By Terence Smith
“Botched Job, Not Sabotage, Damaged Pool” reads the page one headline in today’s New York Times print edition. “Charges to be dropped Against Ex-Olympian” reads the sub-head.
The story details the almost-comical confusion and contradictions surrounding the ongoing renovation of the putrid-green Reflecting Pool on the National Mall that President Trump ordered to be renovated and painted “American Flag blue” in time for the 250th celebration of American independence on July 4.
Instead, as we all know, the small, Virginia swimming pool contractor personally selected by Trump made a mess of the job, turning the water algae-green and painting the bottom with a blue cover that broke up and floated to the surface.
Embarrassed — if that’s possible — Trump announced that the blue cover had been “vandalized” by political opponents and ordered a former Olympian and seven others indicted on spurious charges of cutting and destroying the cover. Finally, U.S. Attorney for Washington Jeanine Pirro dropped the nonsensical charges.
The Reflecting Pool saga is the perfect metaphor for the second Trump term: a stupid original idea, made worse by Presidential whim, compounded by the wrong contractor working on an unrealistic deadline, dissolving into costly (estimated $10 million) chaos, doubled down by Presidential fictions that end up embarrassing all concerned. And, oh yes, the pool is still rotten with algae.
What does that narrative sound like to you? The Iran war? Gaza? Ukraine? The economy? Inflation? The on-again, off-again tariffs? There’s certainly a common thread of confusion and incompetence in all of it that has become the mark of Trump 2.0. One debacle after another; all costly and damaging, each in their own way.
What has actually gone well in Trump 2.0? The stock market is up, yes, but that is more the result of the AI boom than anything out of the White House. I’m hard pressed to think of notable, lasting accomplishments so far, other than the $2.2 billion the Trump family apparently made last year through a variety of questionable dealings. That surely is a presidential record.
A final note: a recent political cartoon said it all: a Trump figure is standing looking grumpily at the algae-filled reflecting pool next to a National Park ranger.
The President says: “All I see is scum!”
The ranger responds:: “Well, it is a reflecting pool, Sir.”