'Everything Trump touches turns to sh*t': Alex Cole blasts President's infrastructure projects

Alex Cole of acnewsitics tore into President Donald Trump's infrastructure record as the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was beset by green algae and bits of the blue liner, blaming his touch. "The East Wing of the White House is in ruins, the Rose Garden is paved over, there's a wrestling ring outside the Oval Office, the Kennedy memorial name, and now a cheap chain-link fence surrounding an algae-infested reflecting pool...Everything Trump touches turns to sh*t," he wrote on X. 

Cole, a progressive political commentator and writer with over 300,000 followers, demanded accountability from the contractor responsible for the pool's refurbishment. "You know what's sick and deranged? Donald Trump giving a no-bid contract to a fellow felon and then not holding the contractor responsible for their screw-up," he wrote in another post. Trump, along with his White House Press Secretary, has been painting the six arrested on vandalism charges as "deranged individuals" with a history of donations to Democratic causes.

Trump had accused vandals after the pool's opening suffered a few snags: sweltering heat triggered an algae bloom that turned the water green rather than the intended blue, with workers seen pouring chemicals into the pool to contain it. The issues were compounded when sections of the coating that gave the pool its "American Flag Blue" color began to peel within days. The 80-year-old, however, did not offer any evidence in return.

The vandalism narrative took another hit on Tuesday after The New York Times reported that administration officials were aware of the damage after National Park Service workers discovered holes, cracks, and peeling caulking in parts of the pool, along with cuts in sections of the foam, in the first week of June—long before the pool opened officially.

They also found that some devices installed to kill algae were not functioning as intended, the report added.

This contradicts the administration's position, with Press Secretary Leavitt asserting that the vandalism at the Reflecting Pool was real, citing 17 police reports filed within days and six arrests. The 28-year-old namechecked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who had called the vandalism an imaginary problem, and disputed his characterization. "Only the Democrats could hate beautifying our nation's capital," she said.

Little is known about the arrested individuals, but one of them was David Hearn, a three-time Olympic canoeist who denied any wrongdoing and said he was detained for nearly five hours without being allowed to contact anyone. Hearn's lawyer echoed what Cole's attorney Norman Eisen told CNN—that his client bore no responsibility for the pool's condition, blaming Trump's no-bid renovation contract and adding that the President was looking for a scapegoat for his "Mar-a-Lago crony contract that has gone sideways."