Doug Burgum speaks with the media ahead of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Online critics are blasting U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum’s press team for politicizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool by comparing now-dead algae, which reached five-year-high levels, to the remnants of the Iranian Navy — all while taking a swipe at President Barack Obama.
According to The Washington Post on Thursday, Reflecting Pool algae has “roared back,” reaching the “highest levels in years.”
“President Donald Trump vowed in April to clean up what he called the ‘filthy’ and ‘disgusting’ water in the Reflecting Pool,” the Post reported. “He promised to resurface the basin to eliminate persistent leaking and to paint it ‘American flag blue.’ Once the pool started to be refilled, on June 4, he praised its ‘clean, beautiful water.'”
“An analysis of satellite imagery of the Lincoln Memorial shows algae levels spiked days after a $14 million renovation was completed,” the Post noted.
But not according to the Interior Department, which declared hours earlier, late Wednesday night, that the algae problem had been eliminated — just like the Iranian Navy.
“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool—just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” an Interior Department social media post declared.
Interior did not stop there.
“Previous administrations—most notably under Obama—failed to maintain the Reflecting Pool, and after refilling the pool, the water would quickly become murky and thick with massive clumps of algae floating on the surface,” it said, before attacking the media as well.
“As our National Park Service team noted, the Reflecting Pool is now so ‘blue’ that the Fake News Media, which has been staked out at the Reflecting Pool for weeks, has fled!”
Online critics blasted Interior’s post.
“Why the hell is my government’s interior press account making jabs at foreign affairs? FFS, yall supposed to be adults, and you’re acting like petulant children,” wrote one critic. “‘Funny’ is not something I want from my administration. I want resolutions. I want fixes. They are more obsessed with social media & making good clips than making our lives affordable, our wages higher, giving us healthcare.”
“Americans died in this war,” noted communications strategist and political analyst Melik Abdul. “Please stop disrespecting them by comparing the circumstances surrounding their deaths to vacuuming algae. Stick with what you do best and leave your military fantasies out of it. It’s lazy and childish.”
“What purpose does lying serve America?” asked another critic. “Anyone can view the live feed, and see the pool is still green and very much NOT clear. The entire pool is still green, with a couple tiny spots clear, but refilling with Algae as noted from two days ago to this morning the entire edge is refilled with green.”
“Comparing the algae in the reflecting pool after its $14.2 million fraud, waste, and abuse paint job to Iran’s navy isn’t the flex the Department of Interior seems to think it is,” wrote U.S. Air Force Colonel (Ret.) Moe Davis.
“This is an actual U.S. government account spewing deceptive propaganda comparing Trump’s failed Reflecting Pool renovation to his failed Iran War and Memorandum of Understanding,” wrote another critic.
Not all remarks were critical. U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) responded to the Interior Dept.’s post by writing: “This warms my heart.”
