What the Reflecting Pool tells us about Trump’s presidency

**Sarah Smith** (0:00)
Donald Trump is very used to getting his own way. He is accustomed to his orders being followed by loyal acolytes, but sometimes it doesn't quite work out, and that's how it's been going in the last few days. Some of his closest allies have had to tell him they can't give the president what he wants, and he is not happy about it.
His flawed efforts to renovate the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial in the heart of Washington, DC has taken another bizarre twist. As Washington's top prosecutor, Jeanine Pirro, has been forced to drop the case and contradict Donald Trump's version of events. And I think it's fair to say the president is not happy about it.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:39)
And I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. She folded like an umbrella, and people get away with things, and it's a disgrace.

**Sarah Smith** (0:51)
This is a rare example of one of Donald Trump's most loyal allies breaking ranks and telling him he can't have what he wants.
Why is he making such a fuss about this Reflecting Pool? Does it show us that he's starting to lose his grip on the Justice Department and can't use it as his personal tool of revenge anymore? And if he won't accept the facts when they are presented to him with documentary evidence, what does this tell us about the whole of his presidency? Welcome to Americast.

**Anthony Zurcher** (1:22)
Americast, from BBC News.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:25)
You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:29)
We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it.

**Jeanine Pirro** (1:34)
This is a big cover-up, and this administration is engaged in it. This guy has Trump Derangement Syndrome.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:39)
I have four words for you, turn the volume up.

**Sarah Smith** (1:49)
Hi, it's Sarah here in the BBC's Bureau in Washington.

**Anthony Zurcher** (1:52)
And it's Anthony right next to Sarah here in Washington, DC.

**Sarah Smith** (1:55)
Yeah, it's good to be together.
And we've got a great story to talk about today because, as you well know, Anthony, the Justice Department has dropped the charges against four people who were accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial here in Washington, the one that was being refurbished by Donald Trump. Those people included an Olympic athlete, David Hearn, who was facing charges of vandalizing the pool and three others who were facing misdemeanor charges. And this has become a real live story, hasn't it, Anthony, because the charges were dropped by a real Trump loyalist who is now in a battle to try and save her job with the president.

**Anthony Zurcher** (2:33)
Right, Jeanine Pirro was a Fox News host for quite some time. She was a judge up in New York before that, but she got on Donald Trump's radar by hosting this kind of combative evening Fox commentary program.
And he tapped her to be the US. Attorney for the District of Columbia, which is a key role because it prosecutes crimes in DC., federal crimes in DC. Has a lot of discretion on what she picks and what she prosecutes. And she was brought in by Trump to be a hard nosed person who was gonna go after his enemies. This was a high profile case because Donald Trump made it so. He had been talking about the Reflecting Pool and the renovations and how great it was gonna be. And then it all kind of fell apart and he was looking for someone to blame. And Jeanine Pirro, by bringing charges against Hearn and others, gave him that scapegoat to say, this was vandals, these were liberals, and not this was just a botched job.
The change is that now on Friday, Pirro came in and said it was because it was a rushed and botched job that the Reflecting Pool had been filled with algae, that it was peeling, and she dropped the charges. That did not make Donald Trump happy at all.

**Sarah Smith** (3:46)
No, that's right. She got public rebuke from the president when he was talking to reporters in the White House on Monday.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:51)
Lafayette Park is a large park. It was known as the gateway to the White House, and it was disgusting. The monument is beautiful, graffiti all over it.
I won't say what was on the sidewalk, but horrible, horrible, horrible disgusting. And not only did we fix it, we have military standing there watching it. And if anybody touches it, we — that was the one mistake with the Reflecting Pool. They hadn't put up the cameras yet. They had enough up because you see what's happening. But if they would have had them up, we would have had a lot of — it would have been a lot easier. And I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro.