President Donald Trump is taking a victory lap after the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool turned “crystal clear” — and he’s got the receipts to prove it.
Trump shared photos on Truth Social Sunday showing the iconic pool stretching toward the Washington Monument under blue skies, the water so clean that the monument’s reflection is sharp and vivid. The images show a dramatic turnaround from the murky, algae-choked water that plagued previous administrations.
“Advanced nanobubbler technology” killed the algae that has plagued every Lincoln Reflecting Pool reopening since 1922, according to Interior Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Greg Wischer.
“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool — just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf.”
Wischer didn’t hold back in his memo to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Trump, crediting the nanobubbler tech with succeeding where past administrations failed.
The Trump administration took a direct shot at former President Barack Obama’s handling of the pool.
“Previous administrations — most notably under Obama — failed to maintain the Reflecting Pool, and after refilling the pool, the water would quickly become murky and thick with massive clumps of algae floating on the surface,” Wischer wrote.
The memo went further, mocking the media stakeout that had been waiting for the pool to fail: “As our National Park Service team noted, the Reflecting Pool is now so ‘blue’ that the Fake News Media, which has been staked out at the Reflecting Pool for weeks, has fled!”
The restored pool features an American Flag Blue coating on the bottom that’s now visible through the crystal-clear water. National Park Service crews are vacuuming up the dead algae in the final maintenance step, with the section closest to the Lincoln Memorial already complete.
But the victory tour came with a call for justice.
Trump also shared a “Wanted” poster on Truth Social calling for the arrest of vandals who damaged the pool.
“The U.S. Park Police is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the individual in the notice below in connection with a Destruction of Government Property investigation related to the Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote.
The 6.75 million-gallon pool has been targeted by Trump critics and leftist activists in recent weeks, with vandals cutting multiple gashes totaling 350 feet in the pool’s liner.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the vandalism is repairable and may not require a full draining of the pool.
“The Reflecting Pool has been a big success. And we’ve got 340 million people in this country that are celebrating 250. We did have a few vandals, but all that’s going to be repairable, and that’ll all be fixed in the coming weeks as we go forward.”
Burgum explained that the cutting happened on the edge of the pool, which slopes from the sides, so crews may be able to partially drain it and complete repairs quickly.
“We weren’t expecting that we were going to have a small group of people that wanted to try to destroy effectively what is part of the Lincoln Memorial,” Burgum told ABC.
He pointed out that while cameras cover the Lincoln statue and memorial, the Reflecting Pool had gone decades without vandalism — until Trump critics targeted it during the lead-up to America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
The charges remain allegations. The case has not been proven in court.
The crystal-clear pool now stands as a centerpiece for the Fourth of July festivities and America’s semiquincentennial celebration, with Trump crediting his administration’s technological approach and the National Park Service cleanup crews for the dramatic turnaround.
