It was supposed to be a simple restoration project. A $1.5 million maintenance project on a prominent national landmark that would take about two weeks to complete.
A proverbial drop in the bucket of the Department of the Interior’s budget. A quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive fix to the problem that had plagued every presidential administration for a hundred years. Seal the leaks. Kill the algae. Clean the water. Make reflecting pools great again. That was in late April.
Now we’re in the latter part of June and the renovations — which stretched out a bit longer and cost quite a lot more than promised — are complete. The dark concrete bottom was sealed swimming pool-style with American flag blue-colored sealant. The pool was refilled. It was a great American success. For about a day.
First, the algae returned. Then bits of the sealant came loose, wafting to the pool’s surface. The national pool’s highly publicized renovation has become an international laughingstock.
And it’s in this that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool provides for us probably the clearest reflection it’s ever given. It has become the perfect metaphor. Look into the Reflecting Pool fiasco and see with clarity the Trump administration’s brash and ineffective approach to governance and public policy across the spectrum.
National Park Service employees work to clean up algae in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool following the completion of recent renovations on June 14, 2026 in Washington, DC. The reflecting pool construction project started in April and work was completed last week as part of President Donald Trump’s plan ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Ignore the experts
Step one in the Trump regime’s methodology of governing is to ignore the experts. From the very beginning of the restoration project, Trump and others involved consistently and emphatically ignored the advice of experts in the field.
Speaking on his social media website, Truth Social, Trump claimed, “We were told it was going to take YEARS to do this job” but he would be able to lead restoration in “a fraction of that time, at a fraction of the cost.”
During the first Trump term, the National Park Service recommended the replacement of thousands of feet of pipe underneath the pool, with experts saying if the pipes were not fixed, the algae blooms would return no matter what else was done.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next Health and Human Services Secretary, arrives for a meeting with Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by ALLISON ROBBERT/AFP via Getty Images)
This sidelining of expert advice and bypassing of traditional procedures is nothing new for the Trump administration. RFK Jr.’s Health and Human Services Department removed all 17 members of the CDC advisory panel on vaccines and shut down 75 independent expert advisory committees.
Pete Hegeth’s Department of Defense has fired or forcibly retired 24 generals and senior commanders.
Economists warned Trump his tariffs were both illegal and would make Americans poorer but he forged ahead anyway.
This is an administration that prides itself on popularism, rejecting the educated elites, working outside established authorities and consolidating power into the presidency.
Put an unqualified person in charge
Step two in Trumpian governance is to put an unqualified person — usually a Trump loyalist — in charge. Trump offered the restoration project to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a company that had worked on swimming pools at his golf courses and seems to specialize in the restoration of highway culverts.
The company had no prior experience contracting with the government and received the contract outright.
Further work to install a water filtration system was offered to Green Water Solutions, owned by prominent Trump donor JJ Carafo, who once was found guilty of bribing a U.S. Congressman.
These companies appear to have been chosen for their connection to Trump rather than their experience or expertise in projects such as the Reflecting Pool restoration.
This focus on familiarity and loyalty over experience and expertise has been seen in the Trump administration’s approach to filling governmental positions. Qualified career servants have been thrown out; loyalist cronies have been brought in. This isn’t just limited to the rank-and-file, either.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addresses senior military officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, on September 30. (Photo by ANDREW HARNIK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Prior to their cabinet positions, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was a Fox News commentator; Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held no experience working in public health; and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin had no background in law enforcement, national security or emergency management.
Outside the cabinet, FBI Director Kash Patel held no senior law enforcement experience and had most recently been a podcaster, while Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Mehmet Oz was best known for hawking unproved and debunked medical interventions.
And the list goes on. The Trump administration hires based on unquestioned loyalty, not qualifications or competence.
Overspend
The next step in Trump’s cycle of public policy is to overspend. The initial $1.5 million Trump initially claimed in late April jumped to about $1.8 million in early May. By June, Trump was claiming “$10 million, maybe $12 million.”
The actual price tag thus far has been millions higher, with actual contracts totaling $14.7 million paid to Atlantic Industrial Coatings for the renovation and $1.7 million paid to Green Water Solutions for cleaning. That’s a total of $16.4 million, an increase of more than 1000% over initial projections.
This reckless spending is common within the Trump administration. Another Trump construction boondoggle, the White House Ballroom, began with the claim that it would cost taxpayers nothing with the estimated $200 million cost paid entirely by selected donors and Trump himself. A current cost estimate gives the project a $600 million price tag with $300 million coming from taxpayers.
Other reckless spending includes a $220 million no-bid contract for an anti-immigrant advertising campaign, $700 million spent on warehouses to detain migrants and $162 million and counting to pay for Trump’s golf outings.
Then, there’s the Iran War, which has cost Americans at least $132 billion, not including the $80 billion needed to replace or repair military equipment and bases.
Overall, the federal government is not spending substantially more than in previous years, but its allocation of funds has moved substantially into areas the administration favors — namely for war, immigrant detention and deportation, and Trump’s construction projects. In Trump’s words, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things” because “we’re fighting wars.”
This photo taken April 25, 2026, shows huge cranes in position for construction of a planned White House ballroom for which designs have not been finalized and approval has not been given due to pending litigation. (BNG photo by Mark Wingfield)
Own the libs
The goal of any Trump project is to own the libs. The Reflecting Pool renovations were no different with Trump claiming: “It was filthy. It was dirty. It was Biden.” The project was portrayed as a visual, practical example of draining the swamp and making America great again by restoring a national landmark.
Upon completion of the restoration, the Trump administration branded it an immediate success. White House spokesperson Kate Martin said earlier this week that “President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the reflecting pool for good unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden.”
“President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the reflecting pool for good unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden.”
From 2010 to 2012, the Obama administration completely rebuilt the foundation of the Reflecting Pool at a cost of $30.74 million. Within weeks, the pool had to be drained because of excessive algae growth. Trump’s desire to conquer the algae Obama could not control was his way to own the libs and exert Republican dominance. That has been the driving force of this restoration project and Trump’s governance as a whole.
The motivations for Trump’s policies aren’t based on substance but on undoing the accomplishments or fixing the problems of previous Democrat administrations. From countless attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act or terminate the DACA program for immigrants to pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran Nuclear Deal, erasing Obama’s achievements has been Trump’s driving governing force.
Failure
While the fight against the algae continues, the Department of the Interior insists the water is “crystal clear.”
To everyone but the Trump administration, their Reflecting Pool renovation has been an abject failure — over budget, behind schedule and ultimately ineffective. As experts predicted, the algae blooms returned worse than before. Large flakes of sealant have begun peeling off the bottom. It’s been a lot of money, a lot of political bluster, and no visible improvement.
In the same tweet where the Department of the Interior called the green water “crystal clear,” they also likened the dead algae to the “destroyed Iranian Navy” — effectively declaring their domestic war on algae as successful as the Department of Defense’s war on Iran.
They’re not incorrect, but it’s not exactly the flex they think it is. The comparison does show that whether it’s algae or Iran, the playbook is the same. A costly, rapid intervention produces an immediate superficial change that ultimately leads to an unstable and uncertain long-term outcome that looks like the status quo, only worse.
Blame the libs
The penultimate step in the cycle of Trump’s modus operandi is to blame the libs. Why did the Reflecting Pool renovation fail? Not because it’s been historically tricky and expensive to fix. Not because his team failed to listen to the experts. Not because they hired unqualified contractors. But because the libs.
Trump claimed, without evidence, that vandals dumped chemicals into the pool to “destroy and demean our beautiful work.”
He’s also claimed Park Police have arrested multiple individuals on vandalism charges. The only confirmed arrest, however, was of three-time U.S. Olympian David Hearn, who has a vocational background in material science. Hearn claims he was curious about a piece of the bottom flaking off and reached in to touch it.
A National Park Services staffer asked him not put his hand in the water and he was later arrested and charged with destruction and defacing government property and disobeying a government employee.
On Truth Social, Trump has claimed these alleged vandals are “Radical Left Lunatics, most likely Dumocats (sic?), who have spent their lives trying to ruin our Country.”
This “blame the libs” pattern also is nothing new. The New York Times found in early 2025 that Trump mentioned Joe Biden 316 times in 50 days, mostly to blame Biden for various things.
Some examples the Times found: “Biden fudged the numbers … Biden canceled it … Biden let them get away with murder … Biden’s done nothing … Biden left him up there … Biden allowed it to get out of hand … Biden left us a mess … Biden said the wrong things … Biden gave away money like it was water … Biden set us up in Venezuela … Biden allowed China to go crazy … Biden ended it … Biden really screwed up our country.”
To Trump, everything bad is Biden’s fault. Nothing is his fault.
What the restoration reflects
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is meant to reflect the nation and its leaders — the Washington Monument on one side, the Lincoln Memorial on the other. Over the years, it has mirrored some iconic moments in American history. But reflecting pools can only reflect what they are shown.
In the reflection of this restoration, we see Trump’s America: Experts ignored, loyalists rewarded, money wasted, culture-war victories prioritized over competent governance, failure denied, critics blamed, reality dismissed. We see a government more concerned with appearances than outcomes, more interested in settling scores than solving problems, and more committed to projecting strength than exercising wisdom.
A monument designed to mirror America has become a painfully accurate mirror of the spirit that now governs it.
Josh Olds
Josh Olds is a public theologian and pastor for those disillusioned with institutional church. He is the creator of the small-group video series “Year on the Mountaintop” and a featured contributor to Fostering Hope: A Prayerbook for Fostering and Adoptive Parents. Follow his work on Facebook or at JoshOlds.com.