Underpinning all this is Mr Trump’s conviction that he has rescued “crime-ridden” Washington by sending in the National Guard. He has also repeatedly called for the federal government to assume control of the Democratic-controlled city.
Hilary Harp Falk, the chief executive of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group, pinpointed long-standing issues contributing to the Potomac disaster, which she described as a “wake-up call” to the US.
“The Potomac spill draws long overdue attention to ageing wastewater infrastructure that every year sends millions of gallons of raw sewage into rivers across our region, from Harrisburg to Baltimore to Washington, DC to Richmond,” she said.
Fifty years ago, when Gerald Ford was in the White House, the tone was markedly different.
“It wasn’t Gerald Ford presents a Gerald Ford production of the Bicentennial. He saw it as much more of a, hey, the country is in a terrible state after Watergate and everything, so let’s have a big national party and try to get people feeling better about that,” Mr Galdieri said.
“So, there was a community-oriented aspect to it, as opposed to it being about him.”
Jeff Lord, who worked in the Reagan White House, added: “This is the 250th anniversary of the celebration of the country. It would be embarrassing to have something like that in the middle of it.”
The blow, however, could be softened by encouraging people to focus on Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
“You’ve got Independence Hall there,” Mr Lord told The Telegraph. “Washington, DC as it were, didn’t exist 250 years ago.”