Continuing to redecorate Washington DC
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Scientists discuss the algae. Interesting point:
Christova said last month's renovations may have affected the balance of nutrients in the pool, potentially accelerating the algae blooms. Goodale similarly views the resurfacing as one of several contributing factors.
"The new, darker interior surface is going to absorb more sunlight," Goodale says. "It is going to result in water that's warmer, and that ultimately is going to lead to more prolific algae growth."
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/19/nx-s1-5863044/dc-reflecting-pool-algae-green-trump
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“We’ve cleaned, renovated, and beautified over 45 Monuments and Memorials, 28 Statues, and 22 Fountains in Washington, DC,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform on Friday night. “However, we’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial.”
He noted that “86 47” was recently etched onto a vast patch of grass nearby – “86” is frequently used across the restaurant industry to mean “stop” or to get rid of something, while Trump is the 47th president of the US – and claimed some people had “also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface” of the pool painted as part of the recent renovation.
“No different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work,” Trump alleged, again without evidence.
Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor who ran against Trump and JD Vance as the running mate of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Found an imaginary problem, said only they could fix it, didn’t listen to experts, hired buddies who grifted millions, failed miserably, bragged how great it went. The entire Trump presidency in a nutshell.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/20/trump-reflecting-pool-renovation-vandalism
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The Trump administration has dropped its case against a former Olympic canoeist charged in connection with damage to the Reflecting Pool, acknowledging their allegations against David “Davey” Hearn don’t hold water.
In a filing Friday afternoon, a supervisor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is headed by Jeanine Pirro, wrote that officials obtained information that undermined “the evidentiary basis for the indictment” against Hearn.
Prosecutors said that after the indictment came down on July 2, the Interior Department provided additional documents to the U.S. Attorney’s Office “indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.”
DOJ said it “first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism” after reviewing more documents.
“Had [the Interior Department] been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,” the filing said.
DOJ said when it presented the case to a grand jury, it was “not in possession of any information from DOI indicating that any damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by anything other than the actions of the defendant and other vandals who damaged the pool’s lining.”
The Justice Department filing said that based on its review of evidence, “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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Pirro came prepared. No umbrella as far as I can tell...
The top federal prosecutor in the nation's capital carted a box full of evidence to the White House on Monday, in a bid to prove to President Trump that the damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by shoddy construction and not by vandals, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, a staunch ally of the president, made the case in a sometimes heated private meeting in the Oval Office Monday, hours after Mr. Trump had publicly rebuked her for dropping criminal charges against Olympic canoeist David Hearn.
She was later photographed leaving the White House carting a large white box and other bags, which sources said contained all of the evidence collected from the Interior Department that exculpated Hearn and several others from criminal vandalism.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pirro-box-evidence-trump-reflecting-pool-damage/
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