1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

In case you missed the Friday night news dump… The DOJ is dismissing criminal charges against the Olympian indicted for vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. Important bit…The filing says that “damage to the Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings (“AIC”), and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.” DJT announced in April he was going to renovate the reflecting pool. May 7 he said it would take a week and cost about $1.8M. May 8 the cost had jumped to $13.1M. And the contract was awarded on a no-bid basis. June 6, when the pool reopened, Trump declared it a triumph, writing on social media: “Thank you President Trump.” Then came the algae… A spokesperson for the Interior Department said the algae were “residual” and all normal. “President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the Reflecting Pool for good unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden.” By June 16, NPS crews were pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water to kill the algae in the now bright green pool even as Trump insisted the pool was perfect and don’t believe your lying eyes. By June 18, the new blue epoxy coating was peeling off and floating. And the price tag had jumped to at least $14.2M. Plus an additional $1.7M contract for a water purification system. (That no-bid contract went to a company owned by a Trump donor. And neighbor of DJT in FL.) On June 19, US Park Police officers arrested the Olympian for destruction of public property. He had reached into the water to feel what the floating material felt like. “I didn’t vandalize anything,” he told WaPo. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.” That night, Trump blamed “Radical Left Lunatics, most likely Dumocats [sic], who have spent their lives trying to ruin our Country,” for “some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool.” By the next day, he was blaming “multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll [sic]. Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair.” Minnesota governor Tim Walz commented: “Found an imaginary problem, said only they could fix it, didn’t listen to experts, hired buddies who grifted millions, failed miserably, bragged how great it went. The entire Trump presidency in a nutshell.” WH press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back saying “The vandalism is very real.” Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for DC, scoffed at the idea that there had not been vandalism, telling Fox she had just been at the pool and “someone was intent on doing incredible damage to the pool.” Interior Secretary Burgum told CNN that the contractors had nothing to do with the problems; it was “vandalism.” He insisted the government could prove there were vandals and suggested there were “photographs.” When pressed over whether the government actually had “photographs of a person or people cutting a 300- or 350-foot gash in the bottom of the reflecting pool,” he deflected, saying: “I’m not sure why you and others in the media think that you want to keep trying to question” the president’s version of events. On June 29, Trump posted: “The Reflecting Pool, which suffered great damage due to the Vandals and Radical Left SCUM that hate our Country, has been, for the past two days, in full operation. It looks beautiful! After July 4th, we will release the water, fix the damage done to the very expensive waterproof matting, with the use of sharp knives and muscle, including the 350 foot gash along its right side, and have it looking as good as it was two weeks ago, when it was absolutely PERFECT!” Now of course, whoops, the DOJ filing proves that the vandals idea was always a lie. The problems with the renovation of the reflecting pool were exactly what it was…a hasty, expensive, ill-thought-out, project that failed. This case was so bad that Pirro went out of her way to blame the Interior Department for the indictment. But like a dog with a bone he just can’t give up the prez continues to spin his fantasy. He’s doubling down on his insistence that vandals caused the problems. “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM…. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS! President DJT” Remind us again the definition of insanity?