Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Vol. VIII
Est. 2019

The Mind Shield

News · Opinion · Politics · Analysis

Trump administration blames Obama after renovated reflecting pool turns green.

Trump administration blames Obama after renovated reflecting pool turns green.
Photo: AFP via Getty Images.

The Trump administration is blaming Barack Obama after the multimillion-dollar failed attempt to renovate the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.

Trump announced the plan to renovate the pool with a commercial swimming pool liner in April. The plan was to transform the shade of the pool to what he calls ‘American flag blue’ in time for the country’s 250th birthday.

One month and $14.2 million later, the newly renovated pool is now a sea of green due to algae buildup.

National Park Service employees work to clean up algae in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
National Park Service employees work to clean up algae in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Photo: Reuters

Now, a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior is blaming the Obama administration.

“The nanobubbler technology has successfully destroyed the algae bloom that has plagued every pool reopening since 1922, most infamously, the Obama pool reopening that resulted in massive algae clumps taking over the pool’s surface,” the spokesperson said. ​

The spokesperson added that the department is working to kill the algae using the nanobubbling system and hydrogen peroxide. Crews were seen dumping hydrogen peroxide in the green water on Tuesday.

​However, experts say there’s “no quick fix” to the algae bloom in the pool.

“The reflecting pool is perfect for algae. If you were trying to biofarm algae, this would be the way to go. It’s warm, it’s stagnant, it’s perfect,” Brooks Barrett, who studies marine plant life at the Smithsonian Institution, told Politico.