553
Trump's $14M Reflecting Pool Paint Job Is Now Peeling Off And Floating To The Surface
(www.huffpost.com)
this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
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Background: Firm Tied to Trump Donor Got No-Bid Contract to Clean Reflecting Pool and Reflecting Pool Contract Has ‘Inflated’ Profit Margin, Government Analysis Finds
So if you think $14 million is too much money for what is basically a paint job, you would be correct. Trump gave his buddy a no-bid contract at way too high a price. And it turns out they were incompetent too. Additionally, I would be surprised if Trump did not get a personal kickback from they $14 million in taxpayer dollars paid to the incompetent firm.
As I understand it, the paint caused the pool to heat up causing the algae to bloom causing the pH to go up causing the paint to peel. So hypothetically not the painters job if he expected the counter measures that should have been in place to work, but realistically that should have been addressed and confirmed well before the pool was even emptied.
Yup. Dark blue is a fine color for a small pool people are going to swim in, but in a huge pool like this, it absorbed tons of sunlight, heated up the water and just made the algae grow faster.