Trump marched in to transform DC’s famed reflection pool. The result is just like his presidency

June 21, 2026 — 3:30pm

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A historian once told me that the presidency would distil Donald Trump to his essence.

That essence, it turns out, is trillions of microscopic organisms that suck up all the oxygen and endanger life around them.

That essence is slimy, stinky and unrelenting, as reflected in the mass of algae that infests the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The president had pledged an “American flag blue” sheen, but the algae created green streaks that mar the $US14 million ($20 million) makeover of the water mirror.

The algae is a perfect metaphor to reflect on our unreflective president and his impulsive and solipsistic style of governing.

“It looks like a Rothko,” said Amanda Aldous, a 36-year-old teacher who was gazing at the reflecting pool on Wednesday, leading suburban Seattle middle schoolers on a tour. “I think any biologist could have said this was going to happen.”

This is the hallowed site where Marian Anderson serenaded a throng after getting banished from Constitution Hall for her race, and where Martin Luther King jnr gave his “I Have a Dream” speech to an even bigger crowd around the 620-metre pool.

National Park Service workers in waders were sucking up the dead algae strewed along the bottom on Wednesday. A cooler of Popsicles helped them withstand the hot, humid weather in which the algae thrives.

On Thursday, the Interior........

© Brisbane Times