Jaw-Dropping Scale of Trump’s Reflecting Pool Fiasco Exposed

Aaron Schwartz / Getty Images The full scale of Donald Trump’s $14.7 million Reflecting Pool fiasco has been exposed.

A 75-page report, commissioned by Atlantic Coating Inspection, and obtained by The Washington Post , documents widespread peeling, bubbling and buckling in the blue coating installed this summer.

It also contradicts the administration’s repeated claims that vandals were responsible, making no mention of vandalism as a cause of the failures.

The report found that the coating had buckled along eight of the pool’s 10 expansion joints, while blisters appeared in nearly 40 places and peeling affected almost two dozen more.

Investigators said some of the damage likely occurred because workers were still applying the coating just a day before the pool was refilled on June 4.

The material required 72 hours to cure fully.

Photos included in the report show workers still spraying the coating on June 3, just a day before the pool was refilled, with work continuing as water began flowing in.

The renovation was carried out by Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings under a $14.7 million no-bid contract awarded by the Trump administration.

The project was rushed to finish ahead of celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Trump had announced plans in April to tackle the pool’s long-running algae problem by resurfacing its more than 300,000-square-foot basin in what he called “American Flag Blue”.

Work began late that month.

The basin was coated first with a light blue primer called Rhino 406, and then a darker blue finish called Rhino Pipeliner 5000.

Federal contract documents confirm the government required contractors to use those specific products.

By early June, the pool had been refilled, but within days an enormous algal bloom turned the water green.