WASHINGTON (AP) — Jeanine Pirro this week found out there’s a tradeoff between loyalty to President Donald Trump and being loyal to reality. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia — a fierce defender and decades-long friend — openly refuted Trump’s claims of vandalism regarding one of his treasured D.C. construction projects, admitting in court filings that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was due to shoddy workmanship. The moment comes as Trump is struggling to convince Americans to believe what he’s telling them on the economy, his agenda and his war on Iran ahead of pivotal midterm elections in the fall — and reveals the inherent challenges for his team in delivering hard truths he doesn’t want to hear. Trump has historically engaged in exaggeration, but this was a moment in which he wanted a U.S. citizen, Olympic canoeist David Hearn, to be indicted, tried and possibly imprisoned for the act of touching a chunk of sealant in the already damaged pool.
The White House said that Trump was not aware ahead of time that Pirro’s office would drop the charges.Trump says he told Pirro he was “not happy” about her decision. “Well I just think she was totally wrong,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday night. “And everybody saw the vandalism. All you have to do is look at the tape.”By publicly rebuking Pirro, Trump sent a message to other administration officials that he is not to be contradicted, regardless of what the facts show.“He just blows it up like a keg of dynamite — it’s a form of intimidating employees to be in group-think,” said Rice University professor Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian. “‘If you work for me, you triple down.’ Never disagree with the boss, even in a small fractional way.”
