Pro-MAGA influencers erupted in outrage after CNN tested the bright green water in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which President Donald Trump recently renovated.Trump ordered the landmark repainted "American flag blue" for $14.2 million — far exceeding his initial $2 million estimate. Algae turned the water green within days of the pool being refilled in early June.CNN sampled the water and had it independently tested, finding phosphate levels far higher than recommended for a pool holding 6.5 million gallons."They are having a field day out here," an algae specialist told the network.Florida's Voice chief content officer Eric Daugherty griped on X that "CNN is digging deeper into water color than they dug into hundreds of billions of fraud" — a post that racked up 2 million views."Pond scum gets the full investigative treatment," Benny Johnson, host of The Benny Show and a Turning Point USA contributor, fumed on X. "Massive fraud against the American taxpayer? Crickets."Kristin Sokoloff, co-host of the Dirtyside of Leadership podcast, was blunter. "CNN [is] obsessed with Reflecting Pool paint while America burns," she posted.Retired Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson, a RedState columnist, mocked the network as "that crack journalistic enterprise that liberals and airports live on.""If only they cared this much about Hunter's laptop," Newsmax host Rob Schmitt snapped on X.
A business tied to a longtime Trump donor was given the no-bid contract to clean up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool this spring, reported The New York Times. The filtration work of the Ohio firm, ironically called Greenwater Services, has come under scrutiny because… well. You’ve seen the pool. Greenwater Services is owned by the J.J. Carafo Investment Trust, led by John J. Carafo. Carafo is a longtime Republican donor who Trump has described as a “fantastic man.” Carafo, who has skirted campaign finance law, also pleaded guilty in 2001 to conspiracy to bribe Democratic Representative James A. Traficant Jr.The $1.7 million contract was directly awarded to Carafo’s company by the National Park Service, bypassing the usual competitive bidding process. Katie Martin, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, said the department did not know about Carafo’s political affiliation when his firm was hired.“This company was selected because they had the expertise, work force and materials” needed to finish the job by the country’s 250th anniversary, she said to the Times. Carafo and Greenwater Services did not respond to the Times’ requests for comment.Because the president wants the reflecting pool “American Flag Blue” by July 4, other firms have been hired for their ability to complete jobs on a short timeline, like Virginia firm Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which was given a no-bid contract of $14.7 million to put bright blue waterproofing material on the pool’s floor. That paint is already peeling.At this point, it might just be easier to turn the flag green.
Multiple residents of Washington, D.C. told CNN Friday their unfiltered thoughts on President Donald Trump’s $14 million restoration of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool – and the feedback was scathing.“It looks bad!” one D.C. resident told CNN’s Tom Foreman. “I just see green – green slime.”Trump’s restoration of the Reflecting Pool has been just one of many of his D.C. beautification projects. It’s proven controversial given that the Trump administration handed the project to a contractor with ties to the president in a no-bid deal, bypassing what critics say should have been a competitive bidding process.After the completion of the $14 million renovation project, blue paint from the pool’s bottom appears to have peeled off, and the pool’s water has turned a deep green – as experts predicted it would last month. Federal workers have attempted to combat the growing algae by pouring peroxide into the pool, though as of Friday, it's largely had no effect.“Pouring all that peroxide into it clearly didn't help,” another D.C. resident told CNN. “I feel for the ducks.”Foreman told CNN’s John Berman that, after walking around the pool’s rim “over and over again” Friday, there were “very few places where you can see” any blue “at all.”“Those people behind you, they're just vacuuming full time?” Berman asked Foreman about federal workers seen wading in the pool with suction equipment. “Is this going to be a permanent thing, people standing in the pool vacuuming?”Foreman said, “There were more than a dozen of them out here all day long yesterday doing just that, working steadily to try to clear it. What is here is kind of what was here before in the eyes of many people passing by and about as bad as it's ever been.”"I feel for the ducks"DC residents give scathing reviews of Trump's $14M Reflecting Pool restoration pic.twitter.com/l0lyIFUOpF— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) June 19, 2026
New details are coming into focus about a longtime Donald Trump donor whose company landed a no-bid federal contract to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in what has turned out to be an over-budget, ongoing debacle.The National Park Service awarded the $1.7 million contract to what has turned out to be the ironically named Greenwater Services, bypassing the competitive bidding process normally required for federal work. The New York Times reported the company is led by Republican donor and Mar-a-Lago neighbor John J. Cafaro, whom Trump once called a "fantastic man."The J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, which owns Greenwater Services, lists Cafaro's Palm Beach mansion and trust contact information appear on the company's corporate filings.Cafaro has donated more than $300,000 to Trump-connected political committees since 2016 and has known Trump for at least a decade. He pleaded guilty in 2001 to conspiring to bribe then-Rep. James Traficant, an Ohio Democrat, and later testified against him.The Park Service justified skipping competitive bidding by citing time pressure tied to events marking the country's 250th anniversary, though it didn't specify a deadline. Records show multiple firms had expressed interest in the project before the contract went to Greenwater, which had previously received only one other federal contract.Algae blooms turned the pool green this week after it was refilled following the renovation, and about half the pool remained green Thursday as crews vacuumed out algae and added hydrogen peroxide in an attempt to control it.The Interior Department said a permanent purification system was expected to be installed this week, but did not explain why the pool was refilled before that system was in place — a decision that left it vulnerable to exactly the blue-green algae bloom that followed.A separate no-bid contract, worth $14.7 million, went to a Virginia firm to waterproof the pool's floor with blue coating. That work also appears to be faltering, as a section of the coating was seen detached and floating on the surface this week.Interior Department spokeswoman Katie Martin said the agency was unaware of Cafaro's political ties when it selected the firm, adding that "this company was selected because they had the expertise, work force and materials" to meet the timeline.Both the department and the White House said the White House was not involved in choosing the contractor. Neither Greenwater Services nor Cafaro responded to requests for comment from the Times.The name of the company, as well as Cafaro's flamboyant appearance and checkered background, astonished social media users."Wait, the company that renovated the reflecting pool is literally called 'Greenwater Services?'" wrote author Eric Nelson. "That can’t be true.""Ya can’t make this stuff up," marveled Times editor Jonathan Weisman."So wait have I been sleeping on this or are we all just finding out that the company that did the reflecting pool is called Greenwater Services? Because come on," laughed journalist Molly Wood. "The writers are getting way too obvious.""This your taxpayers dollars which cost $13.1 million for the renovations for a reflecting pool, (I smell corruption)," noted construction company owner Wade Williams. "The project also included a new water purification system, which was to be installed by Ohio-based company Greenwater Services."Podcaster SLCLunk laughed, "There is no way the guy who got the no-bid contract for using bottom shelf Home Depot sealant on the reflecting pool looks like this. ... Coen brothers 2nd Act comic relief character -ss look."
On Friday, the New York Times revealed more about the company that secured a no-bid contract to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and though the investigation has continued to reveal ties between the company and President Donald Trump, the White House insists these links have nothing to do with the decision to select the firm. This comes as enormous green algae blooms have concealed the American-flag blue Trump says he intended for the pool.According to the New York Times, the contract for the endeavor “shows that the National Park Service bypassed the competitive-bidding process that is typically required, and gave a $1.7 million contract to the firm, Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio. Federal contracting records show that firm’s ultimate owner is the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, led by John J. Cafaro, a donor to Mr. Trump and a neighbor to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club in Florida. The water treatment company also listed Mr. Cafaro’s Palm Beach mansion as its address in Florida corporate records.” Cafaro is a “longtime Republican donor” whom Trump has described as a “fantastic man.”Interior Department spokesperson Katie Martin claims that the administration wasn’t aware of Cafaro’s political stance when the contract was awarded, saying, “This company was selected because they had the expertise, work force and materials needed to complete the job in time.”While several firms had expressed interest in the cleaning project, the Times writes that in April, the Park Service “gave the work directly to Greenwater Services, a company that federal records show had received only one other federal contract. The Park Service justified its decision to bypass competition by citing an exemption meant for urgent situations: It said there was no time to consider other offers because the system had to be installed in time for events celebrating the country’s 250th birthday.”What’s more, this isn’t the only no-bid contractor fouled in the scandal. According to the Times, “Another no-bid contract for $14.7 million had been awarded to a Virginia firm, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, for the same reason of urgent need. That business was paid to spread blue waterproofing material on the pool’s concrete floor. That work, too, shows signs of potential trouble. On Thursday, a section of the pool’s new layer of blue waterproofing appeared to have detached from the bottom and floated to the pool’s surface.” Martin declined to comment on that. As the Times reports, “Cafaro’s ties to Mr. Trump go back at least 10 years. In 2016, Mr. Trump boycotted a Republican debate and held a competing event, a televised fund-raiser for veterans causes. One of the major donors was Mr. Cafaro, who gave $50,000.”“J.J. Cafaro from Florida and from Cleveland: He’s a man who made a lot of money in Cleveland, does a good job, and a fantastic man. J.J., thank you,” said Trump at the time. Since then, records show that Cafaro has given Trump-related groups over $300,000. What’s more, Cafaro’s wife chaired a lavish International Red Cross Ball at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
President Trump's efforts to spruce up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool faced a snag this week, with algae turning the water green while rips appeared in an "American Flag Blue" surface picked by the president.
The shallow, sunny waters of the reflecting pool are an ideal incubator for algae growth in the summertime. Experts say the recent renovation may have helped accelerate it.
