Occupy Democrats, a popular social media page with millions of followers, posted to Facebook saying: “While we don’t know exactly what killed this duckling, you don’t have to be a scientist to hazard a guess. This entire debacle of Trump’s renovation of the Reflecting Pool is a metaphor for his entire administration.”
The cause of the duckling’s death is not known, and hydrogen peroxide is not considered harmful to wildlife. An expert suggested to the Washington Examiner that the algae itself could be the culprit.
The dark blue paint in the pool may have raised the water temperature, creating the ideal conditions for algae growth. A particular type of blue-green algae, called cyanobacteria, can produce toxins that may be deadly for ducks.
The US Interior Department has been conducting “ongoing” tests on the algae in the pool, the Atlantic reported on Friday local time, but it declined to disclose the results of those tests.
The US$14 million ($24.4m) renovation of the pool has become a source of particular embarrassment for Trump, who made unsubstantiated claims over the weekend that vandals were responsible for the paint peeling away from the bottom of the pool.
In a post on his Truth Social account, he said multiple people had been arrested for vandalising the pool and that “some form of knife or blade” had been used to put a “250-foot-long gash” in the paint.
Trump also made the claim that vandals had “poured corrosive and destructive chemicals” into the pool.
He added that it would probably need to be drained for workers to do the necessary repairs.
He has threatened jail time for anyone found guilty of damaging the pool, saying: “Please remember that there is a 10-year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things – which will be fully enforced”.
Ironically, he pardoned almost 1600 people involved in the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack – which included damage and vandalism among other offences.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.
