President Donald Trump has finally run into “a brick wall” of reality that he cannot talk his way out of, per a new analysis from CNN, with the implosion of his Reflecting Pool criminal case showing the limits of his most “powerful tool.”
Last week, the office of Washington, D.C., U.S. District Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced that it would be dropping several cases involving accusations of vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, including criminal charges against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn. These cases emerged amid the embarrassing fiasco where the Reflecting Pool became overrun with algae following a costly renovation pushed for by Trump.
The vandalism cases appeared to stem from Trump’s insistence that the pool’s issues were caused by outside agitators, but as CNN’s Stephen Collinson wrote in a Wednesday piece, Pirro and her office appeared to recognize that they would not be able to bluster their way through an actual court case.
“Pirro, as a law enforcement official, is in a dicier position than other officials who can indulge Trump’s unsupported claims without crossing him, since she must submit his accusations to the exacting standards of the courts,” Collinson wrote.
Typically, Trump’s approach to tough situations involves the creation of his own more flattering reality, or set of “alternative facts,” with Collinson noting that, “in most areas of his political life, Trump’s spinning of alternative realities is a powerful tool,” allowing him to “build his political mystique and win two White House races,” as well acting “as a face-saving cover for his failures.” He further described this as a “salesman’s technique,” honed by Trump’s time in real estate.
“When Trump hits a brick wall now, as president, he just fashions an alternative reality,” Collinson continued. “He can talk up tough financial data or a foreign policy hiccup as though he’s bigging up a tatty property in a real estate prospectus. This approach internally sustains a presidency that is deeply unpopular, with Trump’s approval rating at 34 percent in the latest CNN/SSRS poll. But it’s increasingly leading its author and the country onto dangerous ground. For many Americans struggling to afford [groceries] and rent, his ‘golden age’ is a mirage. (Roughly two-thirds of respondents in the CNN poll think his policies have worsened economic conditions.) And the war with Iran that he insisted he won in a few days is now heading into its sixth month.”
He concluded later: “But Trump’s personal brand depends on winning. So a war that may at best end in an ugly draw must be hailed as a great victory; an election that he lost must have been a triumph; and damage to the Reflecting Pool caused by an unsuccessful renovation must be blamed on vandals.”