John Oliver likened the current condition of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. to “sex with the Grinch” on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight.
“Another of Trump‘s pet projects continues to unravel,” the host said of the pool’s $15 million renovation, which hasn’t gone as planned. The upgrades included fixing leaks, adding a blue lining and installing something called “nanobubblers” that were aimed at preventing algae. However, the pool has recently been affected by peeling paint and a resurface in algae.
On Sunday, Trump blamed vandals for the issues. “The Reflecting Pool is now in full use after suffering great damage from Criminal, Radical Left Vandals, people that truly hate our Country,” he posted on Truth Social. “They cut the lower surface of a very expensive and strong waterproof padding, in the color of American Flag Blue, and put their hands underneath the surface, and ripped it. Likewise, they cut and butchered a 350 foot long strip, with many 1 and 2 foot individual cuts, creating great damage to this beautiful piece of art that was, last week, 100% free of leaks, and any of the other problems it has had since its building in 1922. It never worked properly until last week and, right after July 4th, when we will drain the water to treat the damage caused by these ‘animals,’ it will again be in perfect shape.”
On his HBO show, Oliver showed a clip from NBC’s Today where a reporter asked a woman about the condition of the pool. “There’s lots of green, and it smells really bad,” she said.
Quipped Oliver: “It’s never a great sign when the feedback for your national monument sounds exactly like a review for sex with the Grinch: green, smelly, good communicator though — three stars.”
Despite not having proof, Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals are to blame for the algae as well as the long cut in the liner. “Trump kept pushing the sabotage conspiracy, and his supporters kept trying to sell it even when the evidence was just laughably weak,” Oliver added, showing a clip of Fox News Channel’s Jesse Watters broadcasting a blurry video of what he claimed could be two people sabotaging the pool.
“What are they doing with their hands in the pool?” Watters asked. “Are they cutting the lining? Are they peeling off the paint? And we don’t know if they’re committing a crime. They’ll probably tell you they dropped their wedding ring.”
Responded Oliver: “Is that the best you’ve got? That is pathetic. As for ‘they’ll probably tell you they dropped their wedding ring,’ yeah, maybe they did. Maybe those people at the reflecting pool dropped their wedding ring after leaving their wife for a 25-year-old co-worker. Jesse would know what that is like.” That last bit, of course, was a reference to a then-married Watters’ affair with a 25-year-old producer of his show, leading to his wife filing for divorce in 2018.
“It’s actually one of the many fun facts that you can learn about on his Wikipedia page, along with in November 2024, Waters stated he had not been invited to his mother’s home for Thanksgiving,” Oliver continued. “I do not blame his mum for that. She’s a child psychologist and she tried her best; sometimes you just get one that sucks.”
Currently, the reflecting pool is surrounded by a chain-link fence erected by the National Guard.
“In fact, when you Google it now, you’ll find this label saying it is ‘temporarily closed,’” Oliver noted. “Like it’s a Chipotle that the health department shut down after finding a dead mouse in the guac.”
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