US3 min(s) read
Published 11:24 25 Jun 2026 GMT
Since the Trump administration spent $14 million of taxpayer money on painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool “American Flag Blue”, only for it to turn green in a matter of days, online criticism of the decision has been relentless, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is caught in the eye of it.
The money-sucking project is rapidly becoming the centre of a growing political storm over government spending.
Humiliatingly, after spending an eye-watering sum on painting the memorial pool, the water turned green just days after it was resurfaced.
In a desperate attempt to resolve the discoloration, the administration then ordered hydrogen peroxide to be added to the water.
However, all it appeared to do was turn the edges blue and leave a huge green strip running through the middle. Large sections of paint then began peeling from the pool’s floor, and a dead duck was spotted floating on the surface shortly after the toxic chemical was added.
In typical Trump style, the President took to Truth Social to address the damage and shift the blame onto the other political side. In numerous posts, he claimed that vandals had slashed the 250-foot strip and poured corrosive chemicals into the water. He even stated that “many” arrests had been made, although there is no evidence of them.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s posts were met with criticism and suspicion, and the extremely expensive failure by the government attracted global media attention.
In a bid to defend the colossal mistake made by the administration, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt hit out at the media, rather than addressing the embarrassing blunder.
When an X user complained about the volume of media coverage the story was attracting, Leavitt replied: "So true, and so sad. The liberal media is truly deranged."
Quickly, the comment sparked a wave of backlash from White House critics, many of whom accused Trump of starting the song and dance over the memorial pool.
In now-deleted social media posts and tip-offs to the press, Trump had persistently promoted the painting of the pool in the weeks before it suddenly went wrong, causing many people online to point out that he cannot complain about the media interest now.
One X user wrote: "Could it be that people are talking about it because Trump spent weeks and weeks talking about how big this project was? Y'all created this news cycle."
Social media users also dug up previous posts promoting the pool project from the Press Secretary herself, while others criticized the administration’s spending priorities. It was widely pointed out that cuts had been made to food assistance programmes on the grounds of funding.
