{"id":67923,"date":"2026-05-12T15:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/67923\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:20:10","slug":"trump-melts-down-over-reflecting-pool-reports-in-truth-social-spree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/67923\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Melts Down Over Reflecting Pool Reports in Truth Social Spree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDonald Trump<\/a> had another episode on social media ahead of a critical state visit to China this week. The president posted to Truth Social dozens of times overnight and into Tuesday morning, railing against prominent Democrats like Barack Obama and Joe Biden, pushing false claims about the 2020 election, and imagining himself on the $100 bill, along with several other bizarre posts.<\/p>\n

Trump is posting absolutely deranged shit on social media this morning ahead of departing for China today. Get a load of this stuff. pic.twitter.com\/mkCU033AYa<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tTrump also promoted his latest pet project, refinishing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool<\/a>. \u201cDemocrats Love Sewage,\u201d read one post featuring an AI image of Obama, Biden, and Nancy Pelosi bathing in a fetid Reflecting Pool covered in waste. In another, he wrote a lengthy screed bashing The New York Times for its coverage of the project, particularly a story published Monday about how it\u2019s going to cost taxpayers several times more than what Trump promised.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is not just a paint job, like lowlife \u2018reporter,\u2019 David Fahrenthold, of the NYT so inaccurately and maliciously stated, it is a deeply complicated work of smart and beautiful construction,\u201d the president wrote, after claiming that \u201cmany patriots\u201d had asked him to fix the Reflecting Pool, which he says had been \u201can embarrassment to Washington, D.C., and to our Country, itself\u201d due to mismanagement by Obama and Biden.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t give out the contract, \u2018Interior\u2019 did, to a contractor I did not know, and have never used before,\u201d Trump concluded, despite having previously claimed that he selected the contractor because they had worked on the swimming pool at one of his golf clubs.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Times reported<\/a> on Monday that though Trump said the contractor was only charging the government $1.8 million to redo to the pool and paint its bottom blue, the Interior Department last week doubled the size of the contract and now planned to pay the company nearly $14 million. The government is typically required to hold a competitive bidding projects for contract work, but the Trump administration gave Atlantic Industrial Coatings a no-bid contract to renovate the pool, arguing that the project was too urgent to waste time with a bidding process. Trump wrote in his Truth Social post on Tuesday that the project would cost \u201c5 or 6 Million Dollars\u201d and be done in two weeks.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tThe report followed a separate Times piece published last week<\/a> poking holes in the narrative Trump is pushing about the project, which is only one example of the ways in which he is flouting tradition \u2014 and arguably, the law \u2014\u00a0to overhaul the aesthetic<\/a> of Washington, D.C., in his image. The piece pointed out that the administration is not addressing issues with its filtration system, that painting the bottom blue will not solve any algae problems, and that Trump\u2019s recent stunt driving his motorcade across the drained pool could have caused damage to the concrete. The Times also noted that it could not confirm that Atlantic Industrial Coatings worked on the swimming pools at Trump\u2019s club, like Trump claimed, and that the company does not even advertise that it does work on swimming pools.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump has increasingly occupied with building projects like the Reflecting Pool and the White House ballroom as his approval has cratered amid an unpopular war against Iran and a cost-of-living crisis at home. He ranted<\/a> about the need for aesthetic renovations while speaking to law enforcement officials on Monday night at the White House Rose Garden, which he has also renovated. \u201cIt was a shit house,\u201d the president of the White House before he took office. \u201cThis place is tippy-top now.\u201d<\/p>\n