President Donald Trump publicly turned on his own hand-picked federal prosecutor after she dropped charges against a former Olympic athlete accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a renovation project that has grown into one of the administration's most embarrassing controversies.
On Saturday, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to attack Jeanine Pirro, the Washington federal prosecutor he appointed, after she moved to dismiss the case against David Hearn, 67. Hearn had been charged with tearing up the membrane lining the bottom of the National Mall pool and faced up to ten years in prison. He has denied the accusations.
Pirro had requested the case be dropped the previous day, saying the damage found at the site was not the result of vandalism but of a shoddy installation. Trump said he was in total disagreement with Pirro and did not know what had gotten into her. He insisted that major damage had been caused by vandals.
A no-bid contract and a failed renovation
The dispute is rooted in a renovation project that has dogged the administration for weeks. The work, estimated at around $14 million according to the American press, was launched at Trump's direction and awarded without competitive bidding to a contractor that had previously worked on one of the president's golf courses.
Trump has consistently refused to accept responsibility for the failed renovation. He has accused unidentified vandals of cutting the pool lining with a knife and dumping fertilizer into the water, which he says caused algae to spread and the waterproof membrane to peel away. On Saturday he posted a video he said would prove those claims, but the images did not clearly show the cut marks he described.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum backed the president, also rejecting Pirro's decision and describing the damage as a desecration carried out by vandals.
A saga with no end in sight
The 610-metre pool has become a rolling political soap opera, with each new development feeding a stream of presidential social media posts. Despite repeated interventions by the National Park Service, the pool was drained again in mid-July in another attempt to address the damage.
The falling-out between Trump and Pirro, a former Fox News host and close ally of the president, marks a sharp new turn in the affair. By publicly contradicting an official he installed himself, Trump has drawn fresh attention to the central question the renovation raised from the start: who is responsible for a costly public works failure tied to a contractor with personal links to the president.
