Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos
Why Trump has an 'obsession' over Reflecting Pool
Posted
June 29, 2026
Views
23,033
Likes
1,312
Engagement
5.70%
June 29, 2026
23,033
1,312
5.70%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
1:57Now PlayingThe Reflecting Pool on the National Mall has a new role these days, according to moderator Jeffrey Goldberg. He called it the place "where metaphor goes to die" because President Donald Trump's renovation of the pool "turned it into an actual swamp in desperate need of draining."
On Friday's episode of Washington Week with The Atlantic, the panel discussed how Trump's chaotic approach to redesigning Washington, D.C., reflects the broader chaos in foreign and domestic policy.
"I think the president wanted to boast about what he's done to clean up Washington," The Dispatch’s Stephen Hayes said about Trump's recent "obsession" with the Reflecting Pool project.
But, “almost immediately," Hayes added, "it was clear that this wasn’t working. Whatever had happened elsewhere, this one wasn’t working.”
Washington Week with The Atlantic is a partnership between @PBSNewsHour, WETA-TV and @TheAtlantic, airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Tap the link in Washington Week's bio to watch this week’s episode.
Sign up for Here's The Deal with Lisa Desjardins
Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters
PBS News podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app
Find more from PBS News at
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
