photo #9226631

Claudia LoganDo People Not Know the Difference between Navy - or American Flag Blue - and Swimming Pool Blue? The Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial was filled with water yesterday. It is officially back in working order. This image is circulating and it shows the pool perfectly reflecting The Washington Monument at night as intended. The real color completely upends the media narrative. For two months, mainstream critics and architectural preservationists panicked. The Cultural Landscape Foundation sued, screaming that the administration was applying a "swimming pool surface" that would turn a sacred civic space into a tacky, aqua-tinted Mar-a-Lago resort.The critics missed Trump’s aesthetic entirely. The President told the public over and over that the color was "American flag blue.” Critics imagined - key word - a bright tropical turquoise, but the actual blue on our flag is navy. The light-blue undercoat they saw in April was just the standard industrial primer.The President did not have to plan a black tie soiree either. That happened naturally. The crowd gathered in front of the pool - outlined in silhouette in this photo - are not politicians. Local high schoolers in their tuxedos and prom gowns held an event at the Reflecting Pool. As this image proves, the final coat is a deep, dark shade. Under the twilight sky, it maintains the traditional, somber, glass-like reflective quality the monument has had for a century—all while utilizing a modern $1.5 million industrial coating that sealed a basin that was previously leaking like a sieve. The total project cost is said to be $13.8 million.By bypassing the Obama-era multi-year $300 million granite replacement project, the Trump administration used a different approach - a Trumpian solution - he called in swimming pool specialists, and the project was completed just in time for Freedom 250 celebrations.The media was anticipating a gaudy theme park so they could jab at Trump, but the reality is that he and the contractors he hired in conjunction with Doug Burgum, Interior Secretary, and the National Park Service, delivered a crisp, traditional, high-contrast masterpiece.Trump is winning the aesthetics war.What do you think of the final look? Did the "American Flag Blue" deliver on its promise, or do you still prefer the old granite?