In the big scheme of things, the Reflecting Pool screw-up is not that important. Out of the top hundred crazy, irrational, destructive, and detrimental things Trump has done that concern me, the screw-up of the Reflecting Pool ranks in the nineties. However, it reflects the way Trump thinks, the way he acts, and his level of immaturity.
Trump gave a $14 million no-bid contract to his pool guy, who was unqualified, who had contributed to his campaign, the work was defective and rushed in time for the 250th birthday bash, and the renovation was a disaster. This is the way Trump operates. He has disdain for experts and for methodical procedures and processes. He is a man of action, not study committees and expert opinion. While at times bureaucracy can get in the way of getting things done in an expeditious manner, there is usually a reason for the deliberative process.
We witnessed Trump improvisational, shoot-from-the-hip, make-it-up-as-you-go-along style of governance from the start of this term with DOGE, when vital agencies were shut down and people fired, without following procedure. This resulted in all kinds of harm, including harming America's standing in the world, a humanitarian crisis, and threats to public health and safety. Many of the fired had to be reinstated. Any savings proved minimal.
We witness Trump's style of management with the immigration policy. Trump thought it would be a good idea to build a $1.2 billion, 3000-bed immigration facility in the Florida swamps known as "Alligator Alcatraz." I think cruelty was the point. He partnered with the Florida governor to open the facility and bypassed normal procedures for making that decision. There were human rights abuses and lawsuits, and now the facility has been closed and is not slated to be reopened.
Trump's style of management is reflected in his approach to immigration enforcement, where legal immigrants and American citizens have had their rights trampled, and people have died due to Trump's policies. Trump sees norms and constitutional rights as just impediments to getting things done.
We have seen it in his tariff policies. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress, not the President, the sole authority to lay and collect tariffs under Article I, Section 8. Trump cannot be bothered by insignificant things like the Constitution- he has a job to do. That the tariffs raise prices to consumers and harm American industry and agriculture is irrelevant. That is just what experts say, and Trump knows more than all the experts.
We have seen it in his starting a war of choice with Iran. The war cost between $25 billion and $32 billion in direct military spending, with long-term economic estimates ranging up to $1 trillion, and it looks like we are going to end up with a deal worse than Obama's JCPOA, with the US giving more aid to Iran than did President Obama. And, the old theocratic dictatorship still rules the country.
There are example after example where Trump made policy and bypassed the experts, the Constitution, and norms and procedures. When his policies fail, or he is stopped from taking illegal action, what does he do? He deflects the blame, attacks his critics, and throws a tantrum. Two years after Biden left office, many of Trump's failures are Biden's fault. Nine years after Obama left office, Trump is still blaming Obama for things going wrong.
Judges who say, wait a minute, we have to follow the Constitution, are attacked as "left-wing lunatics." When members of the press question Trump's illegal and irrational actions, they are attacked as enemies of the people. If an election does not go his way, it is because it was rigged. The only honest election is one he won.
Now that the Reflecting Pool has been a failure, what does he do? He alleges the failure was the result of sabotage. "They took some form of knife or blade and put a 250-foot-long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete," he wrote on Truth Social. What?? This is so ludicrous it cannot possibly be taken seriously. In this highly visible area, people with knives got in the pool and cut up the liner? They cut a gash almost as long as a football field in the pool? And what about the algae? Was it bioengineered by Antifa in a secret lab?
Not only is he sounding like a lunatic, but a lunatic with power. He has ordered the Justice Department to find the saboteurs and has threatened 10-year prison terms for the perpetrators. People who have reached into the water to get a piece of the floating blue pool liner have been arrested.
Trump wasting a few million here or there does not concern me nearly as much as the fact that we have an erratic, delusional, megalomaniac with the self-control of a three-year-old in charge of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth.
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