ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: Firm Tied to Trump Donor Got No-Bid Contract to Clean Reflecting Pool. (David A. Fahrenthold, NY Times, June 19, 2026)

My late Mother taught me about the evils of corrupt no-bid government contracts, based on her long public and private sector experience in Purchasing.  

My Mother's wisdom and guidance helped inform my investigative reporting in Tennessee and Florida, including no-bid purchase of a $1.8  million Bell Jet helicopter for Anastasia Mosquito Control District.  She advised me that she would never purchase a $1.8 million helicopter without competitive bidding. (Thanks, Mom!). We, the People persisted and won -- AMCD cancelled the contract and got a full refund of our 10% deposit.

My Mother's Purchasing wisdom helped me ask questions and demand answers about the corrupt United States Tennessee Valley Authority's sweetheart contracts with coal companies associated with the late President Ronald Reagan's late White House Chief of Staff and Senate Republican Leader Howard Henry Baker, Jr.

Fun fact: My Mother (and Father) also turned me on to The New York Times, which I started reading at the age of 10 (despite its lack of a Sunday comics section). The Times has done a magnificent job covering nuclear weapons plant pollution, workplace toxic exposure and whistleblower retaliation, and the continuing coverup of the September 2, 2010 shooting death of Ms. Michelle O'Connell in the home of a St. Johns County Sheriff's Deputy, who has never been indicted or brought to justice.

From The New York Times;

Firm Tied to Trump Donor Got No-Bid Contract to Clean Reflecting Pool

A business tied to a longtime supporter of President Trump was given a no-bid contract to install a water-purification system in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool earlier this spring.

Now that work is coming under scrutiny after algae blooms have come back and turned the iconic pool in Washington a vibrant shade of green rather than the American-flag blue Mr. Trump says he chose.

The contract shows that the National Park Service bypassed the competitive-bidding process that is typically required, and gave a $1.7 million contract to the firm, Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio.

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John J. Cafaro in 2002. He leads an investment trust that is the ultimate owner of the company hired to install a water-purification system for the Reflecting Pool.Credit...Tony Dejak/Associated Press

Federal contracting records show that firm’s ultimate owner is the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust, led by John J. Cafaro, a donor to Mr. Trump and a neighbor to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club in Florida. The water treatment company also listed Mr. Cafaro’s Palm Beach mansion as its address in Florida corporate records, and listed his investment trust’s phone number and email in Ohio lobbying records.