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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Guardian staff

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s reflecting pool: ‘latest waste of money to promote his glorious reign’

Man in suit speaking on stage with hands gestured
Jimmy Kimmel: ‘You know, he promised he would drain the swamp. Instead, he spent 14m of our dollars building a new one.’ Photograph: ABC

On Tuesday evening, Jimmy Kimmel discussed Donald Trump’s disastrous renovations of the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool and his “victory lap” over his purported Iran deal.

Jimmy Kimmel

On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host remarked on a quiet US news day. “Could that be because our president is 5,000 miles away in another country?” he asked.

Trump is currently in France for the annual G7 summit between the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. “He’s in France trying his darndest to stay awake,” laughed Kimmel.

The US’s allies are said to be reconsidering their relationship with the US amid Trump’s war in Iran – as Kimmel put it, “rethinking their relationship with us the same way Drake is rethinking his relationship with Kendrick Lamar”.

On Monday, Trump and Iranian officials said that a framework peace deal had been reached.

“Trump has been taking a victory lap over this purported deal with Iran that no one has seen,” said Kimmel. “The White House hasn’t released any of it. They haven’t released it to Congress or the press or anyone.”

The president has also been cooking up what Kimmel called “his latest waste of money to promote his glorious reign”, with plans for a Trump rally in Washington DC on 4 July that includes “the largest fireworks show in history”.

“He’s going to burn down the White House, isn’t he?” joked Kimmel. “The amount of time he spends talking about and planning these events and building vanity projects – it’s unbelievable and it’s expensive.”

Trump has spent a reported $14.2m updating the reflecting pool on the National Mall because he didn’t like the color, preferring an “American flag blue”.

“Now not even a week later, it’s already completely green – it’s Mexican flag green,” said Kimmel, as he showed a picture of the pool to audience laughter.

“Experts are saying that when Trump had it painted dark blue, he made the problem worse because the darker color retains more heat and algae thrives in warmer water,” Kimmel continued. “You know, he promised he would drain the swamp. Instead, he spent 14m of our dollars building a new one.

“His next step is to move St Patrick’s Day to July and claim it’s green on purpose. He owns hotels. If there was one thing he could do, you would think it was keep a pool clean, and he can’t even get that right.”

Meanwhile, Robert F Kennedy Jr’s sister Carrie went on CNN this week to share memories of the US health secretary’s interactions with reptiles.

At her daughter’s fourth birthday party, Carrie said that her brother grabbed a snake from the ground “and stuffed it into a pillow case while he was holding his infant son … This snake was just chomping on his hand and he pulled it out to show the kids.”

“Now that’s a fun uncle,” laughed Kimmel. RFK Jr then released the snake into a nearby swimming pool.

“And he’s worried about adding fluoride to the water?” asked Kimmel. “This is one of the nuttiest stories I’ve ever heard about anyone. This is a story you’d hear about Gary Busey on the set of Buddy Holly. And that is the man in charge of our children’s vaccinations.”

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