No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Trump's reflecting pool lie backfires

Episode Date: June 21, 2026

Trump issues a lie about the reflecting pool that he won’t be able to validate. Brian interviews Senator Mark Warner about the new Iran deal.Pre-order The Day After & buy tour tickets: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/thedayafterWritten by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Trump issues a lie about the reflecting pool that he won't be able to validate, and I interview Senator Mark Warner about the new Iran deal. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. So there is no world in which this latest lie by Trump regarding the reflecting pool does not blow up in his face. So he took you to social writing, The United States Park Police has arrested 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, President DJT. So here's the deal. Trump royally screwed up by handing his pal a no-bed contract to fix the reflecting pool. That job was predictably botched. The pool filled up with algae five minutes after the gig was completed, and now Trump is embarrassed, so he needs an excuse.

And the excuse he landed on was that elusive vandals have destroyed the reflecting pool, because anything to avoid taking responsibility for his own actions. But here's the problem. There were no vandals that destroyed the reflecting pool, which is why, despite Trump repeating this lie multiple times now, he's not done what he would have done if this was real, which is release video footage proving what he's saying. He posted again on true social that vandals cut a 250-foot tear in the pool's lining. Now, the reflecting pool is obviously under constant surveillance.

You think if a vandal made a gash in the lining nearly the length of a football field that Trump, wouldn't release it to the public, so that Jesse Waters and Laura Ingram and the rest of right-wing media could go on a non-stop tear about how those communist, Marxist, leftist Democrats want to sabotage poor innocent Trump

and our national monuments? So either Trump is conspicuously holding on to footage that would offer up undeniable proof of his story or that footage doesn't exist and he's just full of shit. Take all the time you need with that one. Now, granted, that hasn't stopped

the usual Trump's sycophants from mindlessly regurgitating his claims anyway. Here, for example, is Tommy Laron and Scott Jennings. Happening down there. Well, I'm not a scientist, so the algae thing, I mean, I believe that's what happens in bodies of water such as this. So I don't think this is President Trump's fault. But what's so irritating to me about the left here? President Trump is trying to make D.C. nicer.

D.C. is filled with Democrats, okay? He's making it nicer because, yes, he happens to live there for the next couple of years, but you all live there all the time. because DC is made up primarily of liberals and Democrats, right? He's trying to make it nicer for you. Trying to make it safer for you. He's trying to make your reflecting pool nicer. He's trying to spruce up the place,

and they go out of their way to damage and to vandalize it. It's like during the BLM Summer of Love, when they're burning down businesses in their own community. It's like you have to be pretty stupid to do that. Well, regarding the vandalism, that's absolutely true. Somebody did vandalize the grass. Even when workers were working on the reflecting pool, I think I read that people came and vandalized their trucks,

and their equipment. Look, you have people that hate Donald Trump so much that they would go out and destroy our national monuments, vandalize the Lincoln Memorial, vandalize the grass. That's how broken brain they are. Donald Trump has cleaned up Washington. The fountain's work, the city is clean, the city is safe. It's good that he has taken an interest in this. And you have these people out here who are so broken brain about the fact that he's the president that they're spending their time vandalizing all this stuff. I think it's terrible. And I hope anybody who vandalizes our monuments, I hope they get caught. they get put in jail. He's trying to make the city beautiful for America 250.

There's going to be a lot of people in Washington. They deserve to go to a clean, safe capital. And that's what he's trying to do. There are no lengths that these people won't go to to debase themselves for Trump. Like, they don't care if they torch every ounce of their reputations so long as they can align themselves with him on literally every single issue, no matter how stupid. And that's the thing. Like, this is a stupid issue. And the only reason any of us are talking about it is because Trump dies on every hill and spent, God knows how to be many weeks talking about his reflecting pool, his glorious reflecting pool, when in reality, this whole project became the perfect microcosm for his grift, corruption, and lies.

The reflecting pool is the perfect representation for how he has governed this country. He surrounded himself with the least qualified people on earth who are loyal not to the constitution, but to him, people who would be perfectly willing to not just allow his corruption, but encourage his corruption. and when that corruption inevitably made this country worse off, those people reflexively just blame the left. But here's the thing. It is not the left's fault that Trump launched a trade war

that sent the cost of everything surging. It's not the left's fault that Trump started a war with Iran that sent energy costs skyrocketing. It's not the left's fault. The Republicans gutted health care and food assistance. It's not the left's fault that inflation's risen 33% since Joe Biden left office. Not the left's fault that the Epstein files

still haven't been released. Just like it's not the left's fault, that the Reflecting Pool Project ended in disaster. The failures that we are seeing at the hands of the federal government are not a fluke. They are what happens when this White House is filled with sycophants who care more about blind allegiance to a serial liar and sexual predator than they do to the American people. So, again, is the reflecting pool important?

No. But the thing is, it is important to Trump, as are the rest of his vanity projects. The Ballroom, the Katari Jet, the Rose Garden, the Marble and the Kennedy Center, the triumphal arch, and because he's surrounded by sycophants, they too have to prostrate themselves to him by pretending that these things matter.

And when even his little HGTV renovations fail, now they have to further debase themselves by parroting his lies about this bullshit on national TV in most occasions, while Americans watch along at our tax dollars being squandered by the absolute stupidest shit on God's Green Earth. If this tells us one lesson, it is that Trump and Republicans do not,

not care about regular people, and clearly they're putting as much on full display right now. Next up is my interview with Senator Warner, but a reminder that my new book, the day after, is now available for pre-order. So if you'd like to support my work, that is the best way to do so. And I'll also be on tour. So if you live in or around New York, D.C. or L.A., I'd love to see you mid-July on the road. I'm going to put the link to both pre-order the book and tour tickets in the show notes of this episode. And again, I'd love for you to check that out. Okay, here's my interview with Senator Warner. No Lie is brought to by Zbiotics.

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BTC at checkout. is backed with a 100% money-back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash BTC and use the code BTC at checkout for 15% off. I'm joined now by Senator Mark Warner. Senator, as we've seen the details of the Iran nuclear deal,

this new Iran deal that Donald Trump has struck up, start to emerge, is there anything that would suggest that the United States has gained anything because of the last, you know, three, four months of this war that we've been engaged in. So, Brian, we've had now 110 days of Donald Trump's War of Choice against Iran. And, you know, it's cost Americans 60 billion roughly in increased gas prices. That doesn't factor in increased fertilizer that'll pass on to food costs.

It doesn't factor in, you know, airline tickets that have gone up. a gazillion percent. In 110 days in, if you look, did the administration accomplish anything of its goals? Is America stronger in any way? And the answer is no. I mean, Donald Trump is a good salesman. We've got to grant him that. But even Donald Trump can't sell this pig and a poke.

And if you just look, you know, the regime is worse. this agreement doesn't even allude to the missile capability that Iran still has, by the way. 60% of the missiles, 50% of the launchers. We didn't take out their drone, so the agreement doesn't even mention that. It doesn't mention Iran's support for the proxies like Hezbollah or hoodies.

And if Iran is going to get beyond sanction relief that allows them sell oil, another $300 billion from somewhere, how much of that will end up with the hoodies? And the Strait of Hormuz is supposed to be any open, but at any point, the Iranian speedboats can put mines back in. And then the whole notion that there's a concession because Iran said they're not going to develop a nuclear weapon, well, that's been their freaking position for the last 15, 20 years. Right. And on top of that, just final point, they'll stop yammering on.

But, you know, the idea that the Iranians are going to give up all their enriched uranium, the Iranians are going to get up their enriched uranium that is highly volatile in some of these canisters and some of these nuclear sites in 60 days, I hope I'm proven wrong. But there is no one in the national security world, including some of the Trump senior officials who believe that is possible. So even Donald Trump, I don't think, can sell this. This was a war of choice that was a folly to start with. And it will maybe go down as his single worst foreign policy endeavor. And that's considering a lot.

Again, if I'm wrong, I would love to be wrong on this. You know, something interesting was even today when he was speaking in some bilateral meeting, he brought up this idea that because of the Obama, nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, that Iran was given $1.7 billion in cash. But he's saying this at the same time that his administration is negotiating a deal where Iran would have access to $300 billion. And so this is a deal 176 times better for Iran than the Obama deal would be. And I mean, talk about cognitive dissonance, him complaining about Obama while heaping so

much more financial benefit onto Iran. Am I missing something? Or is it truly that in a way, though, in a way it's not to make it even worse, but it is kind of worse because, you know, what Obama gave, my understanding was he was releasing some of Iran's funds that we had, you know, sanctions. Through the war already, Trump has released sanctions on Iranian oil that was already in tankers-on-sea. So Iran got 15 billion even during the 110-day war. Now this other 300 billion, which is a little spooky where it's going to come from, no restrictions on that. And I just saw in my Republican friends, and I said, like, can I just use all the language you used to bash the shit out of Obama on this deal? And the difference, you know, JCPOA was not perfect.

Let me be the first to acknowledge that. But the irony was as well as at that point, we had the whole world. We had the Europeans, us, and people forget Russia and China were signatories to try to hold Iran accountable. Now Russia and China are totally on Iran's side. So we have less enforcement mechanism, a worse deal for us, a better financial deal for Iran, both with the 300 billion and some of the immediate relief they've already gotten, but with other immediate sanctions relief. starting, I think, this weekend. No Lie is brought to you by Factor. So we've all been in this situation.

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And the best part, it's ready in minutes. Factor shops, preps, cooks, and deliver straight to your door so that you have more time to focus on everything else that you love. I am very, very picky about what I eat, and I could eat Factor Meals every single day. So head to factormeals.com slash BTC 50 off and use code BTC 50 off to get 50% off your free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until 92726. See website for more details. Another point that I wanted to bring up was the impact that this is having on America, it's not just the fact that Iran will have access to 300 billion new dollars. It's not just the fact that we went from Ayatollah Khomeini to Ayatollah Khomeini. It's not

just the fact that Iran can now can now basically toll the Strait of Hormuz, which allowed free passage beforehand. It's also the fact that, you know, you mentioned at the top that we've spent $60 billion. The administration had claimed $30 billion. I know that you had said $60 billion on increased gas prices. Does this not seem counterintuitive for an administration that beat its chest as focusing on America first, now spending ungodly sums of billions of dollars in yet another pointless war in the Middle East that they expressly swore they would avoid? I mean, is this not money that could have and should have gone to Americans here at home? A-friking men? And yes, yes, yes, it could have gone, gosh, maybe health care, maybe education, maybe figuring how we deal with AI.

But let me just add one more thing on top of this. You know, you've got a big Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles, Southern California. We've got a big Iranian diaspora in Virginia. Iranian culture, Persian culture is rich. It is an incredible group of human beings. The government has been awful. You know, the Iranian people in January, in record numbers, said, we're tired of this crap from the Ayatollahs.

They were rising up. Donald Trump said at that point, don't worry, we got your back. We got your back. We'll be there. This memorandum of understanding whatever it's called not only doesn't talk at all about any change in Iran. It basically says we will respect the sovereign rights diplomatic speech, which is in a sense saying, all right, Iran, whatever your regime wants to do to the Iranian people have at it. we will not mess with you at all.

So all of those people that heard of the American president say, rise up the 30,000 plus that were killed between January and the war starting in February. How many more will be killed because now this brutal regime has got a green light that at least America doesn't give a dam? And I think about, again, the Iranian diaspora, which I know is torn. It's not right. It's not fair. It goes against who we are as a people. But if you're only looking for the deal a day, and on this one, again, even Donald Trump, I think, cannot sell this as a good deal for the region, for our allies, for Israel, for the Gulf states. I mean, Bill Cassidy, one of my Republican Senate friends, said it was the, I think the words for something like the greatest political folly or greatest disaster and modern history. history. It's just, and that's not me. That's a Republican senator. Yeah. Last question here. And I know that you're out of time, but given the fact that he's getting bipartisan condemnation on this deal, do you think that there's a world in which he's going to take this seat, this period where there's a

ceasefire and before the official text has been released and renege on the deal to try and kind of save face? Yeah, but I don't know how he saves face. I mean, he's been so desperate for a deal. And let me, stepping back, if he wants to claim victory, claim victory, continuing this. war was not going to help America. It was not going to help prices. Frankly, it was not going to help the Iranian people. It was not going to help. We have almost, we are running down on our missiles that we shoot off to shoot down the Iranian missiles. We use very expensive $2 million plus missiles to shoot down $50,000 drones at times. We had to end this. Yeah. History will be the judge. And not just history, the American people will be the judge come November.

Yep. But ending this is the right thing. We'll leave it there. Senator Warner, I appreciate your time. Brian, thank you as always. Thanks again to Senator Warner. That's it for this episode. Talk to you on Wednesday. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesie, and interviews edited for YouTube by Nicholas Nicotera. If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app and leave a five-star rating in a review. And as always, you can find me at Brian Tyler Cohen on all of my other channels, or you can go to Brian

Tyler Cohen.com to learn more.