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Craig Paulette's hair was already dyed neon green, thank you very much.
But the toxic slime hue came in handy when the Reflecting Pool became filled with algae, and Paulette and his friends became filled with the urge to protest.
"You get to be a troll, and it's so great," Paulette said while standing by the pool on a recent evening. "This is the best way to spend your time."
Since last week, Paulette and a small group of others - dubbed Team Algae - have spent almost every evening at the Reflecting Pool, chanting, they said, in support of the algae that has thrown a high-profile wrench in President Donald Trump's multimillion-dollar plans to beautify the landmark.
Paulette may have green hair, but Nadine Seiler is the one that passersby want to take photos with. That's what happens when you wear a pink blow-up frog costume emblazoned with the word "AMPHIFA" across the belly.
"I'm an all-or-nothing kind of person," said Seiler, 61.
The demonstration is absurd - and that's the point. The protesters - Paulette, Seiler, Karen Irwin and Michelle Peterson - said they care about algae, but what they really care about is drawing attention to what they said the algae represents: the ludicrousness of the president's Reflecting Pool project.
In April, Trump announced plans to refurbish the pool before going on to award no-bid contracts for the work. He said that the finished product would last for decades. But earlier this month, days after the renovations were completed, the pool began blooming with algae. Not long after, the new paint started peeling off. Trump has claimed that vandals damaged the Reflecting Pool, but administration officials have not offered clear evidence.
"The Reflecting Pool is a reflection of the incompetence of this administration," Seiler said.
Paulette said the group has faced its fair share of heckling from Trump supporters, but most onlookers have been in on the joke. "It's wild how much people are embracing it. I think that's because it's ridiculous. The cost of entry is really low," said Paulette, 52.
Around 7 p.m., after much of the algae had been removed, Paulette, Peterson and Seiler begin to chant, "Let's grow algae, let's grow," and "Pond scum matters, all lives matter." One sign attached to their nearby cart read, "Algae lives in Trump's head rent free."
Paulette and Peterson shake green pompoms while they cheer for the algae. Behind them, a fence surrounds the Reflecting Pool, marking the latest development in a saga that has been punctuated by debates over the nature of the color blue, dead ducks and arrests. (The Interior Department said the Reflecting Pool was always set to be fenced off for safety reasons because of July 4 fireworks, but that the barriers were erected early due to "the increase in vandalism by leftist activists.")
As Seiler walked closer to the Reflecting Pool, she directed her attention toward a few members of the National Guard on the other side of the fence. "Thank you for protecting the pond scum," she yelled from inside her frog costume.
Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Seiler said she arrived in the United States in 1987. She became a U.S. citizen in 1996 and has lived in the D.C. area since 2001.
In recent years, Seiler said she has protested "everything," from police violence during the Black Lives Matter movement to the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Team Algae, though, was a "fluke," Seiler said. Seiler was in a group chat whose members were talking about the Kennedy Center when the conversation turned to the news of algae in the Reflecting Pool. "Somebody in the chat said, 'Oh, I'm Team Green,' and I said, 'I'm Team Algae,'" Seiler said. A movement of sorts was born.
Despite multiple cooling devices, Seiler's costume is "as hot as Hades," but she said the frog is worth it for the purposes of the protest. "It's funny. It's awkward. It's effective in ridiculing this regime. The absurdity of it is: How are you going to be fighting with a frog?"
Frogs have a relatively long history as a political symbol, according to Anya Galli Robertson, a University of Dayton associate professor who researches social movements.
Far-right groups embraced the comic book character Pepe the Frog about a decade ago. But liberals retook the frog symbol last year in Portland, Oregon, when protesters dressed up in frog costumes during demonstrations against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The use of frogs in anti-ICE protests, as well as in the pro-algae demonstration, is an example of "tactical frivolity," said Galli Robertson, which is when activists use comedy in public protest.
"If you don't have guns, if you don't have money, you can still make jokes," she said. "The tactical power of strong visuals, coupled with humor and satire, has the ability to carry the work of just a few people a really long way."
If attention is a marker of success, Team Algae has triumphed. That evening, tourists and locals alike gawked and cheered, unable to look away from the show. "It's a really effective way to point out the absurdity of it all," said Dominic Charles, a recent law school graduate, after he took a selfie with Seiler.
Photos of the protest have spread on social media and have been published in various media outlets. The group has aroused the attention of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who called them "deranged leftists." Trump is paying attention, too. "It's nice to know that we can irritate him," said Peterson, 44.
Still, Peterson said she also feels disheartened that they've been among the only protesters at the Reflecting Pool over the past week. "So many people don't know how to resist, and it doesn't have to be hard," she said. "It can just be being silly and having a cheer team for the algae squad."
Taking the metaphors even further, on Sunday afternoon, they hosted a memorial service at the Reflecting Pool, Peterson said, "since they did kill off all the algae brethren."
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