Trump Dings Longtime Ally Jeanine Pirro For Dropping Reflecting Pool Vandalism Case

President Donald Trump publicly broke with one of his closest political allies Saturday, criticizing U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro over her office’s decision to drop a high-profile vandalism case involving the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Trump rejected the Friday decision from Pirro’s office to move to dismiss felony charges against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn after prosecutors concluded that newly disclosed evidence showed the damage to the pool stemmed largely from flawed contractor work rather than vandalism.

"I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I don't know what she was thinking?"

Pirro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The president insisted the incident "was a pure case of VANDALISM," arguing that while there "may have been some contractor difficulty," the "major damage was caused by VANDALS!" Trump pointed specifically to large "86 47" lettering emblazoned on the grass surrounding the pool as evidence.

The public rebuke was a rare display of disagreement between Trump and Pirro, a longtime ally and former Fox News host whom he installed as the top federal prosecutor in Washington last year.

On Friday, Pirro’s office said the Department of the Interior was at fault for the charges brought against Hearn, writing that her team would’ve refrained from bringing the initial indictment had the agency been more forthcoming about information it had.

“It was not until after the return of the indictment, that the DOI provided additional documents to the USAO-DC indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings (“AIC”), and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026,” Pirro wrote in the motion to dismiss the charges.

The disagreement also underscores how personally invested Trump has become in the Reflecting Pool saga. The president has repeatedly cited the incident as an example of vandalism against federal property, using it to argue for tougher punishments and more aggressive prosecutions. His post Saturday showed he remains unconvinced by his own Justice Department’s conclusion that contractor failures — not vandals — were primarily responsible for the damage.