Trump Goons Quietly Rewrite Rules After Green Slime Debacle

Politics admin June 25, 2026 0 Comments

Trump Goons Quietly Rewrite Rules After Green Slime Debacle

Donald Trump’s administration has quietly rewritten the rulebook for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after his roughly $15 million paint job dissolved into a soup of algae, peeling paint, and dead ducklings.

Trump, 80, ordered the basin repainted “American flag blue” back in April, one of a string of rushed beautification projects that were supposed to spruce up D.C. before the nation’s 250th birthday bash on July 4. It was the priciest of the lot—and the most controversial, with the contracts handed out fast and without competition to firms with ties to the president.

Days after the administration declared the job finished, the water turned a brilliant green, chunks of fresh paint were spotted bobbing on the surface, and several dead ducklings turned up in and around the pool. National Guard soldiers were posted at the water’s edge, and the feds began arresting members of the public who touched the water, accusing them of vandalism and sabotage.

Now, as NOTUS reported, the Park Service has slipped a telling new demand into the fine print for whoever maintains the pool going forward—that they must keep the water in a “clean, clear, and aesthetically acceptable condition.”

The revised contract, updated in a government database on June 18, gives the winning bidder just 30 days to bring the pool up to “the desired water quality and aesthetics of the pool,” according to the outlet.

For the first time, it spells out in detail that the water must be free of floating debris—presumably including duck carcasses—and persistent algae. It also demands that the stones surrounding the basin must be pressure-washed weekly rather than monthly.

The Park Service also handed itself the right to decide “whether conditions are acceptable based upon visual inspection and the overall appearance of the Reflecting Pool.”

On the same day the water went green, the agency began exploring a separate plan to overhaul the pipes feeding the pool, which crack and leak constantly, NOTUS also reported. The agency had previously said that residual water in those pipes had triggered the algal bloom in the first place. The construction work would take more than 200 days and require a temporary fence stretching from the mall’s green to the U.S. Park Police stables, according to drawings reviewed by the outlet.

The two new plans suggest the months of repairs have not fixed the longstanding problems plaguing the pool, which have defeated costly efforts by previous presidents. Barack Obama’s own pricey overhaul also ended in regular algae outbreaks.

A company called Pearl Purity Water Solutions has helped keep the water clean since at least 2015, NOTUS reported. Its current contract could run as far as August 2027, but the proposed new deal starts in August 2026. It is not clear whether the administration wants to update Pearl Purity’s contract or find someone new.

The slime saga has already swept up bystanders. As the Daily Beast reported on Tuesday, three-time Olympic canoeist David Hearn, 67, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor destruction of government property after he reached into the pool to feel a flap of detached liner during a 64-mile bike ride. Hearn, who was held for five hours, insists he is a “curious citizen” who damaged nothing. He is due in D.C. Superior Court on July 9.

Rather than own the botched job, Trump has pinned the blame on shadowy “leftist” vandals, claiming on Truth Social that “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE” had cut a 250-foot gash into the pool and poured in chemicals. He has offered no evidence.

Pearl Purity did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment. The Daily Beast has contacted them, the Department of the Interior, and the National Park Service for comment.