Trump Doubles Down
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Over the past few days, the president has continued his crusade against one of the supposed vandals of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social on Sunday, he alleged that “a National Park Service career employee, a highly credible witness,” had caught the former Olympic canoeist David Hearn in the act of “ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating.” The problem is that the Department of Justice’s case against Hearn is already effectively over.
More than a week earlier, federal prosecutors dropped the charges against him, citing information from the Department of the Interior; the damage to the Reflecting Pool was “the result of a botched installation and not vandalism,” the government’s motion to dismiss reads.
That evidence—and the judgment of DOJ—has done little to stop Donald Trump from pursuing this debunked theory over and over again.
In recent weeks, the president has repeatedly returned to the same few vendettas and personal obsessions, trying to push them forward no matter the evidence against them.
His strategy is summed up by a self-assessment that he gave CNN more than a decade ago: “I am the most fabulous whiner,” he said.
“I keep whining and whining until I win.” Today, The Wall Street Journal reported that White House officials have asked the Justice Department to consider prosecuting Hearn a second time.
By doubling down on his vandalism thesis, Trump is sending a strong message to one of his most ardent supporters, U.S.
Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, whom he already castigated last week for dropping the charges.
“I guess she choked,” he told reporters at the time.
The rulings of the Supreme Court don’t seem to sway the president either.
On Thursday, he doubled down on another mission of personal importance—limiting birthright citizenship—despite the Court’s recent decision to strike down a previous executive order on the subject.
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