The White House has lashed out at news that another Washington D.C. beautification project has gone awry, calling the reports “total bulls--t.”
The fountains in Meridian Hill Park have been under renovation as part of the Trump administration’s obsession with beautifying D.C.
In March 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order entitled “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful.” Restoring the fountain was one of the many projects tied to this order.
The cascading fountain was reopened in May 2026, after being defunct for seven years, and has since developed a distinctly brown hue.
In a video posted on X, the water in the cascading fountains is clearly brown.
The brown water quickly gained attention online, with the murky water seemingly mirroring the ongoing issues with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has been plagued by green algae and damage to the rushed paint job.
The White House’s ‘Rapid Response 47′ X account blasted reporting on the unsightly fountain.
“Total bulls--t,” it posted on Friday. “The light sediment that resulted from pipes sitting dormant during renovations is quickly being cleaned up.”
They also posted a short clip of people being asked about the park and praising it.
“I’m obsessed with the fountain. It feels like Paris. Before, this space was really dead and no one was using it...” the account quotes one woman telling NBC.
”Sometimes I look around and I’m like, ‘Am I in Florence at the Giardini Boboli, or am I in D.C.?’ It’s just very elegant and beautiful and it feels very safe now," another says.
Although the White House said the murky water was due to light sediment in the pipes after the renovation, the fountain was reopened months ago, and footage of an event celebrating the renovations eight days ago shows clear water in the pools.
“The National Park Service continues to fine tune the fountain’s operations after the reopening of the Meridian Hill Cascading Fountain in May,” a spokesperson for the National Parks Service said.
“The brown water was sediment as a result of the reopening of two water lines that had been out of service for some time.”
According to the National Park Service, the 13-basin cascading fountain is among the longest in North America.
The cascades date back to 1932, and they begin at a pool at the foot of the great wall and continue through thirteen basins to the lower plaza.
The White House, and the Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
