Pool fiasco reflects poorly on the morals of an entire administration

August 4, 2026 — 1:45pm

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Washington: There is a classic episode of the radio program This American Life that attempts to diagnose the elements of a fiasco. It asks: What elevates a situation from mere ordinary chaos or disaster to the “more ethereal, specialised realm of fiasco”?

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool saga surely qualifies as a case study. Not because of what happened – algae bloomed, lining peeled off – but because, as ever, it’s the cover-up that gets you in the end.

Friday’s court filing from US attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro was stunning. Again, not because it contained sensational revelations. It simply affirmed what most of us thought all along: the pool wasn’t vandalised, it was botched by the contractor.

Sadly, that’s what made the document so remarkable – it told the truth.

It did so after nearly two months of Donald Trump vehemently insisting that vandals were to blame. It did so despite this issue being close to the US president’s heart. And........

© WA Today