U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House for Florida, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 20, 2026. REUTERS Nathan Howard
President Donald Trump’s Reflecting Pool scandal speaks to deeper systemic failures in his presidency, at least according to one Marine veteran.
“With the news that the Trump administration’s attempt to beautify the Reflecting Pool is looking like a spectacular backfire, a lot of people said it was a perfect analogy of how things are going in general,” wrote Joslin Joseph, an Iraq war veteran and recipient of the Military Reporters and Editors award for Best Commentary-Opinion, in an editorial for The Hill.
Joseph added that Trump “likes to get things done, but he doesn’t get them done right.” In the case of the Reflecting Pool, Trump reportedly focused on getting the pool done as fast as possible and hired his personal associates rather than contracting the process out to the highest quality business willing to perform at the lowest bid. From there, Joseph connected Trump’s Reflecting Pool debacle to his recent attempts to wrap up the war he waged against Iran.
“Just like the Interior Department’s claim of crystal clear water, the Trump administration is now selling the American public that the job he set out to do in Iran was done right, despite evidence pointing to the contrary,” Joseph wrote. “Although the Reflecting Pool and Iran are on different levels of importance to the American people, the outcomes from both so far are an indictment on how poorly Trump’s ‘get things done and worry about the fallout later’ approach goes.”
In addition to his shunning of expertise and planning with the Reflecting Pool and the Iran war, Joseph also pointed to Trump’s DOGE destroying government agencies “without understanding how the government worked only to see the effort fail to cut spending and waste,” as well as his “Liberation Day” tariffs that raised prices, harmed the economy and were in some cases found to have been illegal.
“Getting things done is laudable, especially with the gridlock that has plagued Washington for a while,” Joseph concluded. “But competence, accountability and judgement are still needed to get things done right. If you don’t have those, you end up with sweetheart deals for Iran and a reflecting pool that looks like a swamp.”
Joseph is not alone among individuals scoffing at Trump’s attempts to renovate the Reflecting Pool. Despite the president pressing charges against people for supposedly vandalizing the Reflecting Pool — claims that he has made without evidence, and despite the physical implausibility of someone making a 100-yard gash in the sealant as he alleges — commenters by and large do not seem to believe his claims.
"Reflecting Pool story: Under Obama, responsible people carefully studied the problem, sought best solutions - and failed,” conservative journalist David Frum posted on Sunday. “Under Trump, irresponsible people imposed a hasty solution that enriched inept cronies - and failed even more spectacularly."
A top former government official, like Joseph, connected Trump’s Reflecting Pool failure to his broader shortcomings as an administrator.
"Like most things Trump touches, the Reflecting Pool is now in worse shape than before,” former US Attorney Barbara McQuade said on X on Sunday. “Adding cosmetic paint did not solve the underlying problem. And now he baselessly blames vandals for his failure."