#national-mall
2 entries with this tag
Trump Blamed "Vandals" for the Peeling, Botched $14.7 Million Renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and Had His D.C. Prosecutor Charge Real People Over It — Including a Former Olympian — Before Every Charge Was Dropped; Now, Per the New York Times, the Contractor's Own Reports Admit the Truth: Its Faulty Work, Not Sabotage, Caused the Damage
The Trump administration fast-tracked a roughly $14.7 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of the Fourth of July. The new blue liner promptly peeled, bubbled, and broke loose. Trump's explanation was not that the rushed job had failed — it was that "vandals" had sabotaged the pool. He pushed to prosecute them, and his U.S. Attorney in Washington, Jeanine Pirro, actually charged several people, including former Olympian David Hearn. Every one of those charges was eventually dropped. Now, according to government documents reviewed by The New York Times, the contractor itself — Atlantic Industrial Coatings — has admitted in its own reports (dated August 14 and September 2) that the damage was caused by its work, not by any vandal: "human oversight" meant workers failed to spray enough primer for the liner's layers to bond, the two chemicals mixed for the liner were incompatible, and heat then loosened the bottom layer. In other words, the crime Trump blamed for his project's failure never happened, and he knew enough to concede "some contractor error" back in August even as the prosecutions proceeded. This is the full sequence of the abuse in one small monument: a botched job, a fabricated culprit, and innocent people — one of them an Olympian — charged with a federal crime to protect the president from the embarrassment of his own contractor's mistakes.
Trump Hijacks America's 250th Birthday, Then Artists Flee — Leaving Him With Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli
Trump created "Freedom 250" as a rival to the congressionally established America250 commission for the nation's semiquincentennial. He booked nine artists for a "Great American State Fair" concert series on the National Mall. Five dropped out within 48 hours after discovering they'd been misled about the event being nonpartisan — leaving Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli's Fab Morvan. Trump called the departing artists "Third Rate" and "overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring," compared himself to Elvis, declared himself "the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!)," proposed replacing the concerts with a MAGA rally, and announced he would personally headline the opening ceremony. Freedom 250 has no Congressional authorization, no independent oversight, and doesn't disclose its donors.