The Daily Beast Podcast - Why Trump's D.C. Makeover Is Getting Even Worse

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

Presented by PMI U.S., US Businesses of Philip Morris International. Share a prediction on America's future for a chance to be featured on The Daily Beast Podcast: https://beast.pub/america250 #ad  Farrah Tomazin, the Daily Beast's Political Correspondent, joins Joanna Coles from Washington, D.C. with an on-the-ground look at Donald Trump's race to remake the nation's capital—and why so many of his headline-grabbing projects are already running into trouble. From the drained Reflecting Pool and delayed restoration projects to a sparsely attended Great American State Fair, Farrah explains how rushed timelines, no-bid contracts, and made-for-TV spectacles are reshaping the city ahead of America's 250th anniversary. She also takes listeners inside Todd Blanche's high-stakes confirmation hearing for attorney general, where Trump's former personal lawyer faces tough questions over the Justice Department's independence, the Epstein files, and an admission that leaved senators stunned. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code BEAST at https://www.oneskin.co/beast  #oneskinpod #ad  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Offer ends July 22nd, 26. Visit Ancestry.ca slash beginners for details. Terms apply. Every president leaves a mark on Washington, you know, that they're usually in the form of policies in terms of defining legacies, Obama, for example, had the Affordable Care Act or FDR had, you know, reshape government itself. But Trump seems determined to kind of leave something much more physical.

Washington is obviously the nation's capital, but for him it's also kind of an audience, a stage. So he's rushing through projects in a way that, you know, then they don't have competitive tender processes on many occasions. They're not well thought through. He's got, I know, for a fact that government sources tell me within various departments that they're just, scrambling. It's quite bonkers, actually, but this is the president. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. And today, you will not believe what our reporter Farah Thomasin, who's based in our Washington Bureau, has discovered as she's been spending time, just walking around the national monuments in D.C. amid what Donald Trump claims is his beautification project. He's

tending to the grass. But she's found that the national monuments are not faring as well as the White House claims. Before we get into it and before we get to the heart of Farah's excellent reporting, I'm just going to remind you if you haven't to subscribe to the Daily Beast podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. And also at the end of this conversation, leave us a comment, telling us what you think about what she's uncovered. We are almost a 700,000 subscribers.

We've got 2,000 more to go. So please, if you haven't already subscribed to The Daily Beast, you can join all sorts of tiers of different membership. But your support is really important to us. We are independent media, which is why we can bring you the independent conversations that we do and that, frankly, you can't find anywhere else. All right, Farah, you've spent the last few weeks walking around DC with your camera, taking pictures. Tell us what you saw yesterday. Farah. So you've spent the last few weeks chronicling the physical changes in D.C. What is the latest with the Reflecting Pool? Well, I was down at the Reflecting Pool yesterday, actually, and it is now fenced off to the public.

So visitors, unfortunately, are unable to get those beautiful, iconic pictures of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It is also drained completely. So what you'll basically see if you go down there at the moment is a concrete drab mess. There's no water. We don't know whether there will be water in the immediate future as to when this project will be finished. It's interesting because, as everyone knows, this was a botched project that Donald Trump has since blamed on vandals. He said that there was a 250-foot gash that vandals created possibly with a box cutter or a knife or some razor. blades. I saw no sign of that whatsoever. I saw no signs of the American flag blue that he so

famously bragged about constantly. What I did see, however, was interestingly tire marks in the middle of the reflecting pool. And you may recall Joanna in May, the president took his motorcade down to the reflecting pool and did a drive-by essentially with Secret Service agents, the interior secretary Doug Bergam and his entourage. And there are tie marks down at the middle of the Reflecting Pool, whether they are the presidents, I do not know. But that's pretty much what you're going to see when you go to the Reflecting Pool. Now it's quite a sad state of affairs that this really wonderful, iconic landmark

has been turned into this mess and a national embarrassment, really. Washington is obviously built on a sort of soft waterbed. it's swampy. Does it smell the reflecting pool? Do you know what? When we first had the problems with the reflecting pool, the algae and the like, I actually went down there. A lot of people were kind of doing the same thing. They were putting their nose to it just to see if there was anything strange. People were actually strangely enough putting their hands in it as well, obviously before Donald Trump started to crack down on anyone and everyone who was looking like a vandal. It did not smell to me, but I spoke to tourists who thought that they could, when the

wind blew a certain way, they could get a whiff of something funky. It does not smell at the moment. It's just concrete, dreary, sad looking mess. So Farah, the reflecting pool is empty. For anybody who's come to D.C. and it's 250th anniversary year to celebrate the history of America, the reflecting pool, the historic reflecting pool, is an empty concrete shell. What about the body of water where I gather you walk your dog every day in Meridian Park? Yeah, this is quite interesting. There's a place in D.C. that's much loved for the locals here called Marie in Hill Park. And there's a beautiful cascading fountain.

And it's essentially this 13-tier fountain. with flowing water. And it was one of the president's beautification project for America's 250th anniversary celebrations. But again, as you say, it appears to have gone down the way of the reflecting pool. So I visit at the park every day. I walk my dog there.

It's much love, great place to picnic and hang out. To Donald Trump's credit, it was one of the fountains that he's actually turned back on in D.C. I think he's got a project of 22 fountains. And he put, you know, he allowed the water to run for it again. Went there on Wednesday of last week, and the whole thing had suddenly turned brown. Basically, it was brown water gushing out of this beautiful fountain, which the National Park Service had blamed on sediment that was released

when sort of old white water lines were brought back online. As you can imagine, you know, the locals were shocked. Workers spent the day pumping out sediment. It was a case of another reflecting poor moment where yet another Donald Trump project has turned to brown, essentially. And the interior department said that the fountain could be expected to be turned on within about 24 to 36 hours. Went back there a couple of days later and it had gone from dirty brown to murky green. I think it was a kind of a split-piece soup kind of green and it wasn't much better, I must say.

So they have been furiously working nonstop to try to get the water flowing well again because it is one of the projects that the president brags about. He puts photos of it on social media constantly. He talks about how he's making Washington safe and beautiful again. And as I said, you've got to give him credit. There are parts of Washington where people like myself who have lived here for quite some time actually appreciate the fact that things have been spruced up a bit. You know, Union Station is one of those places, the fountain at my local park.

But watching it go from just this hideous brown to this pea green soup was quite something. And do we know whether or not the contracts, for things like the Meridian Park Fountain also were distributed like the contract for the reflecting pool without going out to bid. And crazily or somewhat incredulously going to people who had zero experience renovating certainly important national spaces, but zero experience renovating a pool? Yeah, it's interesting. The fountain projects were done by Donald Trump basically directing that the Interior

Department and the National Park Service to just hurry up. We gave a bit of money to projects that have been sort of lying dormant and they have sped them up and they've now been going well until, you know, brown sediment kind of, you know, rocked my local park. But there have been a bunch of other projects, you know, that very much are like the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. And I think that's been part of the anger around a lot of Donald Trump's projects, not just that they're kind of, you know, gross and distasteful in many senses.

But the fact that a lot of the transparency around them has been lacking, and they have been given to, like the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, people on no-bid contracts. As our listeners would know, that particular project went to someone who had done Donald Trump's pool at his New Jersey Golf Club, $15 million. It was meant to be much less. But it's not the only no big contract

Donald Trump has awarded. Just down the road from the Lincoln Memorial, there are these two four statues called the Arts of War and Arts of Peace statues. They were gorgeous kind of, you know, statues that, I guess, behind the Lincoln Memorial and in between that and where Donald Trump

wants to make his great big arch. He quietly offered, he quietly wanted to sort of bling up these statues to paint them 24-carat gold. So he gave a no-big contract to a Maryland firm to guild them up in 24-carat gold. I think the initial cost was meant to be $2.5 to $2.8 million, and he vowed that the project would be done by July the 3rd, just in time for America's Independence Day celebrations. Lo and behold, I walked past there yesterday as I went through the pool and saw that they are currently under massively draped sky.

scaffolding and no indication from any of the National Park Service guys I spoke to as to when that project would be finished or how much more it was going to cost. So yeah, there's a bunch of projects that I think a lot of the American tax pays would be quite worried about. It's similar to the reflecting pool and the arts of war and arts of peace statues. America has always built its way forward through disruption, through reinvention, through people overcoming the challenges is before them. Today, the ideas shaping America's future are being built collaboratively by communities, innovators, and entrepreneurs all looking in the same direction. In storefronts, community centers, and towns, most people drive through without stopping. People are using

technology and creativity to solve real problems in practical ways, building opportunity, optimism, and momentum from the ground up. We're already writing America's next chapter. We're building what's next now. So Farah, one of the things that I'm really struggling with to understand here is that if you know you have an enormous deadline like the July the fourth week of America's 250th anniversary, surely this work would be done in advance with enough leeway that even were things to go wrong, which often happen in refurbishment projects, anybody watching or listening to this, who's ever tried to do an extension on their home or try and alter, you know, some part of their home or an office knows that building projects are notorious

for going over budget and over time. Nonetheless, if you have people coming to town, as you say, for the World Cup, for a huge fireworks display, what is going wrong in the organizational process of this that? The city isn't gleaming and beautiful and a credit to the president who claims he is a world-class builder. Well, that's right. I mean, he claims he is a world-class builder. I mean, I guess the fact that a lot of these projects had just rushed through. I mean, we had no idea until not long ago that he was suddenly going to be creating an American flag blue Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.

Nobody voted for it. Nobody knew about it not that long ago. and suddenly he couldn't stop talking about it. And that's the thing with Donald Trump. You know, every president leaves a mark on Washington, you know, that they're usually in the form of policies in terms of defining legacies. Obama, for example, had the Affordable Care Act or FDR had, you know, reshape government itself.

But Trump seems determined to kind of leave something much more physical. You know, he wants monuments, he wants events, he wants buildings that people can literally point to. You know, Washington is obviously the nation's capital, but for him it's also kind of an audience, a stage. So he's rushing through projects in a way that, you know, then they don't have competitive tender processes on many occasions. They're not well fought through.

He's got, I know, for a fact that government sources tell me within various departments that they're just scrambling. They'll suddenly be hit with this idea that he's bragged about, oh, I want a reflecting pool to be American flag blue. And suddenly, you know, they've got to start scrambling. So I think things are just a bit rushed, the lack of, I suppose, processes around it and the fact that we have a president who really wants to, I guess, leave a legacy of Washington based on physical structures and things that you can point to. The builder guy who was also a reality TV guy wants those sort of, you know, spectacles and made for TV moments, whether it's in the form of the Great American State Fair or the UFC Fight Night or the White House room getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Or the, we're about to have an IndyCar race driving down Washington, D.C.

The streets are about to be blocked off in August so that cars can drive at 190 miles an hour down Pennsylvania Avenue, a street that's made for 25 miles an hour limits. It's quite bonkers, actually, but this is the president. Okay, so let's talk about the Great American State Fair. I know you went there for the closing days. we've got some incredible photos that I want to show. Here we have National Endowment of the Arts. We have a man playing his heart out on the accordion

with a fellow musician on a guitar. They've both got cowboy hats on and they are playing to a crowd of precisely none. It was very sad and yet very emblematic of the American State Fair. And I'm going to say, Joanna, I'm from Australia. I love a good fail. an American Tacky Fair, bring it on, you know. Who doesn't love funnel cake?

Who doesn't want deep fried butter? Exactly. Exactly. So I went to the great American State Fair, having great hopes, rocked up. There were no lines. I went on the first day, I believe, it was the day after Donald Trump had kicked it off with a rally because he couldn't get enough people to sing at his concert. So he decided to make himself the headline act.

He kicked it off the night before. It was a Thursday. I go during the lunch break because I think, okay, that's when the crowds will be. Workers will come. People will sort of, you know, be there. Dead. Absolutely dead. Really?

Really? Really? Yeah, nearly dead. No lines. I was interested in going into the various pavilions to see a bit of history and to see what I could find. A lot of them were empty because, as we know, a lot of states did not wish to participate. The poor main pavilion, I think it had.

just two empty chairs and people were just going in there to get some, you know, some time out from the scorching D.C. heat. There was, of course, Donald Trump's tacky arch that he'd made plywood replica of and put that into the very centre right next to the equally tacky Ferris wheel. The Ferris Will was the only ride. I was looking for more rides. And it was the only thing that had a line. Actually, no, that's the line. The Florida, The Florida Pavilion had a few lines because they were giving away stuffed manatees and other things. So people were in line for a stuffed manate. Absolutely, yes.

And look, you would get a passport at the start and they would encourage you to go into every pavilion to get your passport. So it ended up being like a little scavenger hunt, which I guess got some people excited and wanting them to go in and out of the pavilions. It was a great way to get people in and out of some pavilions. But there were controversies. I mean, I remember within the first day, there was a MAGA fan, was. arrested for lewd conduct while he was watching some circus performers. He may have been their only crowd member. Was he the guy that was dressed as Uncle Sam?

Yes, he was the guy that dressed as Uncle Sam. The food pavilion suddenly went dark. There was no power, which of course resulted in melted ice cream, much to the annoyance of everyone there wanting to get an ice cream on the hot summer day. The pavilions were half empty. It was just, it was really sad. And I could not find a corn dog or funnel cake for the life of me. Oh no.

No funnel cake. No corn dog. What is the point of a state fair? Exactly. And look, I went back because I wanted to see what it was like towards the end. And it was exactly the same. No lines, a lovely band playing to an audience of none. There was, I think, you know, people were kind of walking around.

They were some school groups. I spoke to a couple of the vendors, and they were just over it. They were like July the 4th was fantastic because there were people here watching the fireworks, etc. But the rest of it was just, they said, pretty slow and monotonous, and they were ready for it to wrap up. And it did wrap up last Friday. Let me tell you about one skin. They're a skincare company focused on science.

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And be sure to use Code Beast at checkout. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them. We sent you. And so what are the, are there any marks from where the fair was? Has there been any damage left by it? I'm thinking of the 90 foot claw they built on the south lawn of the White House, which I haven't seen the south lawn of the White House.

Perhaps you've been there, but looked like it had been severely damaged by having the structure on it. Yeah. I mean, the great irony here is that part of Donald Trump's beautification process is that he's wanting to revamp the grass across DC because, as he keeps telling us, grass is like people. It has a life too, and nobody knows grass better than I know grass. But he's damaging grass everywhere he goes. So we've obviously had the, again, the crazy UFC fight on the White House, which resulted in a massive stadium being built and the claw, as you say, it has been taken down now.

But of course, that's, you know, left a mark. What's worse, though, Joanna, is the ellipse, which is an area. are outside the White House, and that's where Donald Trump set up a UFC fan festival kind of event, where all of the fans who obviously couldn't get into the private event at the White House were able to come for days and watch, you know, just get into the spectacle. If you go to now, it's just an absolute, you know, the grass is pretty much dead. They're taking a bit of time to revive it. Maintenance workers are there.

Similar situation, obviously, to parts of the National Mall where we had the American State Fair. Yeah, there's a lot of damage that's kind of, you know, being done. And these are massive events, you know, the July the Fourth Spectacle, for example, which, again, is usually a wonderful family-friendly affair. You know, you have the fireworks at 9 o'clock and, you know, everybody goes to the mall and enjoys them. This became a Donald Trump event. So as I say, it's not just buildings and monuments.

It's events, too. He basically decided he wanted to create a mega rally on July. the 4th, have people come down, which turned it into a massive security event. As a result of that, the fireworks that everybody goes there for would push back to 1030 because he wanted to do a big speech. By the time the fireworks actually started, I think it was probably about 11 because there was an evacuation due to the weather. Everyone finally came back. He did his speech. He fell asleep during the fireworks because they had gone on for so long. Everything, usually fireworks in DC are 20 minutes. He wanted to be 40 minutes. They were pushed back later. It was July

the 5th by the time they ended. Right. So, you know, it's not just, it's not just sort of buildings and monuments. It's events as well. Everything is Trumpified in DC at the moment. And is there a sense at the White House fair where I know you talk to people all the time, is there a sense that this has not been Washington at its best, that this has been poorly managed, that this should have been a seamless row of fantastic events celebrating a huge milestone in American life, a huge milestone, frankly, in the world. And yet it's made America look small. It's made us look disorganized. It's made the president look incompetent. In the White House, the overwhelming view is that this is sort of great. I mean, they're very much,

you know, with the president in terms of bringing in... But what are they smoking, Farah, when you look at the pictures of an empty state fair, when you look at the reflecting pool and it's filthy and now it's had to be drained, where you look at the pool in Meridian Park, at the fountain, which is now swimming in brown water, when you look at the statues and they haven't been finished

and are shrouded in boxes, how can they think this has been successful? This is supposed to be a crowning moment in American history. Well, I mean, I guess they've dropped the Kool-Aid, but they do genuinely believe that, you know, these have been to some successful events. And to be fair, when you had some of the American State Fair festivities going on in the America 250 July the 4th events,

I walked around D.C. And there were a lot of tourists around. You know, a lot of people had come to, But doesn't that make it worse that it's a city full of tourists here to see what America has, what it does at its best? And yet it rolls out this lame selection of things. The problem is it became a very polarized city full of tourists as well because a lot of those people were Donald Trump fans because he had actually hijacked the July the 4th festivities. So he brought a lot of tourists in and a lot of them were his people basically there to sort of see him. and a lot of D.C. residents, I know got the hell out of D.C.

But surely Donald Trump voters are looking forward to a Pact State Fair, where you are doing more than standing in line for a stuffed manority, where you are expecting the ice cream to be frozen, not available, because it's all melted, where you're expecting a ride on a ferris wheel to not stop at the top and leave you up there for two hours in the blazing sun. There were complaints, and I'll tell you where there were real complaints, right? There were complaints at the July the 4th festivities, because that became an absolute debacle. At about 7 o'clock, there was a weather evacuation.

So you imagine these people have stood in the heat for about, what, hours. You know, some of them had been there since the morning, wanting to get into Donald Trump's, you know, July the 4th festivities, wanting their spot on the national mall to watch the fireworks. Suddenly there's a weather evacuation. They're ordered out and told to shelter at various. government buildings around D.C. Some of them couldn't get back in. Some of his biggest MAGA fans that I spoke to on the night were furious because they

couldn't get back in. People were just stuck at various train stations, trying to get home. It was an absolute mess. And that was the one point where I honestly thought, wow, Trump's people are actually sort of turning on him, you know. So there have been ups and downs in this whole showcase. The other problem as well is they have hijacked the America-Dufs. celebrations to such an extent that as you know we used to have a bipartisan commission

called America 250 with people from both sides that were going to oversee all of the nation's festivities. Donald Trump decided to create a MAGA-aligned Freedom 250 task force that would oversee them and essentially turn a lot of these events and celebrations to, you know, towards him. And it has become politicized as a result. So, yeah, we did have a lot of people in D.C. for the fair. A lot of them were Donald Trump fans. And that to the White House is a success. Right.

Well, I can't see how it's a success if there's no one actually at the state fair. And I understand the frustration of people waiting all day to have a great spot for the fireworks and then being rained out, which is nobody's fault. You can't really predict that. Or I guess you can predict it. There's not much you can do about it. And at least they got people to government buildings. But I just think the lameness of the state fair, it must have been so disappointing for anybody that went there. And also to go to the reflecting pool and see one of the great American images, one of the great American public spaces, just, you know, filthy and full of algae and nowhere near American flag blue must have been crushing.

But let me take you on to something else, which is what's going on today. We're recording this early Wednesday afternoon. This morning, the Todd Blanche for attorney general confirmation hearings kicked off. I know you were spending time observing them as our Washington correspondent in our bureau there. What did you make of them? I mean, these were pretty high-sex hearings for Todd Blanche because, as we know, Todd Blanche is no ordinary wannabee attorney general. He is the former personal attorney to Donald Trump. I sat in a court with him for six weeks in New York and has been very much a mega loyalist for the president. And these hearings are about showing whether or not you can be an independent attorney general, although coming in the footsteps of Attorney General Pam Bondi, the bar is obviously

not high. But they were very high stakes. And he has been spending the morning trying to attempt to convince senators, who were now one person short, by the way, because of Lindsay Graham's death, to give him the the numbers to actually make this appointment. He has been grilled on everything from the Epstein files, because as we know, Todd Blanche was the, I suppose, the person who was overseeing all of the Epstein files, Galane Maxwell's special sweetheart deal and the like. He was grilled specifically by Dick Durbin, a Democratic senator from Illinois, about whether or not he would

meet with the victims. He, after a bit of, you know, towing and throwing, made the point that he can't possibly do that because legally he's not allowed, but he can get his staff to meet with them. He tried to justify the way in which the abstinent files were redacted. Right. He says he's not legally allowed, but he was able to go down as deputy attorney general and interview Gillan Maxwell. It's very odd, but I think his argument was if they have lawyers, if they are being represented by lawyers, there's something in the law that prevents him from actually meeting them personally as the state's chief lawmaker. But he said, I have staff on hand. She will, this woman will be there to organise meetings as soon as possible. So he was grilled

pretty hard on the Epstein files. He was grilled in particular in relation to the $1.8 billion slush fund and settlement that Donald Trump attempted to create and used to award people who believe they'd been wrongly prosecuted by past governments, whether that be J-6s or others. And indeed, the crazy settlement that gave him immunity from future sort of scrutiny and the like. He basically said that fund is now dead and the like, but when I left, he was still very much copying it in relation to that. The thing that I think is really going to work against him is the fact that he accidentally referred to himself as Trump's lawyer in the hearing, but he was being asked a lot about whether he could maintain the independence of this position.

Once upon a time the Justice Department was an independent arm, he was under questioning to basically say, look, who's running this department? Are you essentially running it from the White House? And he actually answered with an admission, yes. I mean, his words were the Justice Department is part of the executive, which was just. just dog-smacking because he actually sort of said, well, we are under the thumb of the president. So it was this sort of, you know, jaw-dropping admission that he is Trump's guy, when the Justice Department should be independent. That's an astonishing admission.

It's an absolutely astonishing admission. Did there seem to be a moment in the room where you could see people looking taken aback by that? I mean, it was a shock to a lot of people. It was not the kind of thing that you would actually think would be admitted under oath when you were trying to justify the fact that you would be an independent administrator of the law, particularly not one when you are the former personal attorney to Donald Trump. It was a pretty gobsmacking moment. Did Todd Blanche look like he realized he'd put his foot in his mouth?

Or did he just try and sail on? What was his reaction when he must have realized he'd said the wrong thing? Yeah, he tried to sort of sail along. He certainly knew he put his foot in his mouth when he referred to himself as Donald Trump's lawyer. Like you can actually, if you look back on the clip, you'll see him correcting himself in that moment, knowing how quickly viral that would be going. It is a difficult position for him because of the fact that he, as the deputy, as we know, deputy attorney generals run the day-to-day management of the Justice Department, whereas the attorney general, who was Pam Bond, he was very much doing a lot of

the strategy. He is responsible for all of the major things that have gone on. Sure, Bondi was the sort of the front person, but he has been making a lot of the key decisions and has a closeness to the president and the trust of the president and the ear of the president. Can you imagine a time in any one's reality when former Attorney General Under Biden, Merrick Garland, would have appeared ringside at the White House at a UFC match with the president? I don't think so. Or events or, you know, around. Washington constantly, you know, doing the D.C. Circuit, but with the MAGA crowd, that's what Todd Blanche does. So it's a very difficult situation for him to try to convince people on that

Judiciary Committee that he can do the work without just being Trump's goon, essentially. Guessing is for game shows, not your business. Workday is the Enterprise AI platform for HR, finance and IT, with AI grounded in your context to get work done and done right. It's a new workday. The Hulu original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus, starring Emmy Rossum. Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the

line between right and wrong begins to blur. Don't miss the three-episode premiere of the Hulu original series Furious on July 27th, Only on Hulu on Disney Plus. I saw Senator John Cornyn from Texas, who as we know got primaried by Donald Trump and will be leaving in November. I saw that he asked a couple of questions. People say he may be a holdout vote here. And as you pointed out, because of Lindsay Graham's absence, they are, all they need is one Republican to vote. against Todd Blanche and he won't make the majority vote.

Do you think John Cornyn might be a holdout? What are you sensing? Yeah, look, I suspect John Corn, obviously, being the Texas Republican that was primaried out, Donald Trump decided to endorse Ken Paxton instead of him, and that has made him and others in the Senate very upset. He, you could tell, he was the person that was asking Todd Blanche the questions about the slush Fund and asking about whether or not it was truly dead or other, you know, elements that could still be revived and was really, you know, putting Blanche under a bit of pressure. And yes,

he is an aggrieved Republican who got pushed out. But I suspect, judging by his questioning today, he would be a holdout. Others we were obviously looking at were Tom Tillis, but it looked like Tom Tillis was, while he can be quite outspoken against the president, he seems to very much believe that Todd Blanche would be a great AG. Susan Collins and Lisa McCasky are obviously two of the others that will be keeping a close eye on. But judging by the Deputy AG's performance today, it was not certainly from what I saw before coming here.

It was not looking great. Whether everybody falls enough people, fall in line is a different story. But no, it was not looking great. Wow. Wow. I was assuming that John Cornyn was doing a bit of performative question. there and that would fall in line because he's probably thinking it's not worth becoming even more of a Trump target than he's already become and he's probably looking

to his life beyond politics. In one sense, it's like, what have you got to lose? What have you got to lose? You know, he's already pushed you out. But you're absolutely right. He and other Republicans have been known to be quite performative and seem like they're pushing back or they're going to be a holdout only to fall in line at the very last minute. it's very difficult to know with these guys.

Yeah, and I've wondered about the what have I got to lose question. I'm wondered if he's just like, you know, I've just got to get to November. I'm sick of having Trump hanging over me. I don't want any more antagonism with him. I just want to be done here. Yeah, yeah. Possibly. Who knows?

Who knows, Farrow. Well, we will be watching the top-blanche hearings with great interesting. I think they're a great interest. They're due to wrap up tomorrow. Yeah, so we've got, I think, another. Or so, but yes, they'll be due to the right of proper. I suppose Trump has made it very, very clear that he wants him, you know, he wants him down immediately.

He wants his guy in who, as we know, is now doing Trump's bidding. Again, quite an extraordinary admission. Extraordinary admission. Farah, it's always good to talk to you. Thank you for your delicious photos of Washington and the reality of what it looks like, despite the enthusiasm from the White House of how marvelous they say it's all going. Do you have any last observations about the ballroom? Is building going ahead?

Does it look like there's progress being made? Or is the next president just going to be left with a huge demolition site to pick through when they take over? Oh, building's going ahead. Whether it makes it by the end of 28, we don't know, because it is ever expanding. And the White House looks like an absolute disaster zone at the moment with everything that's taking place. Because you've got to remember, I mean, this just started out as a ballroom. It was meant to be simply for events and the like, rather than having to put us out. You've been probably one of them, Joanna, the tents that they used to pull out for the state's dinners and the like.

But it has since grown into a monumental project. In fact, Donald Trump came out and gave us a preview of it not that long ago where he basically admitted that the ballroom itself was just a, quote, shield or a facade for what is actually going on underneath. What's going on underneath? Six stories of a multi-level kind of fortress with military facilities, research facilities, a military hospital, so we probably won't have to worry about anyone. Future presidents won't have to worry about anyone spotting them at Walter Reed. All sorts of things are going on under there.

And the project itself is now, I think, at a costing of 400 million. We were initially told it would be only private investment. investors, now there's concerns that some taxpayers will be paying. Yeah, it's going full steam ahead and how any future president is going to undo it will be quite a thing to watch because it's a monstrosity out there. It's a monstrosity. The other thing as well, Joanna, as I want to point to looking at other things that are happening, there are more 250 America 250 spectacles are going on very soon. So I mentioned the indie car race that was going to. to take place in Washington, D.C.

Next up, we've also got something that Donald Trump is putting on called the Patriot Games. So keep your eye out for this. It's essentially a Hunger Games style event, Hunger Games being the 2022 movie that pitted 12 poor school districts against one another. This will not include, you know, death and destruction or the like. But it's basically getting kids from different schools. to compete in the nation's capital for a made-for-TV, ESPN spectacle.

Auditions are going on at the moment. Freedom 250 have called for auditions where you have to provide an audition tape. It's a bit like, you know, America's got talent or something. You have to provide them with an audition tape to talk about, you know, yourself and how much you love the country. And then you'll get to go to the nation's capital and compete in some sort of Patriot game sports in front of wild crowd. and, you know, it'll be recorded on ESPN.

So, again, more fun ahead. More fun and games ahead, Farah. Well, as the president was, an executive producer of a reality show, it feels like DC is being turned into a set for 250, but the crew haven't turned up to do all the details of the set, and it feels half finished. It does. At a taxpayers' expense.

A taxpayer's expense. Well, Farah, thank you so much for joining us. I can't wait to talk to you again. Come back and fill us in on what the indie car race was like. I will definitely tell you. I think you will. All right, Farah, have fun walking your dog around the park. Let us know when the water runs clear.

I will indeed. Thank you. How is it possible that America gets to celebrate its 250th anniversary, a huge landmark in American history and in global history? And yet the monument, the beautification projects that Donald Trump has supposedly set his mind to are completely unfinished. That we have a drained concrete hub of a reflecting pool, one of the most important monuments that people flock to from across the world to come and understand the value of American democracy. How is it possible that the fountain in Meridian Hill Park is gushing brown toxic liquid? How is it possible that the statues of the horses that represent valor in war are unfinished?

In anybody else's job, if you miss a deadline, you are fired. You are out of there. That's the point of having a deadline. How is it possible that our nation's capital looks as shabby and depleted as it does? Write and tell me what you think, but I, as an occasional visitor to D.C., who loves to walk past the refurb. reflecting pool. I'm horrified by this development. Write and tell us what you think. Write and tell Farrow what you think too. We'll be back tomorrow with Inside Trump's head and Michael Wolf observing what's left in there, what gristle, what brain fluids are still functioning. Big thanks to

our production team, John Romero, Ryan Murray, Rachel Passa, Heather Pissarro, Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many Bee Beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out. And we We really appreciate your support.