Letters from an American - Always a Lie

Episode Date: August 2, 2026

August 1, 2026The Department of Justice moved to dismiss the criminal charges against David Hearn, who was indicted for vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, The filing says the damage was due to faulty installation by the contractor, a firm that was hired on a no-bid basis, The project had issues from the start, from algae blooming the day after the reservoir was filled with water to the blue epoxy which began peeling off the bottom of the pool, Hearn was trying to see what the detached material felt like but Trump immediately blamed him and others for vandalizing the pool, Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for DC, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also claimed that vandals were responsible for the problems with the pool but the DOJ’s filing proves this was a lie and that the restoration was a hasty, expensive, and ill-thought-out project. The government insisted the work was a success that was undercut by haters, Their story follows a familiar pattern, Trump continues to rant about the reflecting pool on social media, perhaps because he has so little to convince voters to support him.Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

August 1, 26. In a classic Friday night news dump, the Department of Justice last night moved to dismiss the criminal charges against David Hearn, the U.S. Olympian, the Justice Department, indicted for vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The filing says that damage to the reflecting pool in June 26 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 week surrounding Independence Day, 26. President Donald J. Trump announced in April that he was planning to renovate the reflecting pool, and on May 7th said it would take a week and cost about $1.8 million.

By May 8th, the cost had jumped to $13.1 million, with the contract awarded on a no-bid basis. When the pool reopened on June 6th, Trump declared it a triumph, writing on social media, Thank you, President Trump. But the day after the reservoir filled with water, algae began to bloom in it. A spokesperson for the Interior Department said the algae were residual, and a normal part of the process of refilling the pool. 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, she said in a statement. By June 16, crews from the National Park Service were pouring hydrogen peroxide

into the water to kill the algae that had turned the pool bright green, even as Trump insisted the pool was perfect. By Thursday, June 18th, the new blue epoxy at the bottom of the pool was peeling off and floating in the vivid green pool. David Ferenhold reported in the New York Times that the National Park Service contracted not only the coating and painting of the pool under a no-bid contract. The price tag had jumped to at least $14.2 million, but also an additional $1.7 million contract for a water purification system. That no-bid contract went to a firm called Greenwater Services, whose ultimate owner is the J.J. Caffaro Investment Trust, led by Trump donor John J. Caffaro, whose wife chaired the 2017 International Red Cross Ball at Maralago, and who lives near Mara Lago, at a mansion that is listed as the water treatment company's address in Florida corporate records. On June 19th, U.S. Park Police officers arrested 67-year-old Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer who had stopped by the pool on a 52-mile bike ride and reached into the water to feel what the detached material felt like for destruction of public property. I didn't vandalize anything, Hearn told David J. Lynch and Aaron Schaefer of the Washington Post.

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 Democrats, 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 nation's magnificent reflecting pool. 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 Walls 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. Administration officials insisted that the problems with the reflecting pool renovations were entirely the fault of vandals. White House Press Secretary, Caroline Levitt, pushed back on Walls' statement, saying, the vandalism is very real. Janine Piro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, scoffed at the idea that there had not been vandalism, telling Jesse Waters of the Fox News Channel that she had just been at the pool

and someone was intent on doing incredible damage to the pool. Interior Secretary Doug Bergham told Dana Bash of 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 Bash pressed him 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 vandal, 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, the Department of Justice's filing proves that the idea of vandals was always a lie. The problems with the renovation of the reflecting pool were exactly what critics said all along. A hasty, expensive, ill-thought-out project failed. This case is so bad, Chris Geidner of Law Dork noted, that Piro went out of her way to blame the Interior Department for the misguided indictment. The disparity between the fantasy Trump and his cronies sold to their supporters and the reality of the situation when they were forced to prove their allegations in court matters. Administration officials insisted before the media that the project had been a great success, hurt only by radical left scum that hate our country. In order to prove their lie,

use the power of the government to harass, indict, and threaten a random individual whom they could blame for their own failures. Then, when forced to prove their allegations in a court of law, they withdrew the claim entirely. This has always been the pattern of Trump and his cronies. Weave a fantasy story in front of friendly media cameras, a fantasy of their own great success, undercut by haters. then abandon or lose the legal cases based on the fantasy. For all the bluster before the cameras of Trump cronies insisting the 2020 election was stolen, Trump's attorneys backed away from the claims.

They either withdrew or lost all but one of the 60 lawsuits they brought over the election. As a headline in the Wall Street Journal put it in 2020, Trump cries voter fraud. In court, his lawyers don't. The one case Trump's lawyers won found that the Pennsylvania Secretary of State overstepped by allowing voters extra time to provide missing identification for mail-in ballots. Even with that ruling, Daniel Barnes of NBC News reported, Biden still won the state by more than 80,000 votes. Even his reality makes it clear that his claims are a fantasy, Trump continues to spin his

yarns, seeming to have little else to convince voters to support him. Today, he doubled down on his insistence that Vandals caused the problem with the reflecting pool. I disagree 100% with Janine Piro, 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 D.J.T. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead of Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.