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President Trump spent the weekend trying to calm the waters in Washington and around the Persian Gulf.
Let’s start with the worst of these two self-inflicted disorders. This spring, Trump for some reason focused on the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, which has not previously been the subject of national debate, but believes it should vibrate with Technicolor blue. Management awarded non-bid contracts for painting and a new water treatment system, with the contract going to a company affiliated with Donor of the Trump campaign He was previously convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery. To no one’s surprise, both parts of the project have been a disaster. As my colleague Matt Viser has clearly reported, the pond is surrounded by algaeand the blue coating is it comes out in large pieces.
Now Trump says it’s possible the water will have to be drained from the dam to make “necessary maintenance” — in other words, $16.4 million in taxpayer money will be lost. (Credit where it’s due, though: This may be the first time Trump has drained the swamp.) He also blamed spoilers for the issues, though the White House has not produced any evidence to suggest that’s true. Visitors who approached the pool this weekend were chased away by members of the National Guard, and at least one touched the pool’s broken liner. to be arrested; he denies doing any damage. Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for Washington, promised to do so throw away the book to spoilers, which is often seen as a good way for him to prolong his life track record of failing to secure DC chief justices for tough prosecutions with a green light.
Meanwhile, Trump came close to halting peace talks between Vice President Vance and Iranian leaders in Switzerland. Over the weekend, Iran claimed it had closed the Strait of Hormuz again because of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which appears to have violated the existing ceasefire. Whether that sea channel is actually closed is not entirely clear: The Trump administration says traffic is flowing, but third party analysts they say traffic has slowed, though not completely stopped, and remains below pre-war levels. Over the weekend, Trump told a Fox News reporter Trey Yingst that he told Iranian officials, “You close it and you won’t have a country,” adding, “You won’t even go back to your stupid country.” Regarding Social Reality, he said that if Iran does not control Hezbollah, he will would be “Hit Iran hard again, like we did last week, harder!!!”
Threatening to kill interlopers in the middle of peace talks is generally seen as reckless, as well as counterproductive. Today, Vance was left to tell the Iranians that, basically, they should just brush off his threats as a blush: “What we told the Iranians yesterday is that when you engage in what we Millennials might call trash talk, you can’t expect the president of the United States not to respond and not correct the record.”
Just as Trump repeatedly blames vandals for destroying the dam, Trump is talking, but no one is paying much attention. Iran seems to have already concluded that it doesn’t need to take Trump seriously, which is a mixed blessing: good because it meant the Iranians didn’t abandon the talks, but bad for US prospects of reaching a good deal.
The Iran War and the Reflecting Pool, while vastly different in scale and significance, share some defining similarities. In both cases, Trump began the project by blaming the Obama administration, his persistent pest, for the alleged problem: Iranian aggression or an irregular dam. In both cases, he moved forward without a completed plan, preferring to fly by the seat of his pants, ignoring experts who warned of the very problems that arose – algae blooms, a blocked path.
These are familiar patterns for Trump. What sets Iran and the Reflecting Pool apart from other previous cases is that he has failed to deny the truth. In the past, Trump has spun sanctions as victories, lying too much to do so. In the case of his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, for example, he has relied on the general public’s distrust of institutions, a staunchly conservative media, and a systematic electoral process to help create at least some doubt.
But no one can deny that the Reflecting Pool is, indeed, currently green. Nor can Trump start a war in Iran—not when Americans spent weeks filling their cars with gas that jumped more than $4 a gallon, and not when ships are tied up in the strait. This failure is evident in a way that exceeds Trump’s ability to make his supporters believe him with their own eyes. New CBS/YouGov poll finds that only 39 percent of Republicans believe the United States got a good end of the peace deal. Only 22 percent of Americans overall think so.
Now Trump’s only option is to try again, almost certainly with worse results. Vance is to celebrate an interim agreement to restore nuclear inspections — a safeguard in Obama’s hostile Iran deal — even as the U.S. does. agreement such as allowing Iran to sell more oil. Trump desperately wants the Reflecting Pool fixed by July 4, but it’s unclear if that’s possible; if so, doing so will cost millions more in taxpayer money. The president chose two unnecessary wars and lost both, and the American people will pay.
Related:
Here are four new stories from Atlantic:
Today’s news
- Keir Starmer announced it he will resign as prime minister of England; he is expected to be succeeded by Andy Burnham, former mayor of Greater Manchester.
- The Trump administration temporarily eased the decades-old oil embargo against Iranwhile the United States and Iran continue to hold peace talks in Switzerland.
- A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from using Social Security data flag non-citizens for expulsion from the electoral rolldetermining that the administration has violated federal protections.
Dispatches
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Evening Read
Paradise Revisited
Written by Helen Lewis
My first encounter with a Galápagos tortoise came when my taxi driver from the airport attempted a dangerous maneuver in the path of an oncoming bus. On the island of Santa Cruz, which is divided by a single highway, this is a favorite pastime: white Toyota HiLuxes that serve as taxis pass tour buses, while tour buses pass trucks. But this time, the driver quickly backed up behind the slow moving car in front of us. “Turtle,” he explained.
And there it was—a huge dome, an overturned bathtub, trying to cross the street. What environment favored an animal weighing up to 600 pounds, walking four miles a day, and taking a quarter of a century to reach sexual maturity? The answer is: a remote volcanic island chain, with little fresh water and no predators, where life moved at a leisurely, ascending pace—at least, until humans appeared.
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PS
One of my favorite music stories of the last few years is the rise of Marshall Allen. An alto saxophonist, Allen was long known among jazz lovers for his playing career in the Sun Ra Arkestra, and later led the band after the death of his eponym. Last year, however, he released his first solo record—just a few months before his 101st birthday, a Guinness World Record for the oldest release. Since then, he’s been busy, playing more interesting music than most musicians half, a third, or a quarter of his age could find. I’ve seen Allen a few times since he was just 91 years old, and I’ve always come away in awe. Allen is one of the artists performing at the 30th annual show Festival of Visionsthis week’s New York-based music and art specials (with streaming available for those of us elsewhere).
– David
Stephanie Bai contributed to this journal.
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