OMG: Trump dealt NEW reflecting pool DISASTER

Trump's big renovations to the. reflecting pool has now turned into a. national embarrassment with today's. update really serving as the icing on. the cake. So, this was the scene at the. reflecting pool this morning. Just a line of workers dumping straight.

hydrogen peroxide into the water in. their desperation to turn the newly. renovated but still algae-filled. reflecting pool blue again. And if. you're wondering whether it's working, well, uh it's not. One reporter, Brendan. Keith, got an aerial view of the pool. today. Now, you can actually see, if you. look closely, that the edges where the. hydrogen peroxide was dumped in are more. blue, but that the inside of the pool is. still green, which I suppose suggests. that so long as we have workers on a. constant shift dumping 8,000 gallons of.

chemicals on a constant basis into the. reflecting pool, everything should be. fine. Except, of course, for any. wildlife that attempts to survive in. this chemical cocktail. Now, the reason. that the White House is allocating so. many resources to this is, of course, because they're embarrassed. They. decided to prioritize yet another vanity. project for dear leader instead of. funding something that actually helps. Americans, and yet even that vanity. project ended up being rife with. incompetence and corruption. How? Well,

normally, federal law requires most. contracts to be competitively bid to. ensure taxpayers get the best value and. avoid favoritism and corruption by. requiring agencies to evaluate bids. using documented criteria. Only, surprise, surprise, that is not exactly. what happened here. >> So, these are no-bid contracts. The. government is supposed to let multiple. vendors bid on jobs like this, so the. taxpayers get their best best bang for. the buck. In this case, the The. administration used sort of a special. power to block out all competition and. hand this job directly to a firm that.

President Trump says is close to him. He. says this is a company that worked on. the swimming pools at his golf club in. northern Virginia. And so what happens. when you give a contract directly to. somebody with no competition, you don't. really know you're getting the best. deal. You don't know that you're getting. the best person for the job. >> And if you're wondering whether this. company had some previous federal. contracts that made them experts in this. field, well, not quite. >> And the contractor for this project, our. reporting also showed, had no previous. federal contracts. >> In fact, if you're also wondering.

whether these contractors have even. worked on these types of pool-based. projects before, here you go. >> It's not clear this is a swimming pool. contractor at all. Their website is more. about lining pipes and culverts and fuel. tanks. It's clear this is a very. different project than the ones that. they appear to be used to. >> Yep, wouldn't be a Trump job without a. massive amount of grift and corruption. $13 million so that we could go from an. algae-filled reflecting pool. to an algae-filled reflecting pool. Just. a quick note here to say that if you. appreciate my work, which is and always.

will be 100% free, a small ask is if you. could please pre-order my new book, The. Day After, which explores how Democrats. must finally wield power if they're. fortunate enough to get it back. I'll. also be on tour in D.C., New York, and. L.A. mid-July. You can grab tickets to. the tour and you can pre-order the book. at the same link, which I'll put on the. screen and in the post description of. this video. You can also find them at. briantylercohen.com/book. Again, I'll never paywall a single piece. of content, but this is the one time. that I'll ask for some support for a. book that I really think meets this.

moment. Thanks so much. And so now that. Trump decided to engage in that. corruption, he and the rest of the GOP. have to pretend that it was all worth. it. Everything is fine, A-okay. And so. this is the right-wing coverage that. we're left with. >> I'm here at the newly renovated. reflecting pool. It's painted American. flag blue, and the Democrats are going. to tell you, "Oh, there's green algae. It looks so bad." But, there's pool guys. cleaning it up right now. No other. president would do that. But, President. Trump is still cleaning it up.

>> Yes, thanks so much, Jesse. It's painted. American flag blue, which is what the. green behind me is. That's right. Trump. says it's blue, so it's blue. And if. anyone doubts that, ask yourself, who. are you going to believe? Me, an anchor. from Fox News, the network that just. paid out $787 million for lying, or your. own eyes? Back to you in the studio, Jesse. Like, I'm sorry, but this is just. so pathetic. Now, Fox has been reduced. to covering the fact that the White. House was forced to bring in pool.

cleaners to try and retroactively. justify the White House spending $13.1. million on this renovation that landed. us in the exact same spot as before. Great. So, as long as we have guys. cleaning the reflecting pool 24 hours a. day, it should be fine. Totally worth. the cost. Totally worth siphoning money. for another Trump vanity project to the. detriment of helping regular people. And that's really the crux of all of. this. Look, I don't give a about the reflecting. pool. If they want to renovate it,

great. I don't care. The issue here is. that Trump has unilaterally focused on. his vanity projects and has not focused. on regular people. His ballroom, his. reflecting pool, his Qatari jet, his. Rose Garden, his black granite walkway, his arch, the marble in the Kennedy. Center, his golden-crusted Oval Office, it is all about him. Which would be bad. enough unto itself, but worse given the. fact that this guy's entire campaign was. him swearing up and down that he would. focus on regular people, the forgotten.

American. This is outright contempt for. the people who were gullible enough to. believe his lies. But, beyond that, when he engages in. these projects to adorn his surroundings. with gold and opulence, it underscores. the fact that the other stuff isn't. getting done because he simply doesn't. care. All of which is a point I made to. Jessica Tarlov a few months back. I. think that Donald Trump, whatever he. wants to get done, he gets done, right? He doesn't view anything as an obstacle. to barreling ahead and and accomplishing. whatever his goals are, be it the.

courts, be it prosecutors, be it judges, be it attorneys, be it the Democrats, be. it the law, be it the Constitution. He. doesn't care about any of those things. When when he wants to do something, he. does it. And the fact is that we're. seeing where his priorities lie when he. builds himself a $200 million ball room, when he buys, you know, uses taxpayer funds to retrofit a $400. million jet from Qatar, when he buys. Kristi Noem $170 million worth of. Gulfstreams, when he decks out the Oval.

Office in in gold leafing. Like that. Those things get done because those are. his priorities, which underscore the. fact that what is not getting done is. because he just doesn't care. The fact. that farmers are getting screwed right. now is because he doesn't care about. those farmers. The fact that Americans. are going to see health care get gutted, whether it's the 17 million Americans. who aren't going to get Medicaid, whether it's the 24 million Americans. who are going to see their ACA premiums. double or triple or quadruple, that's. happening because he doesn't care. Again, when he wants to do something, like he's doing with this ball room, he.

finds a way to get it done. So, everybody that's getting screwed is. getting screwed as the direct result of. the fact that he does not care about. these people. Like when he offered up. these populist sticks when he was on the. campaign trail, it's because he knew. what to say. But he's always been a fake. populist. He's always been out for. himself. And the fact that he is just. adorning his office with gold and. surrounding himself with opulence and. doubling his net worth is all the proof. you need that he was perfectly content. to screw over these people, to say. whatever he needed to say, to sell them.

a bill of goods. But now that he's got. what he needs from them, he's done. helping them. If Trump wants to do. something, he does it. So, when he. doesn't do something, it's not because. he can't, it's because he chooses not. to. So, when your costs don't go down, it's because Trump doesn't care. When. your gas prices don't go down, it's. because Trump doesn't care. When your. electricity bills don't go down, it's. because Trump doesn't care. Same for. groceries and clothing and electronics. and toys and food, Trump puts his energy. where his priorities are. Americans are.

not his priority. And one last point on. that, it is bad enough that Trump abuses. his office to the extent that he does to. do like this, but the rest of the. GOP lets him. They are just as. responsible. They have the power, as a. co-equal branch of government, to serve. as a check on him, but they won't. They. are all so collectively chicken. that they outright refuse to lift a. finger to stop him. They are there to. serve their constituents, but instead. contract all of their power to dear. leader, because their only actual. allegiance is to him. The Republicans.

promised America first, but the only one. actually thriving is Donald Trump. >> [music]. >> Before you go, I'm very excited to. announce that I've written a new book. titled The Day After: How to wield power. in a post-Trump world. The book explores. what is, in my opinion, the single most. important theme that we're dealing with. in politics today and moving forward, power. Specifically, how Republicans. abuse it and how Democrats refuse to. wield it. This book explains how we got. here and more importantly, how we should.

finally wield power if we're fortunate. enough to get it back. It is the. blueprint for progressives who want to. do far more than just restore the status. quo. Please pre-order today by visiting. the link in the episode description or. go to briantylercohen.com/book. You can grab yours from any of the major. retailers like Amazon or Barnes & Noble. or find an independent bookstore closest. to you. That's also listed on that. website. Thanks so much for supporting. independent media.