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LetMyPeopleVote

(184,091 posts)
Mon Jun 22, 2026, 02:08 PM Monday

Evidence shows Trump admin caused Reflecting Pool damage it blamed on sabotage: ex-insider

It was trump who hired an incompetent contractor using a no bid contract. It was trump who put a dark blue background on the bottom which would increase the temperature of the Reflecting Pool. It was trump who had his people pour hydrogen peroxide which dissolves paint.

Evidence shows Trump admin caused Reflecting Pool damage it blamed on sabotage: ex-insider

www.rawstory.com/reflecting-p...

michaeledward (@michaeledward.bsky.social) 2026-06-21T04:40:13.969Z

https://www.rawstory.com/reflecting-pool-2677070226/

An ex-GOP lawmaker has heard enough about phantom left-wing saboteurs at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and he is pointing at the only suspects who fit the evidence: the people Trump hired to clean it.

In a series of posts and a new video, former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger dismantled the administration's vandalism narrative by accepting one piece of it. Yes, he conceded, chemicals were used on the pool. The catch is who used them and why. "Just for those who are saying there was chemical sabotage to peel the paint in the reflective pool, you're right," Kinzinger wrote. "It's just, you guys did it to kill the algae."

His central claim cuts straight through the conspiracy theory. "The Trump administration dumped hydrogen peroxide to kill the algae and it stripped the paint," he said in the video, adding bluntly in a follow-up that "it was literally the people who painted it. They poured peroxide in it." In other words, the corrosive chemicals Trump blamed on radical leftists were the cleanup crew's own attempt to rescue a basin that had turned green within days of its multimillion-dollar makeover.

Kinzinger backed the point with a quick search result showing that highly concentrated, industrial-grade hydrogen peroxide acts as a strong oxidizer capable of breaking down the binder in paint and causing it to bubble and peel. That is the same outcome now floating across the surface of the pool, which the president has described instead as a deliberate "knife or blade" attack and a "250 foot long gash" carved into a national monument.

The contrast with how some Trump allies want to treat the matter is stark. Kinzinger was responding in part to commentator Jeff Storobinsky, who suggested that anyone "causing damage at the reflecting pool should face the same consequences of those who stormed the Capitol on 1.6." Kinzinger's reply amounts to a warning that such a standard would land on the administration itself, since by his account the damage was self-inflicted maintenance, not an assault by outsiders.


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Evidence shows Trump admin caused Reflecting Pool damage it blamed on sabotage: ex-insider (Original Post) LetMyPeopleVote Monday OP
TY & Adam Kinzinger! Cha Monday #1
One of the few trustworthy Republicans MustLoveBeagles Monday #11
Yes.. I wish he would switch !! Cha Monday #13
But shithole and comrades want to put innocent people in jail................ Lovie777 Monday #2
Anything to terrorize the people orthoclad Monday #3
Yup, this is 100% a distraction. Initech Monday #10
Those arrests will never make it pass a grand jury or to a jury LetMyPeopleVote Monday #9
This case will never make it to a grand jury LetMyPeopleVote Monday #14
I never knew that vandals first went out and bought yellow construction vests Bengus81 Monday #4
Other problems jonstl08 Monday #5
Just backfill the pool and keep it in reserve as Trumps Memorial enterrement. BattleRow Monday #6
Well, duh!!! Initech Monday #7
Trump himself is the Reflecting Pool Vandal. Arrest him!!!! Martin68 Monday #8
Kick dalton99a Monday #12
MaddowBlog-Scrambling to avoid blame for Reflecting Pool fiasco, Trump's defense turns farcical LetMyPeopleVote Tuesday #15

orthoclad

(5,205 posts)
3. Anything to terrorize the people
Mon Jun 22, 2026, 03:29 PM
Monday

Also, all this drama takes our eyes off Musk and Thiel and Bezos and Bibi.

Initech

(109,670 posts)
10. Yup, this is 100% a distraction.
Mon Jun 22, 2026, 05:50 PM
Monday

Trump and his billionaire criminal buddies all need to face justice for their crimes.

Bengus81

(10,596 posts)
4. I never knew that vandals first went out and bought yellow construction vests
Mon Jun 22, 2026, 04:19 PM
Monday

Then went to commit crimes.

Hmmm........

jonstl08

(581 posts)
5. Other problems
Mon Jun 22, 2026, 04:28 PM
Monday

Besides the peroxide issue peeling the paint there were other issues with the work done. Pool experts were saying 1) after putting the paint on they should have put a tarp over the entire pool to let the paint dry and adhere to the surface. This would have taken over a month to complete this process putting the repair past july 4th which was not in the timeline for Trump. By not doing this moisture was causing the paint to bubble and peel off the surface 2) dark paint causes more heat which accelerates algae growth. So they hurried the process and messed it up. Now more of our tax dollars are going to fix this.

BattleRow

(2,759 posts)
6. Just backfill the pool and keep it in reserve as Trumps Memorial enterrement.
Mon Jun 22, 2026, 04:32 PM
Monday

Lots of endless,golden fountain showers to add the Midas touch he loves so much.

LetMyPeopleVote

(184,091 posts)
15. MaddowBlog-Scrambling to avoid blame for Reflecting Pool fiasco, Trump's defense turns farcical
Tue Jun 23, 2026, 11:13 AM
Tuesday

The debacle has become a metaphor of sorts, but not the one the president had in mind.

For Trump, the Reflecting Pool was supposed to be a totemic success story, demonstrating that his unique approach to problem-solving is fundamentally superior to his predecessors’.

This one project would serve as a metaphor for how awesome his awesomeness is.

Oops.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-06-23T13:15:51.138Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-reflecting-pool-fiasco-defense

There is a degree of irony surrounding Donald Trump’s Reflecting Pool fiasco. For months, the president obsessed over the renovation project, framing it as a metaphor for how awesome his awesomeness is: The Republican would tackle a lingering problem that vexed previous administrations, while delivering impressive results quickly and cheaply.....

With this in mind, the president came to realize in recent days that he needed an excuse — or preferably villains who could shoulder the blame for his own failures.

To that end, he began assuring the public over the weekend that he had succeeded beautifully, but that “vandals” intervened and ruined his triumph. At an unrelated White House event on Monday afternoon, the president went further, alleging nefarious criminals — some armed with “probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind” — attacked the Reflecting Pool with fertilizer and “did something to create the algae.”

The administration said five people were arrested on charges of vandalism, though without more information, it’s nearly impossible to say whether these people actually did anything wrong or whether they were charged as part of an inherently political exercise.

As is usually the case with Trump’s more outlandish claims, he has provided no evidence. At his Oval Office event on Monday afternoon, the president suggested the evidence exists, but he’s not yet prepared to share it.

Trump: I can't help it if somebody goes in with a knife and starts hacking it up. Uh... and we also have pictures of it.

Q: Can you release the photos?

Trump: At the right time you'll see it. You'll see it in court.

FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) 2026-06-22T20:41:36.507704516Z

......For good measure, the president also decided to whine about Barack Obama as part of the same clumsy presentation, though it wasn’t altogether clear why.

O'KEEFE: You said the guy was gonna do the reflecting poll in a week for about a million dollars. It's been two months and .5 million


TRUMP: Are you ready? Barack Hussein Obama

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-22T20:26:19.660Z

Indeed, one of the most amazing things about this story is the number of familiar boxes it checks. Trump fails to deliver on bold promises? Check. He relies on no-bid contracts and a rushed process that fell apart? Check. He concocts weird theories about his perceived enemies? Check. He desperately spins a fantastical tale with evolving details in the hopes of avoiding blame for his own failure? Check. His aligned prosecutors scramble to help justify his dubious claims with equally dubious charges? Check.
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