Photos Of The Guy Trump Hired To Renovate The Reflecting Pool Are Going Viral—And Everyone's Thinking The Same Thing

Social media users are all thinking the same thing after photos emerged of John Cafaro, the cartoon villain-looking man President Donald Trump hired to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

Cafaro has come under scrutiny after a report by the New York Times revealed that a company linked to the longtime Trump supporter received a $1.7 million no-bid contract to install a water purification system in the Reflecting Pool.

According to federal records, the contract was awarded by the National Park Service without the competitive bidding process typically required for such projects. The firm, Greenwater Services, is ultimately owned by the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, which is led by Cafaro, a neighbor of Trump at Mar-a-Lago and a longtime political donor.

Records also show the company used Cafaro's Palm Beach mansion as its Florida address and listed contact information associated with his investment trust.

Cafaro, whom Trump has previously called a “fantastic man,” was once implicated in a major bribery scandal and has donated to both Republican and Democratic candidates over the years. His daughter, Capri Cafaro, served as a Democratic state senator in Ohio from 2007 to 2016.

Cafaro looks like a cartoon villain and as one social media user pointed out, "has 2 prior convictions, one for bribing a member of Congress and another for an illegal loan that violated campaign finance laws."

@ColMoeDavis/X

This is all making headlines because although the Trump administration praised the Reflecting Pool renovation and said the nation's capital looked "better than ever" after the reservoir reopened, signs of algae growth were visible along the water's edge just one day after it was refilled.

After CNN observed a worker removing algae from the bottom of the pool during a visit last week, Interior Department communications director Kate Martin said the algae was a normal byproduct of restarting the Reflecting Pool's operations and described it as leftover, or "residual," growth from the renovation process.

In an attempt to address the algae blooms, workers were tasked with pouring hydrogen peroxide into the pool. Hydrogen peroxide is commonly used in spas and natural swimming pools as a gentler alternative to chlorine. Interior Department officials said the chemical poses no threat to wildlife or the surrounding environment.

Compounding the controversy, paint has reportedly begun peeling from the floor of the Reflecting Pool. The Times linked the problem to a separate $14.7 million no-bid contract awarded to Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings under the same claim of urgent need.

The company was hired to apply a blue waterproof coating to the pool's concrete floor, but the coating has since shown signs of deterioration, raising further questions about the emergency contracting process and the quality of the work performed.

Given the scale of the renovation's problems and the public relations fallout surrounding it, many online observers have fixated on the fact that Cafaro looks like the kind of wealthy antagonist who might be cast as the bad guy in a campy superhero movie.

We are beyond parody at this point with grifters this obvious just hanging out at the White House.