President Donald Trump has blasted “SCUM” for the green slime which has engulfed the Reflecting Pool—although not the single-cellular type rapidly spreading across it.
The 47th president went on a social media ramble about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, in which he vowed it would be restored to perfect condition while blasting “Radical Left SCUM” who he blames for its state.
Trump, 80, has obsessed about the Reflecting Pool ever since he bragged that he would be the first president to permanently fix it since it was originally built in the 1920s. But his efforts to date have come up dramatically short while his rants have only drawn further attention to the botched project.
Ever since the pool was refilled in early June, crews have been scrambling to fix a series of issues with the renovation job while Trump desperately seeks someone to blame.
The president posted on Truth Social on Monday that the pool was now fully operating and called it “magnificent,” but he also claimed at the same time that the damage to it would be fixed after the 4th of July, and insisted it would be restored to how it was two weeks ago.
However, just two weeks ago, the newly refilled pool was a shade of bright green and covered with slime, which is what prompted crews to start dumping hydrogen peroxide into it to begin with, in a desperate attempt to kill off the blooming algae.
“The Reflecting Pool, which suffered great damage due to the Vandals and Radical Left SCUM that hate our Country, has been, for the past two days, in full operation. It looks beautiful,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
“After July 4th, we will release the water, fix the damage done to the very expensive waterproof matting, with the use of sharp knives and muscle, including the 350 foot gash along its right side, and have it looking as good as it was two weeks ago, when it was absolutely PERFECT!” Trump continued. “This will all happen very quickly.”
The president warned that security is “very carefully for the almost 70 other Monuments, Statues, and Fountains that we renovated throughout Washington, D.C.”
“If anyone attacks any of them, they get as much as 10 years in jail. In any event, go check it out — The Reflecting Pool is magnificent!" Trump declared.
The Reflecting Pool, while at times not as bright a shade of green due to constant efforts by the National Park Service to clean it, is far from “magnificent.” On Monday, it appeared to be far greener than blue.
Large chunks of Trump’s “American flag blue” paint had peeled off the bottom in the days after contractors completed the more than $16 million renovation project. The president himself has complained repeatedly about a gash that he claims was caused by vandals.
Instead of visitors being able to enjoy the Reflecting Pool in time for the 4th of July, crews have erected large fences the entire way around it to prevent anyone from coming into contact with it.
The fencing went up after the Trump administration also increased the presence of law enforcement officers and National Guard soldiers on the National Mall around the pool. Multiple people were briefly detained by officials for so much as touching the water in recent weeks.
But the Trump administration has released scant information about the alleged vandals that the president had claimed were responsible for the green slime, peeling paint, and alleged gash.
While U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have vowed that vandals would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, neither the Interior Department nor the White House has provided any evidence to back the president’s claim that the damage was the result of vandalism.
The U.S. Attorney’s office told the Daily Beast it was aware of citations being issued by U.S. Park Police, but any individual charged by USPP at the time of the citation is released with instructions to appear in court on a specific date.
Park Police have not responded to multiple inquiries by the Daily Beast, but Burgum has claimed there have been seven arrests over alleged vandalism, multiple citations, and 18 police reports.
Court records so far show only one person charged, an Olympian who has denied causing any damage to the pool.
After the president’s multi-million dollar renovation project using no-bid contracts turned into a slime clean-up effort, Democrats started demanding answers.
They’ve called on the contractors who worked on the renovations and the interior secretary to answer a series of questions about the project planning as well as the scramble to fix it once it immediately started turning green.
