(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Trump rages over losing his Reflecting Pool scapegoat [1] ['Oliver Willis'] Date: 2026-08-03 On Friday, the Department of Justice dropped its charges against former Olympian David Hearn, whom it had accused of vandalism at the site of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The Department’s action was almost immediately repudiated by President Donald Trump and has apparently endangered the job of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a longtime Trump cheerleader. In its filing, the Justice Department admitted that algae blooms and green water at the historic site were not the fault of “vandals” as Trump and other Republicans have claimed, but was instead fallout from shoddy installation. The department specifically referred to “hasty and botched work.” The filing, which was signed off on by Pirro, concluded, “Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.” A few hours later, Trump fumed on his social media account, “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?” He added, “To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” A peeling section of blue coating is seen in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 20. AP Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who has spent his time in office repeatedly bolstering pro-Trump falsehoods, weighed in on his boss’ side in a post on Saturday. “The evidence is clear, vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool,” he wrote on X. Pushing a narrative about purported vandalism, including filing charges against Hearn (who represented America in canoeing in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics), was a clear attempt by Trump to distract from the embarrassing damage at the Reflecting Pool. Trump spent at least $13 million of taxpayer dollars after his team handed out a no-bid contract for repainting the pool. The collapse of the case against Hearn spotlights yet another Trump failure. Trump’s angry post, alongside Burgum’s piling on, has created a precarious situation for Pirro. When Pirro first announced charges against Hearn, she bragged before the cameras that “we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn willfully destroyed property.” The promise didn’t pan out, just like the case that Pirro brought months ago against “sandwich guy” Sean C. Dunn, whom the administration tried to imprison for throwing a sandwich in protest of the deployment of federal troops in Washington, D.C. Pirro is a loyal Trump foot soldier. She has written books defending Trump and promoting conspiracy theories, and she used her position at Fox News often to shill on his behalf. But that may all be for naught. In his second term, Trump has shown that he is more than happy to throw women out of his inner circle when they displease him. He got rid of then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, among others. Meanwhile, men on his senior team who have had significant screw-ups—like Iran War mastermind Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—have no problem holding on to their positions. The vandalism may be fake, but the danger to Pirro’s job is very real. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/3/800079054/justice/trump-rage-reflecting-pool-david-hearn-jeanine-pirro/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/