Trump, still mired in distractions, turns his attention to the reflecting pool in D.C.

Amid widespread concerns about the struggling economy, a deadly and destabilizing war that hasn’t gone according to the White House’s plans and a burgeoning global energy crisis, recent polling has found two-thirds of Americans are convinced their unpopular president simply has the wrong priorities. Donald Trump could take steps to change their minds, but he apparently doesn’t want to.

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On the contrary, the Republican appears far more interested assorted renovation projects than his actual governing responsibilities. The New York Times reported:

Next up on President Trump’s renovation tour of Washington, D.C.: the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, which he called ‘filthy’ and ‘dirty’ and in need of a major upgrade.

Mr. Trump said on Thursday that the project was already underway to renovate the reflecting pool, which is more than 2,000 feet long and has been the site of many historic events, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

At a White House event ostensibly about health care, Trump strayed from the topic to talk about the reflecting pool between the Washington and Lincoln memorials, taking time to argue that he “actually had more people” when he spoke at a July 4 event at the reflecting pool than MLK did when he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. (“I have pictures of Martin Luther King’s crowd and my crowd,” the president said.)

Why make such a claim? Because Trump is who he appears to be.

The president went on to describe a situation in which he, relying on his experience as a developer who has built many swimming pools, rejected a contractor’s claim that removing the pool’s granite and replacing it with stone would take three years and cost $300 million.

“I said, ‘No, there’s a better way of doing it,’” Trump said, reflecting on a conversation that may or not have happened in reality. “I said, ‘What we’re going to do is, I’m going to call all three of these people that have worked for me in the past doing swimming pools.’”

He added that he told the contractors to “give me a good price,” and one agreed to do the job quickly for “less than $2 million.”