait of Hormuz to close: IOW Donald John Trump is a failure

New York Times review about the Trump failed Washington DC reflecting pool environmental crises, by Maxine Joselow and Donald A. Fahrenthold. 

Maine Writer preface: Let me get this❓On February 27, 2026, the Strait of Hormuz connecting the Persian Gulf (to the west) with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea (to the southeast) was open and free for international shipping.  

After Trump's illegally launched war against Iran, the shipping was shut down by Iran and the U.S. blockaded Iranian access to the Strait of Hormuz in another Trump act of war Naval Blockade.  

In other words, the attack against Iran is a complete failure and Donald Trump had to sign a surrender Memorandum of Understanding at Versailles, France for the purpose of getting Iran to negotiate about a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz, that had been open before his interference.  Now, Donald Trump's ego project to recreate the Washington DC reflecting pool has become a tax payer funded fiasco because too many "no bid" contractors cut corners and did not employ best practices to make the reflecting pool "USA blue". Now, the pool is half green and efforts to kill destructive algae are not working properly. In other words, the reflecting pool was beautiful, and functioning in the Washington D.C. climate and environment before Donald Trump ruined it. Meanwhile, tax payers 💲are stuck funding the failed Iranian war and for the toxic clean up in the Washington D.C. reflecting pool. 

Trump says the peeling blue coating and algae blooms that mar his $16.4 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool are the fault of vandals working with “knives” in the “dark of night.”

But government documents obtained by The New York Times show that while National Park Service workers found two cuts in sections of foam between the pool’s expansion joints, those were not directly related to the “American flag blue” coating that is now peeling, or to the algae that has turned the pool a bright shade of green.

Even as the documents show workers were attempting to address deteriorating conditions, Trump administration officials were insisting publicly that the pool was pristine.

The cause of the cuts was unclear. While a June 9 report by the U.S. Park Police described the cuts as “razor blade slashes” made along a 20-foot-long stretch of the foam, the administration has yet to present evidence supporting that assertion. The documents reviewed by The Times described them as two 171-foot blade cuts but did not address how they were made.

By June 16, workers had noticed that chunks of blue sealant that covered the pool’s bottom were peeling and floating to the surface, the documents show. That sealant was separate from the foam in the pool’s expansion joints, which allow its concrete slabs to expand and contract.

The workers had also discovered that some devices installed to kill algae were not working as intended, according to the documents. And enormous algae blooms had turned portions of the pool bright green instead of dark blue.

But on June 15,  Trump was still declaring the renovation a success, telling reporters that “I’m very good at building things and constructing things.”

The Reflecting Pool is a centerpiece of Trump’s attempts to remake the capital in honor of the nation’s 250th birthday. The pool has been plagued by leaks and algae for decades; Trump boasted that he had repaired it quickly and affordably, but both problems have returned in force.

In fact the pool was drained, resealed and then refilled by June 5. Four days later, National Park Service workers discovered holes, cracks and peeling caulking in parts of the pool, along with cuts in sections of the foam, according to the documents.

Work to fix the problems may not be finished until after July 4 — a setback for Trump, who wanted the renovation to be completed before then.

On Saturday, Trump acknowledged the pool would have to be at least partially drained for more work. Then, on Tuesday, Trump said on social media that six people had been arrested, and seven others had been cited, for slashing the pool’s sealant with a “sharp knife or razors.”

“It was purposefully and criminally done, and somebody had to work very hard, probably in the dark of night,” he wrote.

Trump also told reporters on Monday, without offering evidence, that vandals had poured fertilizer into the pool to feed the algae.

Neither the Interior Department nor the White House would provide charging documents, citations or the names of anyone arrested. They did share the Park Police incident report, which said any suspect or suspects were unknown. The report also did not mention any damage to the pool’s blue sealant, nor did it describe any vandals dumping fertilizer.

Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, did not answer specific questions about the government documents but said in an email on Tuesday that the pool was “clear” and “reflecting beautifully.”

“While Trump was restoring a crown jewel of our nation’s capital, which is supported by Americans across the country, vandals were attempting to destroy, impede and delay the ongoing work,” she said.

On Tuesday, portions of the pool appeared dark blue and reflected the Washington Monument and the overcast sky. But an enormous clump of green algae remained visible in the center.

A few curiosity seekers braved the rain to stroll around the site, which has become a sightseeing draw. They were outnumbered by throngs of law enforcement officers and other personnel, including from the National Guard, Park Police and U.S. Marshals Service. The National Guard troops were stationed around the pool’s perimeter, with some huddling under trees to stay☔🌧️ dry.

The administration is setting up fencing around the site before the July 4 fireworks display for safety reasons, Ms. Martin said. But it’s going up earlier than originally planned because of what she called an “increase in vandalism by🙄 🤥leftist activists.”

The Trump administration awarded two no-bid contracts for the Reflecting Pool renovations, bypassing the legally required process of seeking competitive bids because of what it called an urgent need to complete the project for events around the nation’s 250th birthday.

The first 💲14.7 million contract went to a Virginia-based company called Atlantic Industrial Coatings to spread the sealant in the “American flag blue” shade across the pool’s concrete slabs. The second 💲1.7 million contract went to Ohio-based Greenwater Services to install devices called nanobubblers, which infuse the water with ozone to kill algae and bacteria.

On June 15, workers discovered that one or two of the four temporary nanobubblers weren’t working at any given time because of problems with generators, and that the water was turning green. By the next day, officials had noticed blue coating peeling, as well.

Representatives for Atlantic Industrial Coatings and Greenwater Services, also known as Green Water Solutions, did not respond to requests for comment.

Though Trump claimed vandals dumped fertilizer in the pool, his administration refilled it with D.C. municipal water, which is treated with phosphate to keep lead from leaching out of old pipes. But phosphate also provides nutrients for algae, as do droppings from ducks swimming in the pool.

In a post on its website on Sunday, Atlantic Industrial Coatings said that “a very small part of the massive 7-acre project” would require repairs. The company added that it would do the work under warranty.

Anthony Flett, the chief executive of U.S. Coating Specialists, a Florida-based company that specializes in waterproofing coatings, reviewed the documents at the request of The Times. He wouldn’t dismiss vandalism, but said it appeared that the sealant may be peeling off because not enough material was applied.

“I don’t want to totally blame the vandalism,” he said. “If they put more material down, maybe none of this would be an issue.”

“There’s people in the pool industry whose whole life is polyurea, and they should have been called in,” Mr. Flett said. “They should have been there to watch over the project to make sure that these failures weren’t prevalent. I think it was just done too hastily.”

The coating was made by a California-based company called Rhino Linings. Pierre Gagnon, the president and chief executive of Rhino Linings, said in an email that the peeling appeared to be “limited to isolated areas” of the pool.

Algae has bloomed frequently in the pool for decades. Its shallow, stagnant water becomes a petri dish for the aquatic organisms in the summer sun.

Experts said the algae didn’t threaten public health because the water is not intended for swimming or drinking. But, they cautioned, if left unchecked, the blooms could give rise to cyanobacteria, which could be highly toxic to any ducks, dogs or other animals that drink the water.

“Just because it’s green algae this week doesn’t mean that it isn’t going to be cyanobacteria tomorrow,” said Ashley Bair, a senior research developer at Usalco, a company that makes coagulants and other water-treatment chemicals.

Ms. Bair, who spoke to The Times from a gathering of water-treatment experts in Washington, added that the Reflecting Pool was the talk of the conference.

Donald Trump has a fixation on creating cruelty.

File under "You cannot make this stuff up".  

Donald Trump’s latest fantastic notion is to repurpose Alcatraz Island, one of the National Park Service’s most popular historical sites, as the remote, isolated California prison it used to be.

Nothing about it makes sense.

It was costing nearly three times as much to operate as other federal prisons, which is why Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy made the sensible decision to close it in 1963.

Every necessity, such as fuel, food and water, had to be barged in. The buildings, visibly crumbling in the salty environment of San Francisco Bay, needed major repairs. Contrary to legend, it wasn’t escape-proof, either.

A total waste of money💲💰❗

The 💲151 million that Trump is asking Congress to squander on Alcatraz would barely begin to restore it as a prison. The operating expenses would be as extreme as before, if not more so.

But at least he’s asking Congress, rather than acting by imperial fiat like he did by destroying the White House’s East Wing for a grotesquely oversized monument to bad taste.

Congress should say no.

What’s most interesting about his Alcatraz fantasy is how it displays Trump’s obsessions with symbolism and cruelty.

Trump has written of it as a “symbol of law, order and JUSTICE.” What he means is punishment as hard as possible, at least for the criminals he doesn’t see fit to pardon.

Trump was clearly under the impression that no one had ever escaped from Alcatraz. That’s debatable. Over 29 years, according to the Bureau of Prisons, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes. Five of them are still listed as “missing and presumed drowned.”

Although San Francisco Bay is cold, the fitness icon Jack La Lanne once swam to the island pulling a rowboat, and several children also made the swim.

It would disappoint Trump to know there are no man-eating sharks.

A Clint Eastwood movie: Clint Eastwood's movie “Escape from Alcatraz,” may be all Trump knows about the subject. Eastwood's movie depicts the 1962, escape of three men who broke out of the main cellblock and vaulted a fence to the water without being seen. The FBI closed that case after 17 years, believing they had drowned, but it’s still on the active books of the U.S. Marshals Service.

The Bureau of Prisons has a super-maximum facility in Florence, Colorado, that’s far tougher than Alcatraz ever was.

Inmates, including the Mexican drug czar and escape artist known as El Chapo, spends 23 hours a day in a cell roughly the size of a parking place. Their only view of the outside world is a patch of sky seen through a window four inches wide.

It’s an escape deterrent designed to keep them from knowing even what wing of the prison they’re in.

Robert Hanssen, the Soviet spy in the FBI who’s still considered the nation’s worst-ever security breach, was at ADX Colorado for 21 years until his death three years ago.

The Colorado supermax, nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” should satisfy anyone’s thirst for harsh punishment. As one former warden described it, “We’ve figured out a system that’s far beyond death.”

But, in Trump’s mind, the public apparently needs to see something that’s more symbolic than an out-of-the way complex in remote Colorado.

‘We think he’s mad’: As far as the public seems to be concerned, Alcatraz is perfectly fine as a historical site. Some 1.4 million people visit it every year, many of them foreign tourists, and San Francisco is aghast at the prospect of losing that revenue stream to Trump’s crazy 😠😓whims❗

The scheme is far enough along that Pam Bondi visited the island with Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, whose department owns it now. (This was before Trump fired the pathetic Pam Bondi as attorney general.)

Alcatraz began as a military fortress and lighthouse, then became a military prison, converted to civilian use in 1933. It had become a white elephant by 1962, the year the Burt Lancaster movie “Birdman of Alcatraz” was nominated for Academy Awards.

A New York Times reporter working on a story about Trump’s pipe dream interviewed a British couple, Tony and Deb Vickery, while they were visiting Alcatraz. They mentioned having sailed through the Panama Canal and Canada, two other Trump acquisition targets.

“We think he’s mad,” Ms. Vickery said. “We think he’s lost his marbles.”

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board in South Florida.