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12 hours ago

The shallow authoritarianism of Trump’s Reflecting Pool

President Donald Trump speaks about proposed renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in the Oval Office on June 3, 2026. | Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images What should one make of the president’s mounting obsession with the Reflecting Pool? On the surface, it’s ridiculous. Noting that the pool was full of algae and not reflecting as well as it should, President Donald Trump launched an expensive beautification effort — repainting the bottom and trying chemical treatments to treat the algae. The end result: a new algae bloom likely caused by the new paint color. G...