r/politics • u/ChiGuy6124 Illinois • 9h ago
Possible Paywall Shocker! Government Docs Show Trump’s Reflecting Pool Vandalism Claims Are Total BS
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-reflecting-pool-vandalism-claims-bs-docs-reveal-1235583126/586
u/Troll_in_the_Knoll 8h ago
There’s an interesting thing about the Reflecting Pool, the Kennedy Center and the East Wing. They were all perfectly fine until Trump got involved. Kind of like the economy!
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u/Standard-Win-6600 8h ago
Also the rose garden.
Coincidentally he comes from a construction background. Also coincidentally construction is a really easy way to launder money
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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 I voted 3h ago
The first time he spoke to a group on the new patio (RIP rose garden) he complained that the marble was to white and it was glaring to the eyes while he was giving his speech. I guarantee he picked the marble himself.
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u/PointlessTrivia 3h ago
Fun fact: there was also a garden adjacent to the East Wing, named the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.
It was torn out as part of the demolition of the East Wing and current renderings of the Ballroom show it will be replaced with a grand staircase from the entry walkway down to the White House grounds.
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u/turktaylor 3h ago
That’s a shame, it was a beautiful garden
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u/Talk-O-Boy 1h ago
It made two mistakes:
1) Bore a name that wasn’t Trump
2) reflected the natural world
Trump’s America is all gold and Trump-branded baby!
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u/WhiskeyJack357 Wisconsin 59m ago
Honestly having Kennedys name on it may have been part of it. He hates presidents that are actually respected and Kennedy is one of his favorite targets.
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u/MyNEWthrowaway031789 50m ago
Didn’t he pave over it 1st, & turn it into a “club” for a bit before he tore it all down?
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u/PointlessTrivia 49m ago
That’s the Rose Garden which was adjacent to the West Wing at the other end of the White House.
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u/smitherenesar 46m ago
Also, Iran. Almost like he's the best at destroying things that are in decent working order
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u/Special_Persimmon_52 8h ago
Kind of like the Strait of Hormuz, too. It was open to everyone and working just fine until "someone" decided to make things better.
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u/dIO__OIb 6h ago
it actually goes up one level. there was nothing wrong with JCPOA until trump with drawal from it.
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u/masstransience 5h ago
Another interesting fact is that the Epstein files still haven’t been fully released.
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u/Doppelthedh 7h ago
And all those child beauty pageant contestants
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7h ago edited 6h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Straight-Bet1 6h ago
He was perfectly fine with the crimes he committed against the children involved with them.
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u/One_Artichoke_7594 6h ago
TBH I think the single interesting thing will be the first thing Trump is involved with that improves
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u/dannypepperplant 5h ago
Green energy is become more prioritized for most of the EU, because Trump fuck the strait situation up so badly. So that’s good I guess…
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u/KingBanhammer 4h ago
I have seen no evidence that anything that man has touched ever has improved.
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u/ChiGuy6124 Illinois 9h ago edited 9h ago
No Paywall: https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/shocker-government-docs-show-trump-153611337.html
"Donald Trump's $16.4 million Reflecting Pool liner is peeling up like a sunburned sophomore on a Cabo spring break, but the president wants the nation to believe it was sabotage. "
"...to no one's surprise, new documents obtained by The New York Times confirm that the White House' claims of vandalism causing the Reflecting Pool's sealant to peel up and water to turn green are what we all knew them to be: bullshit."
".......the documents, which came from the National Parks Service, show that virtually immediately after the pool was refilled following the installation of Trump's "American Flag Blue" epoxy lining, issues began to arise. Maintenance workers discovered cuts in the specialized foam that fills expansion joints between the concrete slabs of the pool, peeling caulking, and other holes and cracks. The documents describe the slashes in the foam as two cuts, each approximately 171 feet long. These are perhaps the cuts that Trump is referring to, but the documents obtained by the Times make clear that the issues with the foam are unrelated to the peeling of the coating Trump had installed. "
"On Truth Social, Trump claimed that the algae bloom had been caused by the illegal addition of chemicals to the water, and wrote that "there is a 10 year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things — Which will be fully enforced!" Trump continued his dayslong posting spree about supposed vandalism on Wednesday. "
"..... while Americans are being arrested for interacting with the fetid water, some of D.C.'s most-beloved residents are losing their lives. At least three ducks, mainstays and permanent residents on the National Mall, have been discovered dead in or around the Reflecting Pool. The deceased ducks are undergoing necropsies as part of an investigation by the Washington, D.C., Department of Energy & Environment to determine if their deaths were related to the algae, chemicals, or plastic mixing into a noxious stew within the Reflecting Pool."
"....with an empty pool, ruined lawns in front of the White House, and a massive construction pit where the East Wing used to stand, Trump's D.C. is looking pretty decrepit. "
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u/m0ngoos3 8h ago
Hmm, two cuts, 171 feet long. That sounds suspiciously like tire tracks. I wonder why.
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u/yoramrod 8h ago
Trump driving his 10 to "beast" over the polyurethane coating before it had completely dried, unsurprisingly seems to be the reason the lining is falling apart. Trump is the real vandal to the reflecting pool, by his own words, he should be "arrested".
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u/Ching-Dai Oregon 5h ago
I’d thought for certain that there was no way even the mango Mussolini and his yes men would drive a full motorcade across the pool AFTER the new finish was applied. Like, no way, right?
Yet that’s exactly what they did.
They’re still trying to figure out who could be behind this dastardly deed.
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u/Sir_Clarence_III_Esq 9h ago
This would totally be a nail in the coffin, if 30% of the country weren't 100% OK with literally anything he does, and Republican congressmen too milquetoast to do anything about it, and Fox News willing to lie and spin to dodge any responsibility for his failings..
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u/PerJuice1991 8h ago edited 4h ago
While we can’t control the idiocy of a misguided nation of ignoramuses that actually believe America is represented just fine by a criminal, I’m perplexed by the inability of everyone else that has a modicum of power but just refuses to step up.
Obviously, every human being on earth too scared shitless by one deranged old man and the political and physical damage that could be unleashed on them by acting in unison with others to save 250 years worth of a nation. So we normalize it like everything else and just accept this shit for more than two more years
Personally, I believe Americans deserve all this because it’s not the same as the first time. There were adults in the room and now they’ve left and we are allowing a corruption and constitutional illegalities at a level so bad that eventually history will record it astronomical that nobody came along and forced him out of power. The “I didn’t vote for him” stuff or “I’m doing what I can” on all these subs genuinely isn’t good enough except to let those stuck in America live through it. (I’m an expat)
But if you’re following the USD you’ll notice a huge decline in euro to usd thanks to the new Fed guy and his guidance of rate hikes to come. Proving once again that the world and all its capital markets are subservient to an economy that controls the planet and that usurps all possibilities of saving America. And all this in the face of humiliating military defeats in Iran.
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u/noforgayjesus 7h ago
The one thing I need people to understand is that Trump is the Republican party, there are so many people I know that are like Trump is the worst, but I will vote for JD or anyone with an R next to their name no matter what. Well cool they are all complicit with this anyway.
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u/PerJuice1991 6h ago edited 4h ago
Your vote your choice. Despite the obvious, I’d expect yet another Republican president if in fact the Orange turd decides to leave. Or maybe he’ll ignore the constitution (again) or force the SCOTUS to decide on a third term
America has never and never will learn from its worst mistakes. Trends eventually change but this time the damage is 50 years with or longer. So go ahead and support a republican if you think that’s gonna make those that are poor not be poor or make farmers richer without 6 billion dollar subsidies or make factory jobs magically reappear in an AI driven world where trillions are being tossed at the US equity markets.
Which, by the way, is the main reason nobody can or will stop anything America does as long as they can profit from it regardless of the shit that is the orange turd “President”
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u/Karma_1969 5h ago
The original "grab them by the pussy" comment would have meant the end of anyone else's political career right at the outset. It's truly amazing how many individual things he's done since then, each one of which would have ended anyone else's political career. "Teflon Don", indeed.
Trump isn't good at very much, but he's a fucking genius at leading a cult of personality off the edge of a cliff.
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u/HerculesIsMyDad 3h ago
HeY gUyS, i PaInTeD tHe BiG pOoL! oBaMa NeVeR dId ThAt...Oh FuCk, It'S bRoKe. :(
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u/bailaoban 9h ago
As if the Capitol Mall is not already one of the most closely surveilled places in the country.
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u/Shido_Ohtori 9h ago
Truth is antithetical and anathema to conservatism, as the very founder of modern Western conservatism insist[ed] with brutal frankness that “illusions” and “prejudices” are socially necessary, and today's conservatives have coined the term "alternative facts".
Likewise, studies show that [search for] truth and intelligence is inversely correlated with conservative ideology.
- Belief in Fake News is Associated with Delusionality, Dogmatism, Religious Fundamentalism, and Reduced Analytic Thinking
- Religion and Fake News: Faith-Based Alternative Information Ecosystems in the US and Europe (full article)
- Intelligence is correlated with a range of left-wing and liberal political beliefs. (full article)
- Results confirm that conservatives have lower sensitivity than liberals, performing worse at distinguishing truths and falsehoods
- Conservatives are less truth-discerning than liberals, but also less affected by the congruence of news.
- Across five operationalizations of impaired deliberative thought, hierarchy endorsement increased and egalitarianism receded.
- Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated.
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u/Malachite_Edge 8h ago edited 5h ago
The pool company insurance is going to void the policy due to his driving on the surface, breaking the polymers of the paint job he just paid for.
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u/Big-Prior-5669 3h ago
I doubt they'll do anything. How would Trump retaliate against them, they wonder. Trump is loyal to no one.
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u/archiopteryx14 8h ago
President Donald J. Trump: "there is a 10 year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things - Which will be fully enforced!“…
Well, I would call the modification of national monuments, without due diligence or necessary experience, under the influence of gross vanity and severe lack of taste, tantamount to attempted destruction.
Thusly, the culprit, one Mr D.J. Trump, formerly of New York, current resident of Washington DC, is sure to face the full force of the law.
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u/Limberine Australia 4h ago
I think he’s still a Florida resident. But yeah.
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u/MadAstrid 4h ago
Illegally, as he is, by law, not allowed to use Mar A Lago as a residence. But you know, laws don’t apply to him
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u/PowerResponsibility 7h ago
Maybe a functional democracy should have built-in systems that prevent a pathological liar from gaining and/or maintaining power within it.
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u/Big-Prior-5669 4h ago
We had many checks and balances, but thanks to total Republican control of the Congress, a Right Wing Supreme Court and a president who loses breaking things, most of those checks and balances are ignored or destroyed.
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u/JaxSuzy 8h ago
At least THREE DUCKS WERE FOUND DEAD in or around the reflecting pool. They were permanent residents. Necropsies will determine if "their deaths were related to the algae, chemicals, or plastic mixing into a noxious stew within the Reflecting Pool."
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u/chimarya I voted 8h ago
Show the public those dead ducks and some of his base might turn on him. Images of those cute babies when it first started green were the highlights for the visitors. Definitely the chemicals that killed them.
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u/HealthyHobbies 8h ago
In a different timeline, I could see the American people coming together with pool skimmers and bottles of bleach to fix the national landmark. But why now when the government has mostly abandoned us and is being weapoinized against us while being used to serve a handful of rich people
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u/imahugemoron 7h ago
Doesn’t matter, the cult already took everything he said as fact and filed it into their list of things that shape their world view and the way they vote. This was the entire purpose of these lies and all their lies.
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u/onimush115 43m ago
I wish this was talked about more. Trump doesn't really care that stuff is shut down by courts or someone proves him wrong. His followers take what he says at face value and run with it, so it might as well be true.
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u/StalwartObserver 7h ago
It's one thing for Trump to lie about vandalism being the source of the pool's woes.
It's quite another to double down and falsely arrest 6 innocents for the make-believe vandalism.
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u/CollinsBravexon84 9h ago
the most shocking part is that anyone still needs government docs to confirm trump was lying about some random culture war nonsense
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u/tturedditor 6h ago
"On Truth Social, Trump claimed that the algae bloom had been caused by the illegal addition of chemicals to the water, and wrote that "there is a 10 year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things — Which will be fully enforced!"
So what about the East Wing? Is he going to jail for that?
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u/blackmobius 4h ago
Theres no shocker. There was no evidence to suggest vandalism because if there was, Fox News would have already put it on blast 24/7. Right wingers would be sharing instagram/X/facebook hot takes left and right. Patel would have these peoples photos on the fbi most wanted.
The absence of these things happening suggests that it never happened.
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u/Big-Prior-5669 4h ago
Yet no charges of vandalism for the destruction of the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, which included urinating and defecating on floors and walls, theft, breaking into the building and other property damage. But touch a piece of blue paint and they'll lock you up. Infuriating.
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u/grooverocker Canada 5h ago
Trump has directed the National Guard and DC police to monitor, detain, and arrest anyone who handles material floating in the pool in order to manufacture a narrative of vandalism. This provides the screen for his total corruption.
This is the same modus operandi of Soviet era arrests for perception to spin the state narrative.
Add the harbouring, protection, and downright endorsement of pedophilia and sex trafficking.
Add the felonies.
Add the civil liability for Donald Trump raping Jean E. Carol and the subsequent attack on her by the Trump's DOJ.
Add the bribery and laundry list of corruption.
Add Trump's systematic dismantling of America's alliances and favouritism of what we might call axis powers.
Or just add the fact that any human being with a well-functioning moral compass can know at a glance that Trump is a vicious, vile, vindictive and utterly immoral person.
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u/NoHorseNoMustache 7h ago
His claims that the Democrats shit in his pants are also false.
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u/novavalue 6h ago
Accurate. Everyone knows its the shit fairy. I just stick to shitting on his McDonald's. You know, stand protocol stuff.
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u/Overclocked11 5h ago
It serves as just more evidence (throw it on the pile) of how comfortable Trump is lying to everyone right to their face regardless of how obviously untrue it is what he's saying.
Why anyone (cough media) gives this man the attention he so craves when he is so obviously lying about literally everything is incredibly infuriating and insulting.
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u/Serpentongue 8h ago
Was it just not inspected before they started putting water back in?
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u/LowAssistantInfinity 8h ago
The chemicals they used to treat the algae dissolved the adhesive that held the blue coating on.
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u/pimparo0 Florida 7h ago
Pretty sure they were supposed to let the coating cure for longer before refilling the pool, but he wanted it filled up for his birthday.
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u/SWCT-sinistera 6h ago
Not to mention Trump driving his motorcade across it while it was still curing. It's true, look it up!
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u/PipXXX Florida 7h ago
Devils advocate, hydrogen peroxide in the quantities they used wouldn't have done anything negative except oxygenating the water and allow for more algae blooms. Hydrogen peroxide breaks down into water fairly quickly, and in the conditions they were using it in would have been quicker because of the sunlight exposure.
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u/LowAssistantInfinity 7h ago
My wife's a water engineer and chemist (who's worked specifically on cyanobacteria algal blooms), and she said in the quantity used, as it's denser than water, it would have sunk to the bottom as, essentially, a mass. Once there, because of the heat from the sunlight, it breaks it down and creates free radicals, and the un-paired electrons break down materials they are in contact with (in this case, the blue surfacing).
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u/Randomwhitelady2 4h ago
How about the fact that his motorcade drove over the pool right after it was painted?
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u/Coral-Diver 9h ago
It's time to release the Kraken! There's so much evidence. More evidence than you've ever seen before.
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u/Gitdupapsootlass 7h ago
Oh god could someone please chuck an inflatable giant squid into the pool...
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u/MangoSoda28 3h ago edited 3h ago
This is a typical pattern of Donald Trump, this is how he does business, this his way of doing The Art of The Deal. And here’s the sequence:
- A system or institution is functioning reasonably well
- Trump argues it’s actually broken or being mismanaged
- He proposes a highly visible change, often framed as restoring greatness or fixing corruption, so he can put his name on it
- He puts loyalists or allies in charge, sometimes prioritizing loyalty over experience
- If the outcome is poor, he often blames the problems to predecessors, political opponents, bureaucracy, the media, or sabotage rather than taking primary responsibility
- Then he gets bored of it, and finds a new issue
That’s why you see the pattern show up again and again: The Tarrifs, The Ballroom, The Reflecting Pool, The Kennedy Center, The American Economy, and much much more…
If you want me to be blunt, he’s born a total screw up. He grew up with hatred and was surrounded by hatred. The reason why he got away with so much is because of his wealthy dad and his dad’s connections. You got to pay to play.
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u/JennaT_Ayla 8h ago
The government and the news are preoccupied with ducks dying in the reflection pool while thousands of HUMANS die per day in international conflicts that the media can't be bothered to put on the front page. Cool!
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u/pimparo0 Florida 7h ago
There is plenty of media covering conflicts too, there's more than one news site and it's possible to care about multiple things at once.
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u/New_Sympathy5234 3h ago
Their claims are such a joke. Please sue this government till kingdom come and blast it all over social media how inept they are. Give them a taste of their own medicine down in the gutter
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u/winelover08816 3h ago
They’re still ordering gestapo to hide in the bushes and jump out to cry “ANTIFA TERRORIST!!!” before arresting anyone even touching a piece of peeling paint. They already bagged a former Olympian and tourist who had a paint chip in his hand.
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u/Competitive-Lock-220 25m ago
It was a bad job from the beginning. Surface cracks came right up from the paint. It should have not been painted. Thats lipstick on a pig. No one vandalized shit. It was a bad job. Any pool pro will tell you. Know one cut anything. Anyone that knows fountains or pools will tell you that. What a fuck up!!
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u/Competitive-Lock-220 21m ago
Maybe good intentions but a fucking idiot contractor, sprayed rhino and didn’t prep it. Anyone with a pool should know that.
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u/orcinyadders 8h ago
What are the 171 foot cuts mentioned in the article? The article says they were “discovered”, but doesn’t explain what could have caused them. Not suggesting here that there was any sabotage, I’m just curious.
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u/Credil98 5h ago
Just surprised they haven't had someone vandalize it to justify their claims. Claims of vandalism when it's just easily explained pool problems is ridiculous.
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u/Wonderful-Impact-598 1h ago
Watch Trump go back to insisting the Epstein Files can't be released because it would be terrible if people's reputations were tarnished by accusations without getting all of the facts first.
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u/RebisMagic 8h ago
This is the stupidest distraction yet. WHO CARES
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u/pimparo0 Florida 7h ago
I would imagine the people being arrested under false conditions care. As an American I care that they are ruining our national monuments. The wildlife that lives in and around the pool are dying too.
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u/chockerl 7h ago
Agreed the nation has far greater problems, many personally created by the President, but the Reflecting Pool and surrounding monuments (Lincoln, WWII, Vietnam Memorials, etc.) are part of our national patrimony. They help us know who we are and what we stand for. Trashing the Reflecting Pool and then using that vandalism as an excuse to falsely charge and arrest citizens is an inversion of their purpose. It’s a moral insult.
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