#reflecting pool

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2026/07/16/reflecting-pool-peeling-likely-caused-by-application-flaws-experts-say/

Lisa Needham at Daily Kos:

Look, it used to sound like weirdo doomering to say that President Donald Trump has no intention of leaving office after the end of his term, but this is the behavior of a man hunkering down and digging in. He’s been turning the whole of Washington, D.C., into his little construction playground, but imposing his tacky vision on the city isn’t enough. He also wants an unprecedented level of protection from the very people he is supposed to serve as head of the government—the American people. In his latest move to ensconce himself, bunker-like, in the White House, he’s demanding that his lackeys on the Commission of Fine Arts let him permanently fence off Lafayette Park. Why? Because the protests there make him sad. The administration has already restricted access to the park with the excuse that it was terribly necessary for landscaping and “repairs” prior to Trump’s hijacking of America’s 250th birthday, and has then just kept the fencing up.

Lafayette Park is not part of the White House complex, but rather a space for public gatherings. However, Trump is claiming it is “really the entrance to the White House” and that fencing the whole thing off will be “completed very shortly and it’ll be incredible.” Also, somehow, fencing off the park will “maintain public access to this nationally symbolic space.” Sure, yep. Nothing says “maintain public fencing” like fully walling off the park. This looks a lot more like the administration would like to spare Trump even the very sight of people who don’t like him while making sure that his donors, lackeys, cronies, and stormtroopers can still gather there.

Hmm. Do we think this will be completed very shortly and incredibly like the Reflecting Pool, which, after it turned into a slop of peeling plastic and algae, has now been drained and—you guessed it—is fenced off from the public and will be until 2027, it appears.

NYT Spots 1 Wild Detail About People Investigating Now-Drained Reflecting Pool https://share.google/JcMAhvXS7kAO9Y5LV

Idiot.