{"id":214100,"date":"2026-06-17T08:52:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-wanted-the-reflecting-pool-to-be-american-flag-blue-algae-are-turning-it-green-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T08:52:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:52:29","slug":"trump-wanted-the-reflecting-pool-to-be-american-flag-blue-algae-are-turning-it-green-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-wanted-the-reflecting-pool-to-be-american-flag-blue-algae-are-turning-it-green-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump wanted the Reflecting Pool to be \u2018American flag blue.\u2019 Algae are turning it green. – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Trump administration<\/a> has spent millions renovating the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall<\/a> to make it \u201cAmerican flag blue\u201d in time for the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary celebrations.
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But even faster than it was refurbished, the water has turned to a dark green \u2014 thanks to algae growth.
The new hue comes despite significant cost and controversy, and is something of a stumble after boasts by President Donald Trump about how he was able to make the famous landmark look so much better than his predecessors did. Last month, he drove over the Reflecting Pool<\/a> as it was under construction, boasting about the beautiful blue color it would be.
\u201cIt never had the color people wanted, but now it\u2019s going to have the great color,\u201d he said at the time.
But after last weekend\u2019s hot weather, D.C. residents began to notice that the pool had turned green.
Reached for comment on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Interior Department continued to use the pool to mock Trump\u2019s predecessors. \u201cUnlike under Obama and Biden, the National Park Service is actually maintaining the beautifully completed Reflecting Pool,\u201d the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that the National Park Service was using \u201chigh-tech nanobubble ozone technology\u201d to kill algae, pathogens and contaminants.
\u201cAdditionally, hydrogen peroxide, which is a milder treatment than chlorine and is used in spas and specialty pools like natural swimming pools, is also treating the pool,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThere are no harmful side effects to marine life or to the environment.\u201d
Shallow human-made bodies of water like the Reflecting Pool are prone to algal growth because they are warm, exposed to the sun and often filled with nutrients<\/a>. Nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus can spur algal blooms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. These nutrients are contained in animal poop, like geese and ducks, which often spend time near the pool, and fertilizer, which is often transported by runoff after rainstorms.
Algae convert sunlight to chemical energy through photosynthesis, which allows them to grow and multiply. The shallow, broad footprint of the Reflecting Pool means that the organisms in the pool get plenty of sunlight, fueling growth.
Just days before the pool turned green, Trump had been celebrating the completed work on the popular tourist destination, saying in a Truth Social post<\/a> that the pool\u2019s surface was now a \u201cvery complex, but powerful, Dark Blue.\u201d
He also has repeatedly touted various D.C. beautification projects, saying last week, \u201cWe did a hell of a job.\u201d
\u201cBut everybody\u2019s looking at that Reflecting Pool,\u201d he said last week in the Oval Office, <\/strong>saying that the project cost around $10 million. <\/strong>\u201cThey can\u2019t believe it reflects. We used a dark blue, it\u2019s called American flag blue.\u201d
Eddie Wood, the owner of Atlantic Industrial Coatings LLC, which was hired to handle the lining of the Reflecting Pool, said in an email that the project was initially priced at $13.1 million, but increased to $14.6 million because \u201cthe park service added work to the original scope.\u201d
Reached for comment on the price increase, a spokesperson for the Interior Department said in an emailed statement that \u201cthe price reflects the effort necessary to expedite the timeline of completing\u201d the pool coating ahead of the country\u2019s 250th anniversary.
\u201cThat meant more people, more materials, more equipment and longer hours,\u201d said the spokesperson, who also took shots at the Obama and Biden administrations.
\u201cSeparately, additional work has been undertaken to beautify the areas surrounding the pool, including fixing chipped and broken granite stone, applying new caulking, pressure washing the sidewalks and cleaning the Lincoln Memorial steps and tripods,\u201d the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson did not dispute the $14.6 million figure.
The cadence of D.C.-area renovations \u2014 as well as Trump\u2019s focus on them \u2014 has ramped up as the country approaches its 250th anniversary, which will be commemorated with a string of events in the nation\u2019s capital.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has joked that he has become Trump\u2019s \u201cpool guy.\u201d<\/a> Trump also repeatedly criticized<\/a> former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden when he shared details about the Reflecting Pool renovation, saying in a Truth Social<\/a> post that the pool \u201clooked terrible\u201d under the Democratic presidents.
Despite the water\u2019s noticeable change, the White House touted the Reflecting Pool in a Monday post, sharing a picture of the water being blue. At the time of the post, the water was green.
\u201cMaking D.C. safe and beautiful again one cleanup at a time,\u201d said the post.<\/a>
Trump had touted the revamping of the Reflecting Pool ahead of the country\u2019s 250th anniversary events, saying he wanted the beautification efforts in D.C. to be completed by July 4.
The project, like many of Trump\u2019s efforts to reshape D.C., faced controversy and legal pushback.
Questioned during a congressional hearing about reports on the contract, Burgum told lawmakers<\/a> that he was \u201cpositive that we followed all of the required bidding rules.\u201d
Wood, of Atlantic Industrial Coatings, told NBC News that the project was a sole-source contract.
The project also faced pushback<\/a> from the Cultural Landscape Foundation, which sued the Trump administration in May to try to block the Reflecting Pool from being redone. \u201cThe dark grey, achromatic basin was not incidental to the design. It was<\/em> the design,\u201d wrote Alexander Kristofcak, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
Asked about the pool\u2019s new shade on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told NBC News: \u201cAmerican taxpayers ought to feel absolutely cheated. They should be angry.\u201d
\u201cTheir money is being spent $600 million on a ballroom, gold-plated, when they were promised it would be $200 million and fully financed privately, and the Reflecting Pool has literally proved a bottomless pit of expense and failure, and you couldn\u2019t imagine a simpler construction project, a reflecting pool, and Donald Trump has managed to mess it up, overpriced, overrun in cost, and a complete failure,\u201d he added.
The Reflecting Pool marks just one of a series of changes the president is pushing across D.C., including restoring fountains and adding a new surface to the World War II Memorial fountain, Trump has said.
At the same time, he spearheaded the controversial ballroom project, including the demolition of the White House\u2019s East Wing. The project faces a litany of criticism and legal challenges from critics and preservationists.
The president is also pushing for the construction of a 250-foot arch near the Potomac River. That project, too, has prompted legal challenges<\/a> from veterans and historians.
Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Monica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThe Trump administration has spent millions renovating the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall to make it \u201cAmerican flag blue\u201d in time for the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary celebrations.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.But even faster than it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}