Firm Tied to Trump Donor Got No-Bid Contract to Clean Reflecting Pool

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/us/politics/trump-donor-contract-reflecting-pool.html

Firm Tied to Trump Donor Got No-Bid Contract to Clean Reflecting Pool
A White House spokeswoman said the president was not involved in selecting Greenwater Services, the business owned by a trust led by John J. Cafaro.
By David A. Fahrenthold
June 18, 2026, 9:33 p.m. ET

A business tied to a longtime supporter of President Trump was given a no-bid contract to install a water-purification system in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool earlier this spring.

Now that work is coming under scrutiny after algae blooms have come back and turned the iconic pool in Washington a vibrant shade of green rather than the American-flag blue Mr. Trump says he chose.

The contract shows that the National Park Service bypassed the competitive-bidding process that is typically required, and gave a $1.7 million contract to the firm, Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio.

Federal contracting records show that firm’s ultimate owner is the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, led by John J. Cafaro, a donor to Mr. Trump and a neighbor to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club in Florida. The water treatment company also listed Mr. Cafaro’s Palm Beach mansion as its address in Florida corporate records, and listed his investment trust’s phone number and email in Ohio lobbying records.

Mr. Cafaro, a longtime Republican donor whom Mr. Trump has described as a “fantastic man,” was once involved in a high-profile bribery scandal. He has also donated to Democrats in the past, and his daughter Capri Cafaro served in the Ohio State Senate as a Democrat from 2007 to 2016.

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Of course, Trump had no idea who it was