"The clock is running." - Anthony Scaramucci, casting doubt on Katie Zacharia's tenure as press secretary.
Reflecting Fool
New evidence details the Reflecting Pool’s botched renovation at the hands of Donald Trump, symbolizing the chaos and conspiracy that has characterized his second term.
President Donald Trump would have Americans believe he can supercharge the economy, tame inflation, denuclearize the Middle East, ring in peace from Iran to Russia, develop the Gaza Strip into a resort, halt the march of communists who (he claims) hate America, appoint the very best people, and single-handedly keep virulent hyper-intelligent AI from killing everyone on earth despite dire warnings from experts in the field that it might do just that.
The reality is that this guy can’t even fix a pool. Never mind the rest of that stuff. Six months after he started working on it, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool remains a work in progress. He has lied and tried to throw other people in jail to cover up the mess. And the details of this ludicrous episode should serve as a reality check for anyone questioning their sanity in this troubled age.
Trump literally spent the summer spreading falsehoods about why the Reflecting Pool renovation was an utter disaster — even though it was his contractor’s fault. Nonetheless, Trump’s team boasted about arresting people for allegedly vandalizing the pool, then dropped the charges.
Water now fills about one-third of the landmark. Fresh reporting underscores the sheer incompetence of Trump’s hand-picked contractors, and the depravity of the administration for targeting civilians who didn’t commit any crimes.
The new coating applied to the Reflecting Pool peeled, cracked and blistered in at least 85 places because of the contractor’s shoddy work, according to an inspection report obtained by the Washington Post. What was the most likely reason that happened? Workers applied coating only the day before the pool was refilled with water, even though the paint needed three days to dry, the report found. A separate report from the contractor blamed “human oversight,” since workers may not have sprayed on enough paint.
It’s worth pausing to consider Trump’s role in this. He was adamant that the pool be fixed by July 4, so it would look nice when he turned the city into a showcase for the nation’s 250th birthday party (and his own 80th a couple weeks earlier). That contributed to the big rush.
Trump also awarded the no-bid contract to the company owned by his “pool guy,” bypassing the typical governmental process that aims to save taxpayers money. The contract ballooned to $13.1 million, after the president pledged that the work would cost only $1.8 million. When the pool turned green, Trump awarded a $1.7 million contract to a company owned by his cigar-chomping felon friend.
I stopped by the Reflecting Pool today. It still looks terrible — and many tourists agreed.
Scores of tourists strolled alongside the pool today, peering through the tall fence that encloses the landmark. Black tarps cover certain portions of the metal barrier (for no apparent reason), and yellow caution tape blocks a portion of missing fence. Rakes, brooms, and skimmers bake in the sun alongside the pool. There wasn’t a single worker in sight. I spotted no fewer than five security cameras, despite no evidence that vandals ever tampered with the lining.
In front of the Lincoln Memorial, I spotted a man wearing a shirt depicting an American flag and a dog tag, which read: “I’m a veteran, not a sucker and loser.” (Trump once disparaged servicemembers using those terms.)
The man, named Eric, explained that he’s a decorated combat veteran who spent a year and a half in Vietnam. He had just finished visiting the Vietnam Memorial, where his crew chief and fellow medic are honored. He gazed at the Reflecting Pool with disgust.
“It’s an atrocity,” said Eric, who’s visiting from St. Louis, Missouri. “It’s another example of him trying to put his mark on something to make himself feel bigger and better than everyone else.”
“Unbelievable,” one woman said to her companion, gesturing at the pool. “It looks like shit. I’m fed up.”
Meanwhile On The Pod...
The Midterms Are Getting WEIRD In Red States (10/12/26)
Look No Further Than Crooked Media
Get ready for Season 2 of Long Play -- Crooked's mini-series about what it will take to win in the South! As trust erodes within Trump's coalition and Senate races become more competitive, the stakes are higher than ever.
Jennifer Palmieri from Showtime's The Circus and award-winning journalist Errin Haines have spent months traveling across the American South to help us figure out what it will take to turn it blue.
A new episode drops on Monday! Subscribe to Long Play, wherever you get your podcasts.
What Else?
Prices rose 3.7 percent in September compared to the same month last year, which is more than economists expected. High gasoline prices and the boom in data center construction contributed to the rise.
Kimberly Guilfoyle told Trump officials that leaked text messages — which showed her asking a Trump donor for $100,000 to pay off her credit card — were AI-generated, in a doomed attempt to save her job as U.S. ambassador to Greece, according to the Wall Street Journal. Guilfoyle also allegedly asked Greek businessmen for $250,000 to help pay for her Mercedes G-Wagon, Daily Mail reports.
The Trump administration has delayed the release of federal data that will show the impact of the GOP’s tax cuts, implemented by the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill last year, on Americans. The numbers were supposed to be released in July and updated in September — but neither report has been released. A Trump official told Politico that the White House’s priority is releasing “accurate and reliable data.” Why doesn’t that make me feel reassured that we’re going to get the true story here?
The Department of Justice is investigating whether Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) or her late father lied on immigration paperwork to eventually secure citizenship, according to the Washington Post. The investigation is suspect for a few reasons: It centers on decades-old paperwork from when Omar was a teenager, and it comes right before the midterms. It’s not normal for a government to persecute a politician and their family right before elections!
The family of a man killed by a tiger in a British zoo urged people to stop posting videos of the incident on social media, after Trump did exactly that. “Don’t ever mess with nature!” Trump captioned the post, which didn’t show the man’s death. In a statement, the family said that the videos are causing them “severe distress at an exceptionally vulnerable time.” Trump also posted an AI-generated video of himself playing with the tiger.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said that he doesn’t intend to run for president in 2028: “I have zero interest in running for president. I’m not running for president. I’m running for reelection to the Senate,” Ossoff said during a Georgia Senate debate last night. You know which other senatorial candidate claimed he wouldn’t run for president? Barack Obama.
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Light At The End...
The internet is dunking on Mark Zuckerberg after he was caught on video struggling to swallow a gulp of Guinness. A Wall Street Journal writer compared Zuckerberg’s facial expression to someone who has “just drunk from a fish bowl at a Petco,” “accidentally swallowed the little paper cup of fluoride at the dentist’s office,” and “never consumed a Guinness in his life.” Reminds me of that McDonald’s CEO who seemed to hate his own burger.
A 16-year-old boy in New York City used $500 of his savings to pay two dudes he found on Craigslist to post hundreds of flyers around the city, asking anyone with a “cool job and a big heart” to let him shadow them for a week. The high schooler, who wanted help figuring out what career path he might be interested in, has so far “shadowed a dog groomer, a radio show host and a ramen shop owner, and is reviewing requests from an airline captain and a tattoo artist,” the Journal writes. He even got one part-time job offer.
A small Welsh town has become famous for celebrating the life of Elvis Presley and hosting one of the world’s largest Elvis parties every year. Wales has no ties to the singer, nor did Elvis ever even tour outside the United States. But none of that matters. “Welsh people like to dress up,” one attendee said. “They like to have a party.”
Do you remember Gelato, the injured kitten who uses a wheelchair made of toy cars? Good news: He was adopted! Gelato’s owner has two other kittens with leg issues, named Bread Crumb and Sprinkles. Gelato reportedly spent his first night in his new home sleeping in his new owner’s arms.
Joni Mitchell officially became a U.S. citizen this week, six decades after moving to the United States. Her music is legendary, but she also has made some hilarious political quips. “‘Fuck Donald Trump,’ I love that song,” Mitchell once said, referring to the rap song.
Enjoy
chase on Twitter: "getting a job is easy all u have to do is get through 14 separate interviews, complete 6 aptitude tests, solve an unanswerable riddle, defeat a cyclops and steal his golden fleece, and be related to somebody at the company"