Donald Trump used a government exemption to give a $6.9 million no-bid contract to his “pool guy” to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to an ocean-blue color after complaining it “never looked great.”

The exemption is typically reserved for urgent situations to prevent “serious injury, financial or other, to the government”, according to documents reviewed in an exclusive report by The New York Times.

But Trump used the exemption to get the company, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, to quickly begin work on the memorial as part of an array of building projects and refurbishments taking place across Washington D.C. ahead of America’s 250th birthday this year.

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[–] 139 points 4 months ago (12 children)

Is there a more apt metaphor for the Trump administration than this?

In a time of unparalleled uncertainty, war in the Middle East, rising energy prices and inflation, pedophile billionaires in the highest positions of government, rising unemployment and a backsliding of minority rights.

What is the Trump administration spending our tax dollars on to help Americans?

Painting the fucking reflection pool blue.

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  • [–] 31 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I don't know about everyone else but definitely know having a national monument painted that tacky default pool bottom blue really helps me sleep better at night.

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  • [–] -4 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    Not his fault system is designed the way it allows such things

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago* (4 children)

    Right. Only his fault that he is doing such things.

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  • [–] -3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    We should not rely on good hearts of politicians

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  • [–] 60 points 4 months ago* (6 children)

    “As a developer, I've probably built more than 100 swimming pools, different buildings. I built, and I have some really good pool builders ... but over the years, I've had three or four really good ones,” he said.

    Trump went on about how a “friend” from Germany had similarly knocked the landmark’s condition as “filthy, disgusting,”

    I mean, it's not a swimming pool. Like, it doesn't need to be free of algae and it's not full of disinfecting chlorine.

    Like, you wouldn't point at a lake and say "eww, gross, it's full of living things and dirt".

    EDIT: Okay, upon further reading, maybe he does think that it's intended for swimming or wants it to be used for that.

    https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2026/05/04/donald-trump-reflecting-pool/89926382007/

    President Donald Trump posted an apparently artificially generated image of himself with members of his Cabinet swimming in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

    Late on May 1, Trump posted a fake image of himself, shirtless, giving a thumbs up as he lounges in the pool with other Cabinet members in their swimsuits.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago*

    It does need to be algae free, and to that end the water is pumped with ozone rather than chlorine. The last rebuild, during Obama, needed a full draining soon after recommissining to clear out the algae again, at some cost. They since ramped up the ozone levels to kill anything in the pool.

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  • [–] 42 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Pool Guy probably thinks he's going to get paid.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

    100% chance he took this as an opportunity to actually get the money Trump hasn't paid him previously. And I can't really fault him much for that honestly.

    Someone was going to get paid for this stupid shit, might as well be someone who's been fucked over in the past to try and make them whole.

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  • [–] 27 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I thought it was a joke. I read the article, this fucker is giving a pool service company the job. This is genius or sheer ludicrosity. I made that word up.

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  • [–] 27 points 4 months ago
    [–] 27 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    I fully believe he thinks its a swimming pool.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    He's posted AI pictures of him and the cabinet swimming in it.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    How does painting a pond that size cost 7 million?

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Properly emptying and refilling it would probably cost a good amount.

    Labor isn't cheap, and government contracts (hopefully) use prevailing wage, which is pretty high.

    A proper contractor would clean it first, and then add several coats of a what is probably supposed to be a special type of paint. That's pretty expensive.

    In this case however, it's a grift, so it won't actually cost them nearly that much because that's the point.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

    someone has an opportunity to do something really funny

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago

    It’s to clean out all the dead kids

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    Apparently theres more to the type of blue, they used, too.

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