All The President's Contractors

"I built a lot of swimming pools, hundreds of swimming pools at different times. So I have some very good contractors. I said, 'Do me a favor, fellas, go take a look at the Reflecting Pool that sits in between Lincoln and Washington, the beautiful-what should be a reflecting pool.' He said that the granite was leaking and needed to be resurfaced."

"The Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge connects two incongruous quadrants of Washington, D.C. On one side, Fort McNair, a military base, where several top Trump Administration officials now live along Generals' Row, sits blocks from the Navy Yard's gleaming new development projects: facial bars, rooftop brunches. Fifteen hundred feet or so due east, across the Anacostia River, the poverty rate is double the city's average."

Trump directs attention to various construction projects around Washington D.C., particularly the Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln and Washington monuments, which he claims requires granite resurfacing due to leaking. He discusses his extensive experience building swimming pools and contracting work while meeting with small-business owners at the White House. This focus on infrastructure and construction occurs amid broader Washington events, including a man's three-day protest on the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and a shooting incident near the Washington Monument. The capital's stark contrasts are evident, with affluent military housing and new developments on one side of the Anacostia River contrasting sharply with areas experiencing double the city's average poverty rate.

Read at The New Yorker