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Trump Is the Vandal He's Been Looking For
President Donald Trump accuses vandals of sabotaging his efforts to refurbish the Reflecting Pool, but he and his administration are the ones sacking US democracy and its symbols.
Jun 23, 2026
“The pump don’t work ‘Cause the vandals took the handles.”—Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
Sometimes President Donald Trump’s diatribes reveal his own guilty behavior. Take his disastrous promotion of the makeover of the Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC. Not only did he hire an incompetent contractor whose prior work for Trump at Mar-a-Lago gave him the shady inside track, but also Trump’s insistence on an environmentally disastrous “royal blue” caused an increase in the amount of algae now polluting the pool. Perhaps it might be time to break out a new MAGA hat, all in green, with the words, “Make Algae Grow Again.”
Of course, neither Trump nor his buddy contractor would admit their malfeasance and responsibility for what has happened. Given Trump’s other corrupt vandalism of national sites in DC, why should we fleeced taxpayers and residents of the city expect accountability from such grifters? Instead, the predictable accusation by the Orange Menace is that vandals were the cause of the algae bloom. The real vandals, Trump and his enablers, were operating in plain sight and with presidential impunity.
Indeed, Trump’s vandalism has engulfed the White House and environs. From the destruction of the “Rose Garden” (heaven forbid that he would want to wake up and smell the roses) to leveling the East Wing for his ballroom and bunker (again, at the taxpayers’ expense), the wrecking of the grounds continues unabated. Added to this devastation was the garish Claw, erected for the UFC blood sport on the White House lawn. Oh, yeah, the lawn is gone. Perhaps to be replaced by what—a Circus Maximus!
As the decrepit old man occupying the White House tries to surround himself with imperial glitter and glory, his power is actually diminishing even as the damage, unfortunately, expands.
And speaking of Rome, the actual sacking of the city by the Vandals in 455 only lasted some two weeks. Trump’s pillaging of the federal government has lasted more than a year. While the most obvious physical vandalizing is very evident, buried in much of the legislation and executive orders is a massive amount of damage to people’s lives and the future of the country and the world.
Only now are we reckoning with the harm caused by Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Hundreds of thousands thrown off Medicaid, children and families denied basic foodstuffs. Trump and his Republican allies apparently aren’t even interested in offering “bread” along with the circuses that Trump revels in.
Meanwhile, Trump’s insane pal at Health and Human Services, brain-worm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is sacking those doctors who believe in science in order to hire charlatans whose medicinal palliatives are hardly better than reading entrails. Eliminating tried and true medical practices, such as vaccines, has led to outbreaks of measles and will, undoubtedly, cause additional health problems.
And it should not be surprising that his toxic masculinist buddy, Pete Hegseth, the white Christian nationalist who occupies the office of the “Secretary of War,” now is overseeing a flu outbreak among the troops in the aftermath of making a vaccine “voluntary.” On the other hand, the 200-plus boaters murdered by Hegseth’s Pentagon pals in Latin America did not have the “luxury” of a choice about their well-being!
And speaking of well-being, the predictable worldwide deaths of people who relied on medical assistance from the United States was caused by DOGE’s slashing of international aide. Trump’s fellow vandal, the neo-Nazi Elon Musk, haughtily embraced such pillaging, seeing it as a way to extirpate empathy from any and all governmental policies.
Another fellow vandal on the world stage is Bibi Netanyahu. With the assistance of the US, Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. (As the historian Tacitus reflected on the depredations of the Roman military campaigns: “They made a desert and called it peace.”) The devastation wrought by these two bullies has spread to Lebanon and Iran. However, these vandals may have overplayed their hand in Iran.
Finally, one of the most egregious examples of Trump’s vandalism is sending out legions of armed thugs to cause murder and mayhem on the streets of major cities around the country. From Los Angeles to Minneapolis, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents harass, intimidate, and kidnap thousands of innocent people, sending many to prison hellholes built by the private corporate buddies of Trump.
As the decrepit old man occupying the White House tries to surround himself with imperial glitter and glory, his power is actually diminishing even as the damage, unfortunately, expands. Trump’s vandalism, and that of his enablers, will only be terminated when they are unceremoniously expelled to those islands of incarceration where others now languish.
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We Are Better Than This
President Donald Trump used the White House lawn to host a 21st-century cockfighting match where the birds were human beings. Is this rock bottom?
Jun 17, 2026
On Sunday night, President Donald Trump brought the country to a new low. The question is whether the nation has finally bottomed out—and realizes it.
On the White House lawn, Trump hosted Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts cage matches. Fighters attacked each other with their fists, feet, knees, and elbows. Blood spewed everywhere; that was the point.
It wasn’t boxing; the combatants wore gloves with much less padding. It wasn’t professional wrestling; the injuries inflicted were real. It was billed as a sporting event, but as commentators observed, it was really 21st-century cockfighting where the birds are human beings.
Follow the Money
The UFC said that private funding totaling $60 million paid for the event. But it’s not clear that any private money covered the monumental work of the hundreds of staff from seven federal government agencies, or the estimated $10 to $12 million in supplemental security that the District of Columbia incurred (to be reimbursed from federally appropriated funds for federal events).
Fighters used the Executive Office Building and rooms in the White House as locker rooms. If not sacrilegious, it was something close.
Beyond the abuse of taxpayers’ dollars, Trump’s profiteering was pervasive.
- “Ultimate Fighting Championship” is a promotional company owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings. Trump owns stock in TKO Group Holdings.
- A day before the fights, Trump’s super PAC MAGA, Inc. held a $1 million-a-plate fundraiser at Trump’s Virginia golf club.
- Trump sold a line of Trump-branded UFC medallions for hundreds and—in some cases—thousands of dollars.
- World Liberty Financial was an official sponsor of the event. It’s a Trump-family-created crypto company and issued the stablecoins that some fighters received as bonuses.
- Other corporate sponsors included Crypto.com (its name appeared on each step leading into the cage), Bud Light, Polymarket, Monster Energy, Starlink, EasyPost, and Stake.
- Paramount Skydance, the media company owned by Larry and David Ellison, who are friendly with Trump, live streamed the event (behind a paywall). A few days earlier, Trump’s Justice Department approved Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, thereby bringing CBS, CNN, Paramount+, HBO Max, and a vast film and television studio under David Ellison’s control.
In a post-fight interview, a UFC winner yelled: “Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right America?”
How Far We Have Fallen
Worse than the event itself and Trump’s profiteering is the fact that it happened on White House grounds. While construction was underway, Marine One—the presidential helicopter—could not land on the South Lawn, its usual location. Fighters used the Executive Office Building and rooms in the White House as locker rooms. If not sacrilegious, it was something close.
President Thomas Jefferson first opened the White House lawn in 1801 when he invited the US Marine Corps Band to perform. Since then, it has been the scene of children’s Easter Egg Rolls (begun by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878), a tennis court (President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902), a performing arts venue (President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965), Willie Nelson’s performance (President Jimmy Carter in 1980), the Beach Boys’ South Lawn Beach Party (President Ronald Reagan in 1983), youth T-ball games (President George H.W. Bush in 2001), and a collaborative arts festival (President Barack Obama in 2016).
The good news is that a recent Reuters poll revealed that only 16% of Americans—including one-third of Republicans—said that holding UFC events on the White House lawn was appropriate.
Determined to make his mark, Trump did not care that it would be an ugly blemish on White House history—or another reflection of how far the nation has descended into Trump’s abyss.
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'A Foundation of Lies': Trump Planned to Spend $300 Million in Taxpayer Dollars on Ballroom While Claiming It Was Privately Funded
"They cut your healthcare while spending taxpayer dollars on a golden ballroom for Donald Trump," said Rep. Greg Casar. "And they lied about it."
Jun 16, 2026
Internal documents show that President Donald Trump was lying when he said taxpayers would not be footing the bill for his massive White House ballroom.
Reiterating what he'd already said countless times, the president claimed in March that the project was "taxpayer-free" and entirely funded by private donors, who'd spend $400 million to build it in the now-demolished East Wing of the White House.
But at the time he made these comments, he knew that was untrue.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that a detailed project summary made three weeks earlier showed the total construction cost at $600 million, with more than half of the funds coming from taxpayers.
Here is a montage of Trump promising his ballroom won't cost taxpayers any money, despite new reports that taxpayers will be paying for half of the $600M project https://t.co/51scEAuOfX pic.twitter.com/EqUPUUSxqX
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) June 16, 2026
The Post continued:
By the time Trump made his comments in March, the federal government had already approved more than a dozen payments to the contractor overseeing the work, Clark Construction, totaling tens of millions of dollars in public funds, according to a log of the contractor’s invoices obtained by The Post...
Multiple project summaries provided to the White House by Clark Construction show that internal cost estimates have been significantly higher than administration officials have acknowledged in public comments or court filings. They also show that the work was projected to rely heavily on taxpayer dollars from the moment it was announced.
According to the March 5 estimate reviewed by the Post, $293 million worth of funding is coming from donors—many of whom have received new or extended federal contracts over the past six months.
The rest of the money comes from taxpayer-funded sources: $155 million would come from the Secret Service, $149 million from the White House Military Office, and $3 million from the Executive Residence.
In May, Republicans in Congress proposed an additional $1 billion from taxpayers to fund “security adjustments and upgrades" for which Trump has said would be comprised of a subterranean six-story bunker complete with everything from bomb shelters to military medical facilities and a base to launch "unlimited numbers of drones."
Although that funding was ultimately excluded from the bill, taxpayer money is still being used through agency accounts, the Post's reporting shows.
The claim that the ballroom would not use taxpayer dollars has been repeated by other Republicans in Congress, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), who described it in May as "totally privately funded."
Asked by a reporter on Tuesday about the Post's revelation, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) contradicted this assurance, acknowledging that there "is certainly some expectation that there would be dollars allocated that would go above and beyond the private money that's been raised."
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Post that "President Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom to the tune of approximately $400 million, which will be a secure and appropriate venue for presidents for generations to come." He did not address questions about the taxpayer funding or the cost of the project.
The news has put many Republicans, particularly those who've voted to cut taxpayer-funded social welfare programs in the name of fiscal prudence, in an uncomfortable position.
A new investigation in the Washington Post examines an internal estimate in March evaluating the cost of President Trump’s White House ballroom and reveals that the project’s internal cost estimate is $600 million, half of which will be covered by taxpayers. Trump had previously… https://t.co/HbMxmQHOty pic.twitter.com/e5RoMsJWlN
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 16, 2026
Asked about the revelations by a reporter from Drop Site News, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) scoffed, "You believe everything in the Washington Post." Stating he had not seen the report, he said, "I'm sure they have anonymous sources."
Notably, the White House itself did not dispute the Post's story, nor did the story rely on anonymous sources.
Others fell back on the White House's security justification. Asked if he supported using taxpayer dollars for the project, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) responded, "I support protecting the president," and said he supports funding for "more Secret Service agents, something like that." The spending outlined in the Post's story does not include funding for more agents.
Public Citizen democracy advocate Jon Golinger called for an immediate investigation by Congress following revelations that taxpayer money was being spent.
"These secret records reveal that Trump’s ballroom is being built on a foundation of lies, fraud, and corruption," he said. "We are also calling for an investigation to uncover the names and actions of every Trump White House and administration official who was involved in this plot to circumvent congressional approval and spent unauthorized taxpayer dollars on Trump’s ballroom."
Golinger said the unauthorized use of taxpayer money could violate the Antideficiency Act, which "makes executive officials who engage in unlawful taxpayer spending schemes personally, and potentially criminally, liable for their actions."
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the unauthorized use of taxpayer funds was "a huge scandal."
"They cut your healthcare while spending taxpayer dollars on a golden ballroom for Donald Trump," he said, "And they lied about it.
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