The deeper agenda behind Trumps Reflecting Pool glow-up

Washington, DC’s newly refurbished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool isn’t just reflecting the monuments at either end. It’s mirroring President Donald Trump’s surprisingly sophisticated campaign to restore nothing less than America’s soul.For years, the reflecting pool was an unsightly green algae-plagued mess, due to an Obama-era effort to make it more environmentally friendly. As The Washington Post reported in 2012, algae was already blooming in it a week after its reopening. “This is a direct consequence of the fact that this is a green project,” a National Parks Service spokesperson said at the time.“The conditions are pretty good for algae, once it gets in there.”And get in there it did, despite efforts to eradicate it. The Obama redo also leaked — a lot.

And it smelled bad. Green project, indeed.Developer Trump took note of the “pool” part of “reflecting pool” and instead of calling in high-priced ecology experts, he called in ..

.pool guys. They lined the leaky basin with a compound used to seal, well, pools, tinted blue for color, and added a system to treat the water swimming-pool style. Now the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument frame a lovely body of clear, clean water that doesn’t stink like a swamp.And that’s just one part of Trump’s ongoing “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” program, which has been methodically cleaning and repairing ornamental fountains throughout DC, some of which had been inoperative for decades.The formerly graffiti-covered and trash-filled Columbus Plaza fountain outside Union Station is now gleaming and functioning, as are fountains in Lafayette Park, Meridian Hill Park and more.  Well, Trump is a developer, and he likes things pretty — but there’s more to it than that. By beautifying America’s capital city, Trump wants to encourage us to be proud of America itself. And that nowadays is a political project.Making Americans proud of America use...