The Trump administration spent $14.65 million renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — painting the bottom a shade the president called "American flag blue" — to be ready for the nation's 250th anniversary celebrations. Within days, the pool was covered in algae. The blue paint began peeling off in chunks. A gap roughly the size of a park bench appeared in the new coating, exposing the original concrete beneath. The pool now needs to be partially drained for additional repairs — at additional cost to the public.

This was entirely predictable. Engineers and experts warned before the renovation began that the hastily undertaken project was unlikely to solve the problems that have plagued the pool for decades. Nobody listened. The work went ahead anyway — awarded through a no-bid contract to a construction company with ties to Donald Trump. The same company building his White House ballroom.

The money did not come from a presidential discretionary fund. It came from national park entrance fees — money paid by families visiting Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Zion, meant by law to fund maintenance at the parks where it was collected.

Now the pool is a national embarrassment. Tourists are flocking to photograph the algae and peeling paint. A three-time Olympian has been charged with destroying government property for touching a piece of already-peeling paint. And the president is blaming vandals — without evidence — rather than the contractors who built a $14.65 million renovation that failed in a week.

We're calling on Congress to launch an immediate investigation into how this contract was awarded, why expert warnings were ignored, where the money came from, and who is financially liable for this expensive and humiliating failure.