Bait & Switch

Take the Reflecting Pool. Trump said he didn’t like it, so without telling anyone, he went out and hired a contractor. Because the work was deemed an "emergency," it didn’t need to go out for a competitive bid. The administration reportedly used an “urgent and compelling” justification—effectively an emergency procurement rationale—to award the project without full competition.

The Question: Why was the work “urgent and compelling”?

I used to write bids all the time. I’m not talking about $40,000 or $50,000 jobs, but projects well into the hundreds of millions. We went through every job description with a fine-tooth comb! I cannot imagine a pool company bidding on something they never even looked at.

People are asking:

• Was it legal?
• Was the emergency real?
• Was the estimate credible?
• Was the urgency manufactured by a political deadline?
• Did taxpayers get value for their money?

I don’t see it as an emergency; there was no immediate threat to life or property! Trump not liking the color of the water doesn’t make it an emergency. The stated urgency was that the pool needed to be repaired and visually restored before the July 4, 2026, celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary. They knew that deadline long before they bid the job!

NPR reported:

The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), an education and advocacy organization. In the suit, TCLF is asking a federal judge to halt the project, saying that the Trump administration failed to have the project reviewed federally, as is dictated by the National Historic Preservation Act.

[…]

Critics of the project, including TCLF, don't share that vision – and are taking particular umbrage at the color.

"The reflecting pool should not be viewed in isolation; it is part of the larger ensemble of designed landscapes that comprise the National Mall," Charles A. Birnbaum, the president and CEO of TCLF, said in a statement emailed to NPR Monday. "The design intent, to create a reflective surface that is subordinate, is fundamental to the solemn and hallowed visual and spatial connection between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. A blue-tinted basin is more appropriate to a resort or theme park."

This isn’t the only job the taxpayers got suckered into.

It was suggested that the White House ballroom could be done for around $100 million and would be paid for by Trump's billionaire friends. Then, the price ballooned to $400,000,000! Fox News just reported that:

The latest reporting on alleged rising costs comes from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tagging a $1 billion appropriation for the "East Wing Modernization Project" at the bottom of Republicans' budget reconciliation package Trump hopes to sign by June 1.

That item includes more than just the ballroom and even specifies: "None of the funds made available under this section may be used for non-security elements of the East Wing Modernization Project."

The bill's outlay on the final page of the Senate Judiciary Committee reconciliation bill appropriates "$1,000,000,000 to remain available until September 30, 2029, for the purposes of security adjustments and upgrades, including within the perimeter fence of the White House Compound to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project, including above-ground and below-ground security features."

It’s like when you go to buy a used car and agree upon a price, but when you go to close the deal, all these “other” fees are tacked on. Plus, there is no longer any word about those billionaire friends paying for it!

So now the taxpayers are on the hook for the Reflecting Pool and the White House ballroom. But wait, there’s more!

US judge to weigh preservation groups' bid to stop Trump's Kennedy Center overhaul

Reuters

By Mike Scarcella

April 29, 2026

A coalition of historic preservation and architecture groups will ask a judge on Wednesday to halt plans by President Donald Trump’s administration for a ​major renovation of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, marking the ‌latest clash over Trump’s legal authority to reshape Washington.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. Eastern Time (1400 GMT) to consider issuing a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed ​in March by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the American Institute of ​Architects and six other groups.

The groups contend Trump and the Kennedy Center's ⁠board lack the legal authority to proceed with their construction plans on the famed ​performing arts venue without U.S. congressional approval and mandatory regulatory review.

“It is a city upon ​a hill. It should not — and by federal law cannot — be demolished or overhauled in secret or at lightning speed, and certainly not at the executive’s personal whim,” the plaintiffs told Cooper.

Plus, the Trump Arch!