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Monday, August 31, 2026

No evidence? No problem. Trump pushes ahead on false claims that Reflecting Pool was vandalized - Pioneer Press

By JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jeanine Pirro this week found out there is a trade-off between loyalty to President Donald Trump and being loyal to reality.

The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — a fierce defender and decades-long friend — openly refuted Trump’s claims of vandalism regarding one of his treasured construction projects in the nation’s capital, admitting in court filings that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was due to shoddy workmanship.

The moment comes as the Republican president is struggling to convince Americans that they should believe what he is telling them about the economy, his agenda and his war on Iran before pivotal midterm elections in the fall — and reveals the inherent challenges for his team in delivering hard truths he does not want to hear. Trump has historically engaged in exaggeration, but this was a moment in which he wanted a U.S. citizen, Olympic canoeist David Hearn, to be indicted, tried and possibly imprisoned for the act of touching a chunk of sealant in the already damaged pool.

The White House said that Trump was not aware ahead of time that Pirro’s office would drop the charges.

Trump says he told Pirro he was “not happy” about her decision and that a video backed him up even though it is not clear from the footage shot at a distance that any property destruction occurred. “Well I just think she was totally wrong,” Trump told reporters Tuesday night. “And everybody saw the vandalism.”

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