US federal government workers continue take on the green hue that has swept across Washington’s reflecting pool, an increasingly fiendish battle the Trump administration compared to its war with Iran.

After Donald Trump ordered a $14.2m refurbishment to turn the monument “American Flag blue” in time for the country’s 250th birthday celebrations, the administration encountered a formidable foe: algae.

For days, the pool has been fluctuating between various shades of green, frustrating efforts to ensure it adopts the US president’s preferred color. And by Thursday parts of the coating laid by Atlantic Industrial Coatings in an effort to turn the monument “American flag” blue had appeared to start peeling off.

Workers were seen on site in waders, attempting to fish out algae and eliminate patches of deep green across the pool.

Hours earlier, the US Department of the Interior – which oversees the National Park Service – had claimed the water was “crystal clear”, and blamed the “Fake News Media” for reports to the contrary.

In a statement on X, after eyewitnesses saw the pool looking distinctly murky, the department went so far as to liken the administration’s purported victory against algae to its purported victory against Iran.

“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool – just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” the department’s press office said.

Both campaigns have so far failed to match Trump’s stated intentions. At the outset of the US-Israel war on Iran, he vowed to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program and destroy its ballistic missile program.

A peace deal signed on Wednesday left the US president with Iran’s word not to build a bomb and no mention in writing of the ballistic missile program.

The reflecting pool – one of Washington DC’s most historically symbolic attractions, and the scene of Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I have a dream” speech – has been one element of Trump’s efforts to recondition Washington during his second term.

A no-bid contract to waterproof and repaint the site, which dates back over a century, raised eyebrows. It was awarded to a Virginia-based company, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which had previously carried out work on a swimming pool at one of the president’s golf clubs.

The administration had initially claimed that “residual” algae would be cleared in the immediate aftermath of the renovation. But it has proliferated amid warm weather.

It later suggested the installation of a water treatment system, described as “nanobubbler technology”, would help address the issue. The technology had “very effectively killed the algae”, the interior department claimed.