Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took aim at President Donald Trump on Monday, June 29, criticizing both a troubled renovation project at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the administration’s planning of events for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.
In a post on X, Clinton questioned Trump’s competence and character in managing the two high-profile initiatives. “Why can’t Trump clean a pool, or throw a real 250th party?” she wrote, accompanying the message with multiple images highlighting problems with both projects. Clinton added, “It’s not (just) incompetence. It’s also corruption.”
Contracting Questions and Political Allies
Among the images Clinton shared were details about federal spending tied to the 250th anniversary. Public Citizen stated that the Trump administration had awarded nearly $103 million in federal contracts and grants tied to the 250th anniversary celebrations to what it described as “a network of politicized entities under the control of Trump administration officials and political allies.” Clinton also included a headline about Greenwater Services, the company hired to tackle the Reflecting Pool’s algae issue, which received a contract awarded without competitive bidding and has as a partial owner someone who has two felony convictions and connections to Trump.
Public Citizen framed the spending as part of a broader pattern, stating that “Trump thinks the public exists to serve him instead of the other way around.” The group characterized the contracting decisions as taxpayer-funded benefits for the president’s political circle rather than legitimate government operations.
A Green Pool and an Empty Fairground
The photographs Clinton posted illustrated the problems with both initiatives. One showed the Reflecting Pool still discolored by green algae despite a multimillion-dollar renovation that the administration had promoted as a signature achievement. Another depicted sparse attendance at the Great American State Fair, an event Trump had billed as a landmark spectacle for the America 250th anniversary celebrations.
The Reflecting Pool has emerged as a recurring source of embarrassment for the administration. Positioned near the Lincoln Memorial and touted as a showcase of the 250th anniversary programming, the landmark was supposed to be gleaming for the milestone. Instead, persistent algae growth has drawn mockery and raised questions about how Greenwater Services secured its remediation contract. The no-bid arrangement involving a company with partial ownership by a twice-convicted felon who reportedly has a friendship with Trump has intensified calls for transparency about procurement practices throughout the broader 250th anniversary program.
Clinton’s Continued Criticism of Trump
Clinton, who lost to Trump in the 2016 presidential election, has remained a consistent critic of his presidency. Her remarks came the day after Trump posted on Truth Social what appeared to be an AI-generated image. That image depicted Clinton, former President Joe Biden, and former Vice President Kamala Harris wearing hats bearing the words “I Lost to Trump.” Clinton and Harris did lose presidential elections to Trump, but Biden won the 2020 contest against Trump, though Trump continues to claim otherwise despite lacking evidence.
Biden has criticized Trump as “a loser” and condemned what he views as “vanity projects.” Trump’s opponents point to both the pool renovation and the 250th anniversary spending as illustrations of this tendency.
Democrats Seize on the Controversies
Clinton’s post drew support from Trump critics online. One commenter said Trump is focused only on serving himself rather than Americans. Public Citizen echoed that view, accusing the administration of using taxpayer dollars to fund what it called “Trumpy events” designed to serve the president’s image rather than the public good.
The combination of an algae-fouled pool at one of the nation’s most iconic landmarks and a nearly $103 million anniversary celebration apparatus steered toward political allies has created an awkward moment for an administration that positioned both as symbols of national pride. Clinton’s critique may be reductive by design, but it reflects a growing line of attack from Democrats who argue the pattern of conduct goes well beyond administrative stumbles.
