President Trump has a long history of promising that things will get done in “two weeks.” He has said he needs two weeks to pass health care reform, end the war in Gaza, get Denmark to sign off on his Greenland deal, and find a buyer for TikTok.
On Iran, he has said it would take two weeks for him to achieve regime change, accomplish America’s military objectives, and end the war. (The war in Iran is still ongoing.)
And now comes Trump’s latest gambit: He is going to re-surface the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington DC. How long is it going to take? “Two weeks.”
Trump called the current state of the Reflecting Pool “filthy” and has retained his pool guy—who Trump called “a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools up the road”—to manage the project. The project will cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and it’s been reported that Trump’s first instinct was to go with a gaudy turquoise color.
This comes on the heels of Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make room for a new $400 million ballroom. That project is now tied up in litigation, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from coating the White House in faux-gold veneering. And he wants to impose a massive, 250-foot “Arc de Trump” on the backside of the Lincoln Memorial.
Our team headed to the National Mall to do a temperature check on how regular people feel about all these renovations. The consensus: Not great. People we spoke to called the changes “tacky,” “ridiculous,” and “absurd,” and pointed out that instead of focusing on re-decorating the capital, the president should be fixing the economy and ending the senseless war he started.
Andrea said “the ballroom ‘enhancements’ are ridiculous” and pointed out that “most people can’t afford health insurance. They can’t afford their mortgages. They can’t afford a proper place to live. They can’t afford to put food on the table. I think we need to focus our efforts on truly taking care of the American people.” Her friend Elleni called it “a real show of how much he doesn’t care about the public good.”
Aidan said “the Reflecting Pool renovations are a little tacky” and “get in the way of a lot more pressing topics” Aidan’s bottom line: “I don’t think any of these pet projects are a good use of the president’s time.”
We couldn’t have said it better. Thankfully this project will only take “two weeks.”
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