This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.

White House press secetary Karoline Leavitt said Feb. 18, 2026, that President Donald Trump is worried the Potomac River might still stink from the sewage leak by the summer during America250 events.

President Donald Trump is worried the Potomac River will still stink when America250 celebrations kick off this summer following a sewage leak that dumped millions of gallons of raw filth into the water outlining the nation's capital, according to the White House.

"There are a lot of events coming up for America 250," Fox News' Peter Doocy said to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Wednesday during a White House press conference. "The president wants people from all over to come to the nation's capital. Is he worried that by the summer, the Potomac River will still smell like poop?"

Leavitt confirmed the president's concern, after chuckling.

"Yeah, he is worried about that," Leavitt said. "Which is why the federal government wants to fix it. And we hope that the local authorities will cooperate with us in doing so."

TRUMP WON’T LET DEM SEWAGE FAILURES SLIDE AS MOORE FACES HEAT OVER INFRASTRUCTURE GRADE

Repair work continues on the broken section of the Potomac Interceptor, a six-foot-wide sewage pipe that collapsed in late January, in between the Clara Barton Parkway and the C&O Canal, Feb. 16, 2026 in Cabin John, Maryland.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A sewage pipe interceptor ruptured in January, releasing upward of 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. The president has directed his ire toward Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, and other local leaders in Virginia and Washington, D.C., on the issue, claiming alleged incompetence led to the disaster.

Leavitt called on leaders in the two states and D.C. to "step forward and to ask the federal government for help and to ask for the Stafford Act to be implemented here so that the federal government can go and take control of this local infrastructure that has been abandoned and neglected by Governor Moore in Maryland for far too long."