DOTD For Tuesday, June 23, 2026
This Drink Isn't A Reflection On You - Or Washington DC
Because you, our friends & patrons of The Politics Bar, requested it, today’s Drink of The Day is a Trumped Up Reflecting Pool Cocktail & Mocktail, inspired by Donald Trump’s colossal disaster in trying to “clean up” the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, DC! First, a little history.
History Of The Reflecting Pool
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., is a 2,028-foot-long water basin. Designed by architect Henry Bacon, it was completed in 1923 to beautifully connect the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
As the blog “Ghosts of DC” notes, the pool was also built on a marshy strip of land that was originally a tidal mosquito swamp, located between the foot of the Washington Monument and the Potomac River. To create the land area that’s now known as West Potomac Park, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ran dredgers through the river - for over forty years, starting in 1870. By August 30th, 1911, they had moved more than 12 million cubic yards of mud out of the Potomac and dumped it where the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool now stand.
Unlike the Lincoln Memorial, which sits on top of 122 concrete pillars driven 44 to 65 feet into the earth, the Reflecting Pool was built with no foundation. Its bottom was laid in asphalt and tile, and placed directly on the soft, dredged riverbed. No underlying support structure. No pilings. And nearly seven million gallons of water sitting in a concrete basin, made of multiple parts, on ground with the consistency of wet sponge, for about a century.
After having the above information, and looking at the two pictures below, it should be blindingly clear that the Reflecting Pool, while pretty, was also poorly constructed from the start. When DC residents say this place is a swamp, it’s not just a metaphor.
Something Else Obama Had To Fix
By the late 2000s, the pool was losing roughly 500,000 gallons of water per week to cracks, leaks, and evaporation. That was simply an unsustainable loss. So while President Obama & Democrats were not only expected to save the U.S. banking system & world economy from disasters handed to them by Republicans, while trying to overhaul the massively corrupt U.S. health care insurance system - they also had to save one of the most iconic pieces of infrastructure in DC. No pressure.
In November 2010, using $30.74 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, the National Park Service tore out almost every part of the Reflecting Pool that had been built and modified over the previous century. In May 2011, contractors began driving 2,113 wood pilings, each 40 feet long, into the marshy clay below. They then built a new bottom for the pool on top of the pilings, that was supposed to retain water, and stabilize the infrastructure for decades to come. The Reflecting Pool reopened to the public on August 31st, 2012.
Within weeks an algae bloom covered the surface of the pool, and the U.S. Park Service had to drain it again. Because it’s a freakin’ swamp, people.
Donald Makes It Worse, As Always
As David Fahrenthold and Luke Broadwater of the NY Times wrote in early May, Trump’s desire to have the National Mall be picture perfect for his celebration of the 250th birthday of the U.S. is part of what drove him to focus on trying to clear up the Reflecting Pool. But as their story makes clear, from the illegitimate, overinflated, no-bid contract given to the cigar-puffing crony of Trump’s, to the sealant used by the company (which was for truck beds, not granite), to their use of hydrogen peroxide to try to kill the algae - which is also similar to paint thinner and breaks down the sealant coating they used - everything Trump has demanded to be done to the pool has only made things worse.
As you can see in this series of photos (Courtesy of ABC news), the Reflecting Pool has only gotten greener, not bluer.
As Hayes Brown of MSNOW noted this week, the Reflecting Pool disaster caused by Trump is a perfect - and perfectly ugly - metaphor for Trump’s entire second regime. Donald Trump has a hubristic habit of claiming he’s getting things done that nobody has before, rushing through the efforts, breaking laws & rules bullying everyone — and then blaming others when things go south. With this project, it’s no different.
Still, while we may all know how much of a failure Donald Trump is, it should be noted that the area where the Reflecting Pool is located has been swampy marsh flats for almost as long as the U.S. has been a nation. That he couldn’t fix it right away shouldn’t surprise anyone, even discounting his graft & incompetence. It’s a pool of water that’s 2,028 feet long, 167 feet wide, 18 inches deep at the edges and 30 inches in the middle, filled with water that’s supposed to remain still as it’s baked by the sun, during Washington DC’s 90+ degree summers. Of course it’s going to grow algae! It’s a freakin’ swamp!
Still, since you requested it, and we aim to please, in honor of the mess Trump has made of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, today’s Drink of The Day is a Trumped Up Reflecting Pool Cocktail & Mocktail! Drink up!
Ingredients
Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink:
