Trump’s Reflecting Pool Renovation Is Somehow Still Peeling Off

President Trump’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is continuing to fail. 

Freelance photographer Joe Flood posted a video Wednesday of workers dealing with large chunks of sealant peeling off the dry concrete at the bottom of the pool, which was full of water before Trump turned his attention to it. 

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the pool was vandalized, with the Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office filing charges in July against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn for allegedly ripping a large gash from the pool’s blue paint and lining. Those charges were baseless, as the pool’s paint was peeling off due to the application of hydrogen peroxide to kill algae. The U.S. Attorney’s Office was forced to drop the case against Hearn and all other so-called “vandals.”

The state of the pool Wednesday would seem to confirm that Trump was wrong all along, although he has yet to admit it. Last week, court filings revealed that the Trump administration knew the pool’s paint was peeling almost a month before bringing charges against Hearn and other defendants.

Trump gave the renovation project to a business owned by a longtime Republican donor, curiously named  Greenwater Services, through a no-bid process. The Justice Department has admitted that the damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by Greenwater’s “flawed” installation of the pool lining, not vandals, and it doesn’t appear to be over yet. 

Not only is the pool still in an awful state, but Trump could face legal action from Hearn over the false claims his administration made against him, and Democrats in Congress want to investigate why the administration pushed the made-up charges. This long, drawn-out, failed project that wasn’t even necessary in the first place is emblematic of Trump’s presidency. 

Nearly half of the states in the U.S. have filed a lawsuit to stop the United States Postal Service from imposing new restrictions on mail-in voting ahead of the midterms in November.

The 55-page complaint, filed by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Washington D.C., and 23 blue states, comes two days after the Supreme Court halted an injunction on President Trump’s executive order requiring changes to mail ballots.

Under the new U.S. Postal Service rules, states must submit mail-in voters’ information into a USPS portal, and meet strict requirements for their ballot envelope designs.

“We’re suing to block USPS’s rule restricting mail-in voting. This rule is an unlawful overreach that shows just how far President Trump will go to control elections—and we won’t stand for it,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Wednesday. “Your vote is your voice. We’re asking the court to ensure every person has the right to make theirs heard.”

“One need not look further than the White House to explain USPS’s unprecedented and unlawful conduct. President Trump has long opposed mail voting, expressing that it would ‘LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY,’” the lawsuit read. “Since reassuming office, the President has aimed to—in his words— ‘get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS.’”

“I’m suing to block the Trump administration’s new rule that allows the USPS to intercept and reject lawful ballots, threatening millions of Americans’ right to vote,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “With the midterms less than three months away, this will create confusion and unacceptable risks for voters.”

This policy is voter suppression masquerading as fraud control, led by a president who can’t accept the will of the electorate. The Trump administration sees it as a major win.

“Radical Democrats continue to oppose commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans are electing American leaders,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said. “The Trump Administration will continue to lawfully enact the agenda President Trump was elected on—which includes the safety and security of our elections.”

The Trump administration has declared a British pro-Palestine organization a terrorist group.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Wednesday that the U.S. is sanctioning Palestine Action, accusing the organization of “having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods and services to or in support of, an act of terrorism.”

“Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: We will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear,” Bessent said in a statement. “Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.”

The designation is part of the administration’s global crusade against left-wing organizations and movements, specifically antifa, or anti-fascism. President Trump has signed several executive orders, including the troubling security memo NPSM-7, labeling the entire anti-fascist movement as “treasonous” to the U.S.

Palestine Action was designated as a terrorist organization by the British government last year over protests at military bases and against the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. British lawmakers cited a specific instance in which activists broke into an airbase and sprayed military planes with red paint.

The group’s leaders are challenging the British government’s designation, appealing to the U.K. Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights after earlier court battles ruled in favor of the authorities. Hearings are scheduled for later this year.

None of that seems to matter for the Trump administration, which has been systematically criminalizing dissent and pro-Palestine activism in defiance of the First Amendment to the Constitution. If Palestine Action successfully overturns its terrorism designation in the U.K., U.S. protections for free speech and freedom of assembly will look worthless by comparison.

As the U.S. mourns Dolly Parton, the country idol’s charity, Imagination Library, has recommitted itself to providing free books to children under the age of five. But its future has become all the more uncertain due to the quiet machinations of Republicans that have sought to unravel public funding for the cause.

According to its website, more than three million children are registered to receive a free book every month from Imagination Library. So far, Parton’s nonprofit has doled out more than 332 million books to kids across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.

“The world grieves with us today. And yet we find ourselves just as certain about what comes next. For decades, Dolly & the team at The Dollywood Foundation—home of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library—worked to build something that would last for generations. So it will,” the organization wrote on social media Tuesday, shortly after Parton’s family announced the 80-year-old had died following a brief battle with cancer. “The work ahead has never felt more meaningful, and we will carry it forward as she lifts us all up.”

Yet children in the American Midwest may not find themselves so lucky. In Indiana, funding for the program was removed from the state budget in 2025. Republican Governor Mike Braun said the state plans to replace an annual $3 million allowance via private philanthropic donations, according to Newsweek.

Jeff Conyers, the vice chair and president of the Dollywood Foundation, implored Braun and the Republican-controlled state legislature to reconsider the cuts, telling Rolling Stone in February of that year that “the beauty of the Imagination Library is that it unites us all—regardless of politics—because every child deserves the chance to dream big and succeed.”

Missouri lawmakers similarly divested from the reading charity, slashing state funding for the upcoming fiscal year from $6 million to $2 million. The impact of that decision has already been felt, forcing the state to freeze enrollment in the book-a-month program on July 1. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced in June that it would distribute as many books as it could until funding for the program ran out.

“We are unsure of the future of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Missouri as a state-funded program,” said Lucas Bond, the department’s communications director, in a statement to St. Louis’s NBC affiliate KSDK in June. “Partnering with local programs could be a potential in the future with time, funding, and partnerships coordination.”

The change is a stark reversal for Missouri, which became the first state in the nation to fully fund the program in 2024. At the time, Parton was thrilled by the investment, sharing that “it makes me happy to think that I’m giving them a gift that matters to them, and it makes me happy to know that I’ve made them feel special.”

President Donald Trump wants to turn the midterm elections into a Trumpfest, in what could be a massive gift to Democratic lawmakers.

The Atlantic reported Tuesday that Trump met with his top political advisers early this month to create a strategy for spending his super PAC’s $400 million war chest ahead of November. Trump’s solution in the face of apparent Democratic favorability? To buy advertisements focusing on his own record, according to three people familiar with the meeting.

House and Senate Democrats are planning to use the election as a referendum on the president, Trump told his advisers. He wanted to double down by highlighting his scant victories. “Go look at the clips,” the president instructed his staff, one person told The Atlantic. “I cite accomplishments all the time.”

It’s no secret that Trump is the Republicans’ best communicator (yikes), but the president’s so-called “Golden Age” isn’t going so well. His choice to turn November’s midterm elections into a Trumpfest comes as his approval ratings have hit a record low and his disastrous policies are threatening to alienate even his most staunch supporters.

Things have gotten so bad that Republican candidates are actively distancing themselves from the president and his lackeys. Trump is about to make that a lot harder.