President Trump's beautification project of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has become plagued with a robust algae bloom, despite a $14 million investment and a coating of "American flag blue."
President Donald Trump blamed ABC reporter Jonathan Karl and vandals for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s peeling seal and algae growth after the Trump administration’s $15 million renovation. The pool turned bright green from an algae bloom following the installation of “American flag blue” coating at the bottom of the pool. In an effort to […]
In the latest chapter of unhinged Trump Derangement Syndrome, a group of far-left activists has turned the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool into a bizarre battlefield, this time protesting the removal of algae from President Trump's freshly renovated national landmark. The post YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP: Literal “Pro-Algae” Protesters Storm Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to Oppose Trump Admin Cleanup appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Legacy media would rather report on algae than anything that actually matters to the American people.
President Donald Trump’s makeover of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations is not going according to plan.
President Trump said on Friday evening that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was vandalized, amid reports of an algae bloom and peeling paint just two weeks after the multi-million-dollar project’s completion. “We’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial,” the president…
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."
Donald Trump is hyper aware that his Iran deal is tearing his party apart — but he's especially concerned that he's left his MAGA base "seething," a columnist wrote Friday.Even the president's most loyal supporters didn't mince words when they blasted the deal Trump is expected to sign in an effort to end the Iran war.Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who has spent years carrying water for the MAGA was clearly reeling from Trump's freshly inked Memorandum of Understanding with Tehran."Giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea," Cruz said. "I think the President unfortunately is receiving bad advice on this deal."It was a remarkable moment, wrote the I Paper's Simon Marks. One of Trump's most reliable foot soldiers openly breaking ranks over a deal signed just hours earlier in Versailles.Cruz wasn't alone. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana declared that "Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave" over what he called Trump's capitulation."Iran's nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works," Cassidy warned, "and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future."The fury didn't start Wednesday. When Trump launched his military campaign — entirely sidestepping the War Powers Act and the congressional approval it requires — prominent MAGA voices were already uneasy. Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens accused Trump of outsourcing American foreign policy to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Now, with a preliminary deal on the table, those same voices smell betrayal on a grander scale, Marks wrote.Vice President JD Vance has insisted no American taxpayer money would be involved — that regional allies would foot the bill. But the optics are brutal: the United States went to war to topple a regime it is now proposing to bankroll.But it's Trump's base he's most worried about, wrote Marks."Politician fury is one thing, but the reaction of his base is another thing entirely for the President. Trump will be watching very carefully the reaction of MAGA, and will be out to convince them that his deal is good for American consumers," he wrote."He already got a small bit of good news this week, with US petrol prices dropping to under $4 a gallon for the first time since mid-April."However, Trump’s virulent base has a long memory and his damaging war with Iran could be the last straw for some."The deal with Iran, and the negotiations that follow, is also only going to intensify the battering the President’s Republican colleagues will likely face on American doorsteps ahead of the crucial midterm elections in November."
House Democratic leadership's preferred candidate in Maine's 2nd district, state Sen. Joe Baldacci, lost his primary to progressive rival Matt Dunlap, state election officials announced early Friday morning.Why it matters: This is the second time this month that a candidate backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has fallen short in their primary.California State Assembly member Jasmeet Bains, the DCCC-backed candidate in California's 22nd district, failed to make it to the general election, losing out to progressive Randy Villegas.The DCCC has sparked considerable tension among House Democrats by intervening in these races, with some lawmakers threatening to withhold their dues to the House Democratic campaign arm.Dunlap, Maine's state auditor, defeated both Baldacci and former congressional staffer Jordan Wood in a ranked-choice primary.Catch up quick: Baldacci was one of several candidates in contested primaries who were added to the DCCC's coveted "Red to Blue" list last month.The program is generally meant to help Democratic candidates in open or Republican-held battleground seats defeat their GOP opponents.But party leadership determined that Baldacci and several other candidates in districts across the country had the best chance of flipping or holding their districts.Yes, but: The DCCC's investment was minuscule compared to how much they spent in other primaries in California, Texas and Pennsylvania.They ran a $7,500 joint ad buy with Baldacci, whose own campaign spent nearly $250,000 on ads, according to AdImpact.Outside group Real Change PAC, which has suspected ties to Republicans, spent $500,000 on ads attacking Baldacci.What's next: Dunlap will face off with Republican former Gov. Paul LePage in the race to succeed Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine).The district is seen as one of the GOP's top potential pickups in November, having gone for President Trump by nine percentage points in 2024.