ADDENDUM — Four More Outrages
7. They Painted the Reflecting Pool Blue. Within a Week, It Was a Green Swamp. So They Blamed the Left.
Trump’s $14.2 million Reflecting Pool renovation — up from his original $1.8 million estimate, awarded as a sole-source contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings — was supposed to deliver “American flag blue” water in time for the 250th anniversary. Within a week of refilling, the pool turned a mossy green from algae, with a swimming pool specialist noting the darker paint color may actually be making the algae problem worse. The Interior Department’s official explanation is residual algae in dormant pipes plus a hot DC summer — boring, ordinary science. But MAGA media personality Grant Stinchfield wasn’t having it. “Sabotage… Vandalism? I believe it is,” he posted, claiming unnamed actors “want Trump to fail,” and tying it straight to politics: “The left can’t stand Trump, American greatness and his quest to make DC beautiful again.” Trump supporter Juanita Broaddrick went further, declaring “It appears very evident that the reflecting pool has been sabotaged. The left is evil.” There is, of course, no public evidence to support any of this, and officials have not indicated any foul play — just algae doing what algae has always done in a shallow, sun-baked pool in a DC summer. The “woke algae” jokes write themselves, and the internet wrote them anyway. arxiv + 4
8. Trump’s Real-Estate-Developer Diplomats Want to Build in Tehran
Buried in the draft U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding to end the war: a possible $300 billion postwar “investment fund” for Iran’s reconstruction, to be discussed during the initial 60-day negotiation period. The idea didn’t come from Tehran. It originated with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law — both of whom are real estate investors who had suggested promoting real estate projects in Tehran and establishing a broader investment mechanism as an incentive for a deal. Iran’s own negotiators then ran with it, suggesting major American oil and energy companies could enter Iran’s market through joint ventures once sanctions are lifted — handing the fourth-largest oil reserves on Earth a commercial rationale dressed up as peace. Two professional property developers, with zero diplomatic credentials beyond their relationship to the president, are reportedly the architects of a $300 billion fund that just so happens to center on real estate and energy deals in the country the U.S. was just at war with. Trump Tower Tehran isn’t on the table yet. But the table it would sit on apparently is. Time + 2
9. DOJ Comes for Newsom’s Wife
The Justice Department is investigating Jennifer Siebel Newsom for potential tax fraud and evasion, focused on her personal use of nonprofit funds, according to two sources — timed precisely as her husband emerges as a top contender for the 2028 Democratic nomination. Newsom didn’t hold back: “They’re demanding records. They’re abusing the grand jury process, digging through years and years of random documents”, he said, adding federal agents have sought to speak to his family, friends, and former employees. He named the company he believes he’s keeping: New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell — all prior Trump targets. “Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets. He’s coming after me because I’m considering running for president… Donald Trump is simply the most corrupt president in American history.” The DOJ says the probe was whistleblower-driven, not politically directed. Believe that if you’d like. ESPN + 4
10. Fifteen Charged in Minnesota — But Read Past the Headline
Federal prosecutors charged 15 people, alleged members and associates of the group “Direct Action Minnesota,” with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, with some facing additional charges including interstate stalking, destruction of government property, and assault. The charges stem from a string of clashes between immigration enforcement officers and protesters in Minnesota during what the administration calls Operation Metro Surge. What too many headlines on this story are leaving out: this is the same Minneapolis ICE operation that, months earlier, killed two American citizens — Renée Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on January 24, 2026 — neither of whom has seen a federal charge filed against the agent involved, months later. Minnesota’s own Hennepin County Attorney has been unable to get the federal government to cooperate with the state’s investigation into those killings. So: 15 protesters indicted within months, full press conference, big show of force. Two citizens dead at the hands of federal agents, and the investigations into their deaths remain, in DHS’s own words, simply “under investigation,” indefinitely. That contrast is the real story here, not the indictment by itself. Axios + 3