Reflecting Pool Starts To Stink After Trump Orders It Drained: DC Photographer

[riversedge]

Source: crooksandliars.com


The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has a new problem: it's starting to smell.



By David Edwards — June 22, 2026



Washington, D.C., freelance photographer Joe Flood posted a photo on X on Monday of the pool being actively drained. "As they drain it, the Reflecting Pool is starting to smell," he wrote.

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Saturday that the pool would "probably be forced to release and drain much of the water in order to do the necessary repairs."

The drain order came after a $14 million no-bid renovation cratered almost immediately. Workers painted the pool bottom "American flag blue" — then algae bloomed within days, turning the water green and sending the new paint peeling off in strips.

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Scientists weren't surprised by the algae. National Public Radio reported that the pool's dark new surface absorbs more sunlight, warming the water and creating ideal conditions for blooms. '.............................










Read more: https://crooksandliars.com/2026/06/reflecting-pool-starts-stink-after-trump

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Algae that STINKS!!

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has a new problem: it's starting to smell.

crooksandliars.com/2026/06/refl...

— (@oceancalm.bsky.social) 2026-06-23T02:54:42.589Z

[Deuxcents]

1. Yes, algae smells, especially with this heat and the slimy mess will have to go somewhere when it's draining

This should be interesting..

[3catwoman3]

2. DC is pretty miserable in the summer. Heat and humidity both typically...

...in the 90s all summer long.

Decomposing algae will be added misery.

[C Moon]

3. Lincoln said the Potomac River smelled horrible during the summer.

Maybe that's what trump is trying to do here with the reflecting pool.

[Journeyman]

4. Hope it's the paint and not the algae . . .

[cstanleytech]

5. Bet it smells better than Trump's diapers.

[BaronChocula]

6. A list of possible no-bid contractors for the next pool fiasco

Paul Manafort
Steve Bannon
Any J6 child rapist
Tabitha, Tiffany, whatever her name is
"Rudolph Jewel"
The Georgia Election Racketeer 18
Lindsey Graham
Bill Pulte
Sharon Simmons, White House DoorDash driver
Anyone who can't say Joe Biden won the 2020 election

[BWdem4life]

7. Finally keeping that promise to drain the swamp.

[littlemissmartypants]

8. I'm surprised that he hasn't claimed it was his plan all along to stink up the place.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Emblematic of this country under the stewardship of the present President.

[twodogsbarking]

10. It's those silly vandal gnomes again.

[Hugin]

11. Bested by a pool of tepid stinking briny water.

Cue the mosquitoes. WWJTD?

Once again, out of nearly the entire population of the United States, this is who the Retrumplicans and MAGAts chose to be the first North American strong man/despot/messiah.

[orangecrush]

12. Perfect

[EuterpeThelo]

13. I've been saying all along

that the combination of the algae and all those chemicals was going to create a giant bowl of eye-stinging toxic stew. Truth? I hope the whole thing ends up looking like the Cuyahoga River and they have to evacuate the whole of D.C. over it.

My heart is absolutely broken for the poor baby duckling that just had to die in that mess. RIP, innocent little feathered friend. I would say she is a metaphor for all of us, except she didn't also have to work (three jobs, ala Bush???) for the money to pay for this fiasco on top of everything else.

[truthisfreedom]

14. The Epstein Deflection Pool? Stinks? To high heaven?

Why I never.