Days after an algae bloom turned Donald Trump’s newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool green, the ‘American flag blue’ paint has begun to peel away.
The US president announced the completion of a $14.7million (£11.1m) project to improve the pool last week but workers were soon deployed to pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water to combat an algae bloom that had turned it green.
The US Department of the Interior had insisted the water was ‘crystal clear’, blaming the ‘fake news media’ for reports of algae taking over.
‘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,’ it said in a statement.
However, visitors have now noticed the new paint job is starting to come off.
‘I want my money back after seeing this. I think our resources could be used a lot better elsewhere,’ Robert Dale of Edwards, Colorado, told Reuters.
‘I think this reflecting pool was beautiful before, before all this attention.’
The no-bid contract to drain and refinished pool has caused controversy.
The renovation is part of Trump’s sweeping plans for the capital, including tearing down the East Wing of the White House to make space for a new ballroom and building a massive arch near Arlington National Cemetery.
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