Federal officials have arrested several people for allegedly vandalizing the newly renovated Reflecting Pool in Washington. This all started in April when President Donald Trump decided to make renovating the pool one of his top priorities, despite significant inflation and an unsolved fiasco in the Middle East.

According to Trump, the pool was disgusting. He decided to have it drained, cleaned, and coated in a blue color. He initially said it should cost $1.5-2 million and would be ready in time for July 4.

The pool has faced numerous problems over the last century, including massive leaks from its pipes due to the ground shifting and reoccurring algae. Naturally, Trump's plan to fix the issues did not include dealing with the leaking pipes. Instead, Trump decided to blame these long-time problems on the alleged incompetence of his Democratic predecessors, Presidents Obama and Biden. He falsely said they spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to address the problems.

Trump quickly awarded the contract for renovating the pool to a company that he said had repaired his own swimming pool. There was no public bidding process. Trump quickly changed his tune and denied knowing who the contractor was. Of course, the actual amount spent thus far is at least seven times more than what he promised at almost $15 million.

Naturally, another $1.7 million no-bid contract was awarded to install a water-purification system in the pool, which, for some reason, was not ready when the pool was refilled following completion of the rest of the renovation. This contract was awarded to a company owned by "a donor to Mr. Trump and a neighbor to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club in Florida." The awardee has previously been convicted of bribing a Congressman and committing perjury.

To the surprise of no one with half a brain, the project has been a disaster. Soon after the significantly over-budget and poorly-planned renovation was finished, the pool once again became riddled with algae. Officials said the algae was simply "residual" and came from dormant supply lines.

Not to worry, workers soon tackled the problem by dumping jugs of hydrogen peroxide, which can be used to strip paint, into the pool. Coincidentally, the blue layering Trump insisted on began peeling off in huge chunks. How odd for a "highly sophisticated material, industrial strength, that could last for 100 years, applied by very talented people, many of whom came from the Great State of Oklahoma, where [Trump] won 77 out of 77 Counties, THREE TIMES...."

At least Trump is taking responsibility for the failures and working diligently to correct them.

Oh...

Weirdly enough, Trump has put forth no evidence to substantiate his claims that the pool was vandalized. A former Olympic cyclist, who said he merely touched a floating piece of blue liner, was one of the people arrested. According to CNN, prosecutors have yet to formally bring charges against any of the alleged vandals. How odd that the government had enough evidence to justify arresting/citing people for vandalizing the pool, but no evidence has been publicly proffered and no charges have been filed.

Yet again, we have a classic example of Trump's approach to fixing a problem. He becomes utterly fixated on something he claims is a matter of urgent concern. He blames others' incompetence and lack of will for the problem and acts like only he can quickly, easily, and cheaply solve it. He usually violates the law and/or normal ethical principles to address the problem, which often involves enriching his family or supporters and results in an expensive botch job. He then blames others, often without evidence, and eventually declares victory and moves on.

We are all familiar by now with the Trump duet of incompetence and corruption. No matter how often we see this behavior, you can count on Trump supporters to gobble down everything Trump says and place the blame elsewhere.

The Reflecting Pool fiasco is amusing in a sardonic way; however, it is just another chapter in the sad, demoralizing state of our government under Trump.