Jimmy Kimmel used his opening monologue on Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! to mock Donald Trump’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The roughly 2,000-foot pool turned green with algae just days after the Trump administration completed its $14 million resurfacing project, coating its floor an “American flag blue.”
“Now, not even a week later, it’s already completely green — it’s Mexican flag green,” Kimmel joked Tuesday.
“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,” the late night host pointed out.
“You know, he promised he would drain the swamp. Instead, he spent 14 million 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.”
Kimmel continued: “He owns hotels. If there was one thing he could do, you would think it was keep a pool clean. He can’t even get that right!”
The host also played a clip of a Fox News reporter praising Trump for cleaning up the algae because “no other president would do that.”
“That’s right. No one,” Kimmel jokingly agreed. “Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t have done that. He couldn’t have done it. He didn’t have the courage to do it.”
In response to the algae bloom, a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior took a swipe at former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama in a statement to The Independent.
“Unlike under Obama and Biden, the National Park Service is actually maintaining the beautifully completed Reflecting Pool,” the spokesperson said.
“To keep the water in the Reflecting Pool not only crystal clear but also clean, we are deploying high-tech nanobubble ozone technology. This technology is actively killing algae, pathogens (e.g., E. coli), and contaminants that have long plagued the Reflecting Pool since 1922, most infamously, the Obama pool reopening that resulted in massive algae clumps taking over the pool’s surface following years of construction that cost taxpayers millions upon millions only to be broken and disgusting days later.”
The spokesperson went on to claim the National Park Service was “actually maintaining [the pool] versus previous administrations.”
On Tuesday, workers outfitted in neon vests were seen dumping hydrogen peroxide into the pool.
A close-up of the materials showed workers were using a 12 percent concentration, which the CDC warns can cause respiratory issues if inhaled and chemical burns upon skin contact, according to The New Republic. At high concentrations, hydrogen peroxide may also pose a risk to wildlife, including ducks that are often seen splashing around in the pool.
The spokesperson for the Department of the Interior confirmed that hydrogen peroxide had been deployed, describing it as “a milder treatment than chlorine,” which has “no harmful side effects to marine life or to the environment.”
