Trump’s reflecting pool turns green as algae thwarts blue makeover

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, intended to showcase an “American flag blue” finish, had turned green again as algae spread across the newly renovated basin on the National Mall. National Park Service crews were back at the water’s edge, skimming, pumping and treating the pool after the visual centerpiece of Donald Trump’s makeover quickly became a reminder that shallow water still needs constant maintenance.

The reversal carried an obvious political sting. Trump’s administration had spent $14.2 million on the renovation, part of a push to polish the landmark ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations next month, and the president had cast the project as a correction to years of neglect. Instead, the pool’s sudden green tint undercut the branding exercise and put the focus back on the ordinary, unglamorous work that keeps a monument’s water feature from looking neglected in the first place.

The problem was not new. The reflecting pool, which runs more than 2,000 feet between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, was built in 1922 and 1923 and has long been vulnerable to algae. Before a 2012 renovation, it held about 6.5 million gallons of water, and the latest refit had aimed to modernize the basin with a circulation and filtration system using river water from the Tidal Basin rather than city drinking water. Interior officials said the algae now visible was residual material from supply lines that had sat dormant during construction, and that crews were using a nanobubbling system and hydrogen peroxide to clear it.

That explanation highlighted the gap between spectacle and stewardship. A darker paint job could change how the pool looked in photographs, but it could not erase the chemistry of warm weather, stagnant lines and nutrient-rich water. The reflecting pool has always been a maintenance challenge disguised as a symbol, and this episode showed how quickly a political flourish can be overtaken by the mechanics of keeping water clean.