Alongside such braindead takes as Jill Biden being a “hell of a doctor” and “the Holocaust isn’t about race,” ABC News moderator Whoopi Goldberg added to her lexicon during Monday’s edition of The View when she insanely claimed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool “never had algae before” President Trump’s renovation. A take, which got support from the other members of the cast.
Amid laughter from her, the rest of the Cackling Coven, and their audience of liberals, Goldberg downplayed the arrest of five alleged vandals and suggested it was Trump who vandalized the pool and beamed at the idea of him being sentenced to prison for 10 years over it:
GOLDBERG: But he [Trump] is claiming that vandals are to blame.
[Laughter]
He says they illegally placed chemicals in the water, and left a 300-foot gash in the pool.
[Laughter]
Now, five people are said to have been arrested. He says a ten-year prison sentence will be strictly enforced.
SARA HAINES: Oh.
GOLDBERG: Well, if he's saying he's going to go to jail for ten years, I'm going to let him go.
For Goldberg, the renovation was the vandalism. She even suggested that the renovation was illegal because it should have been a national referendum voted on by everyone, and she wanted everyone to sue Trump over it.
Whoopi seems to argue there should have been a national referendum vote on renovating to pool.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) June 22, 2026
She demands everyone in "the country" to sue Trump over the reflecting pool because he did the renovation "without our permission." pic.twitter.com/HvAnkIWkrx
Portraying the arrests as Trump picking five random people on the National Mall to target for prosecution, Goldberg and faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin claimed there was no evidence of vandalism:
GOLDBERG: But to accuse five people of doing this -- but seemingly there's no proof. Because I want to know who left a 300-foot gash in the pool and no body -
FARAH GRIFFIN: That would be tough to do and not like get footage of somebody doing it.
GOLDBERG: Yeah! And nobody would see it.
While pointing at an image of Park Service workers wading through the reflecting pool, Goldberg ridiculously declared, “This thing never had algae before!” “No!” a gullible audience member could he heard shouting in response.
ABC News moderator Whoopi Goldberg claims Trump was the one who vandalized the reflecting pool and that he's going to go to prison for 10 years.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) June 22, 2026
She falsely claims "this thing never had algae before" the renovations. pic.twitter.com/G5egXOXCtC
Of course, since The View was a fact-free zone, Farah Griffin chimed in to claim, without evidence, that the cleanup was killing animals:
Listen, it wasn't always the cleanest thing, but like wildlife could safely live in it. There was a photo going out on X of a duck that had died in it because there are all these chemicals they're putting in it. They're putting in hydrogen peroxide.
The Parks Service had been using hydrogen peroxide to clean the reflecting pool since 2021 when they switched away from chlorine, because it was safer to use for wildlife.
ABC News co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin omits the fact that hydrogen peroxide has been used to clean to pool since 2021 (when they stopped using chlorine) and blames that for killing a duckling. pic.twitter.com/PUyUUT4xz0
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) June 22, 2026
If it “never had algae before,” not only would he be a miracle of nature but also, there wouldn’t be a reason to clean it. But it was precisely the droppings from those ducks and geese Farah Griffin was talking about that would provide the food for the algae.
Perhaps Goldberg was not familiar with how algae grew in pools because her attendants clean hers.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
June 22, 2026
11:03:07 a.m. Eastern(…)
GOLDBERG: But he is claiming that vandals are to blame.
[Laughter]
He says they illegally placed chemicals in the water, and left a 300-foot gash in the pool.
[Laughter]
Now, five people are said to have been arrested. He says a ten-year prison sentence will be strictly enforced.
SARA HAINES: Oh.
GOLDBERG: Well, if he's saying he's going to go to jail for ten years, I'm going to let him go.
[Applause]
Because, I mean, it seems to me [Laughter] that had he not messed with the pool [laughter], you know, it would still be a reflecting pool instead of a liquid jungle, which is what it looks like. But to accuse five people of doing this -- but seemingly there's no proof. Because I want to know who left a 300-foot gash in the pool and no body -
FARAH GRIFFIN: That would be tough to do and not like get footage of somebody doing it.
GOLDBERG: Yeah! And nobody would see it. And you know, they have been trying to clean this up since before it actually turned green-green. When is turning kind of pseudo-green. But so, what do you make of all of this?
NAVARRO: [Laughter] Listen, I could sit here and hear you laugh about it the entire hour, but, okay, let's discuss it.
GOLDBERG: Look this. [Points to screen showing workers in the reflecting pool] I mean, they look like they are fishing in the reflecting pool. They're trying to get -- they're trying to get the algae out. This thing never had algae before!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: No!
HOSTIN: It looked just as green as the grass.
[Laughter]
NAVARRO: It looks as green as the envy he has for Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy.
[Cheers and applause]
FARAH GRIFFIN: Like, I used to jog by this all the time when I lived in D.C.
HOSTIN: Yeah, I did too.
FARAH GRIFFIN: It's beautiful. One of the things I loved is you’d see ducks and geese swimming in it. Listen, it wasn't always the cleanest thing, but like wildlife could safely live in it. There was a photo going out on X of a duck that had died in it because there are all these chemicals they're putting in it. They're putting in hydrogen peroxide. Listen -
GOLDBERG: That will peel the paint!
FARAH GRIFFIN: That will peel the paint.
(…)
