Trump Leads the Real Band of Vandals Responsible for the Reflecting Pool Debacle ⁠91%

By Klaus Marre⁠96%

8/1/2026, 4:12:45 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 36 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Biased Writer Voice, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 42.6% saturation with 260 hits. Analysis detected 1,978 faulty-reasoning hits from 611 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 79.7% and a BS Rank of ⁠91% (2,670 of 28,475 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 90.60% of the article peer group.

In announcing on Friday evening, i.e., the time of the week when one tries to bury bad news, that they were dropping the felony charges against a former Olympian who was accused of destroying the lining of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, federal prosecutors acknowledged something that everybody already knew: Donald Trump’s claims of “deranged vandals” damaging the landmark were a bunch of baloney. 
And, yet, too many people went along with it. 
There were other government officials, like Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who willingly played their part in this sordid charade; the prosecutors themselves , who brought these frivolous charges; and even many in the media, who waffled on whether the president was making it all up (again) when he and others seemed to be convinced that a bunch of anti-monument marauders had cut a football field-length gash in the Reflecting Pool. 
It was remarkable to see how many news outlets still give Trump (and those lying on his behalf) the benefit of the doubt. 
When are they going to learn that it must be assumed that the president is lying until there is incontrovertible proof that he isn’t? 
Just in the past few days, there was a civilian nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia until there wasn’t; Ukraine was being allowed to manufacture its own Patriot missiles until it wasn’t; and a peace deal between Israel and Hamas was reached which will likely not materialize — not to speak of the few dozen times when Iran supposedly begged Trump to cut a deal to end that war (which isn’t even a war and, in any case, has been won many times already). 
Obviously, all those are much more consequential examples of a president and his administration just making things up as they go along. 
However, the Reflecting Pool saga is important because it represents a microcosm of Trump’s second term. 
It featured blatant lies, a subservient justice system, corruption, grift, pointless vanity projects, and a mindless horde of followers just nodding along to it all. 
More than anything, however, it laid bare what is really being destroyed before our eyes. 
A vandal is someone who damages or demolishes property on purpose. 
We happen to view the government as something that belongs to the people. 
In that sense, it is the property of all of those who pay for it in the form of taxes. 
And Trump and his entire administration are hellbent on sabotaging, pillaging, and destroying that government. 
They are the real vandals here, which makes it worth looking back at the president’s own words from the social media post we embedded above. 
“What kind of animals would do such a thing?” 
Indeed! 
Who would want to demolish, instead of improve, the government of the United States? 
Yes, it is an unwieldy behemoth, and there is plenty of waste, fraud, and abuse to deal with, but it also provides services that are essential to the vast majority of Americans. 
Trump likes to talk about how, “If we don’t do or have X, then we don’t have a country anymore.” 
That is actually true when it comes to a functioning government. 
Without it, a few elites will run roughshod over everybody else even more than they already do. 
And, sadly, the government is not made of “vandal-proof” material, which allows Trump and the people behind Project 2025 to destroy it from within for their own benefit. 
We can only hope that, one day, they will be “prosecuted to the MAX.” 
Trump Leads the Real Band of Vandals Responsible for the Reflecting Pool Debacle originally appeared on WhoWhatWhy 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 5.7%Klaus Marre: 9.5%WhoWhatWhy: 5.9%Confirmation Bias5.7%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.6%WhoWhatWhy: 0.6%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 16.0%Klaus Marre: 2.5%WhoWhatWhy: 2.5%Availability Heuristic16.0%This article: 2.6%Klaus Marre: 0.8%WhoWhatWhy: 0.9%Representativeness Heuristic2.6%This article: 13.6%Klaus Marre: 1.1%WhoWhatWhy: 1.3%Hindsight Bias13.6%This article: 3.6%Klaus Marre: 1.5%WhoWhatWhy: 1.0%Overconfidence Bias3.6%This article: 5.4%Klaus Marre: 8.4%WhoWhatWhy: 5.2%Framing Effect5.4%This article: 2.8%Klaus Marre: 0.3%WhoWhatWhy: 0.3%Loss Aversion2.8%This article: 7.4%Klaus Marre: 0.7%WhoWhatWhy: 0.5%Status Quo Bias7.4%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.0%WhoWhatWhy: 0.3%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 2.3%Klaus Marre: 1.0%WhoWhatWhy: 2.3%Optimism Bias2.3%This article: 6.7%Klaus Marre: 3.4%WhoWhatWhy: 2.7%Pessimism Bias6.7%This article: 42.6%Klaus Marre: 21.6%WhoWhatWhy: 13.7%Negativity Bias42.6%This article: 2.5%Klaus Marre: 1.2%WhoWhatWhy: 1.2%Self-Serving Bias2.5%This article: 10.5%Klaus Marre: 4.4%WhoWhatWhy: 2.3%Fundamental Attribution Error10.5%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.0%WhoWhatWhy: 0.0%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 11.5%Klaus Marre: 2.4%WhoWhatWhy: 1.8%In-Group Bias11.5%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 2.5%WhoWhatWhy: 1.3%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.7%WhoWhatWhy: 0.6%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 1.4%WhoWhatWhy: 0.5%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.0%WhoWhatWhy: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 3.8%Klaus Marre: 1.0%WhoWhatWhy: 0.8%Recency Bias3.8%This article: 8.2%Klaus Marre: 0.4%WhoWhatWhy: 0.3%Primacy Effect8.2%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.0%WhoWhatWhy: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 2.5%Klaus Marre: 10.0%WhoWhatWhy: 4.9%Ad Hominem2.5%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 1.1%WhoWhatWhy: 0.7%Straw Man0.0%This article: 1.8%Klaus Marre: 1.6%WhoWhatWhy: 2.6%Appeal to Authority1.8%This article: 6.7%Klaus Marre: 2.9%WhoWhatWhy: 2.2%False Dilemma6.7%This article: 4.6%Klaus Marre: 4.0%WhoWhatWhy: 1.9%Slippery Slope4.6%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.3%WhoWhatWhy: 0.1%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 39.0%Klaus Marre: 14.6%WhoWhatWhy: 9.1%Hasty Generalization39.0%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.3%WhoWhatWhy: 0.2%Red Herring0.0%This article: 1.5%Klaus Marre: 0.8%WhoWhatWhy: 0.6%Bandwagon1.5%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 9.5%WhoWhatWhy: 5.8%Appeal to Emotion0.0%This article: 4.1%Klaus Marre: 3.4%WhoWhatWhy: 1.5%Begging the Question4.1%This article: 17.2%Klaus Marre: 2.3%WhoWhatWhy: 1.6%Post Hoc (False Cause)17.2%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.4%WhoWhatWhy: 0.1%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 14.4%Klaus Marre: 1.4%WhoWhatWhy: 0.9%Burden of Proof14.4%This article: 2.1%Klaus Marre: 0.0%WhoWhatWhy: 0.1%Appeal to Nature2.1%This article: 2.6%Klaus Marre: 0.4%WhoWhatWhy: 0.2%Composition/Division2.6%This article: 13.6%Klaus Marre: 2.2%WhoWhatWhy: 2.7%Anecdotal13.6%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.2%WhoWhatWhy: 0.2%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 2.5%Klaus Marre: 0.9%WhoWhatWhy: 0.6%Ambiguity (Equivocation)2.5%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.0%WhoWhatWhy: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 5.2%Klaus Marre: 0.3%WhoWhatWhy: 0.2%Middle Ground5.2%This article: 2.3%Klaus Marre: 0.4%WhoWhatWhy: 0.3%Personal Incredulity2.3%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 1.0%WhoWhatWhy: 0.4%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.2%WhoWhatWhy: 0.1%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 7.0%Klaus Marre: 1.9%WhoWhatWhy: 2.4%Unattributed Quote7.0%This article: 8.8%Klaus Marre: 1.5%WhoWhatWhy: 1.1%Quote-first Misdirection8.8%This article: 34.2%Klaus Marre: 35.7%WhoWhatWhy: 16.9%Biased Writer Voice34.2%This article: 6.2%Klaus Marre: 4.4%WhoWhatWhy: 2.7%Indoctrination6.2%This article: 2.5%Klaus Marre: 22.5%WhoWhatWhy: 9.7%Politically Left Leaning Bias2.5%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.3%WhoWhatWhy: 0.2%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Klaus Marre: 0.5%WhoWhatWhy: 0.5%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

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