Good afternoon from Washington, where the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, coated in blue as part of Donald Trump’s DC beautification crusade, is still battling an algae infestation.
It’s quite the metaphor: Trump, the man who came to Washington claiming he would drain the swamp but who, together with his family, has profited more off the office than anyone before him, has now installed a literal swamp in the middle of the capital.
This week, Trump began cracking down on supposed vandals. The president says six people have been arrested for alleged infractions, and continues to claim that a master vandal carved a “350-foot gash” in the pool with a knife, though he has offered no evidence. “I’m very good at building things and constructing things,” he insisted to reporters.
Ducklings have started turning up dead in the pool, which already cost $16 million to drain and repaint. A conservationist now calls the pool a “giant duck death trap.”
As of Wednesday night, it was still green. Check back here next week for an algae update that I’m considering calling “Swamp Watch.”
In this week’s Party Animals: an interview with Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, the indefatigable New York Times reporters and authors of Regime Change, an explosive new book on the first 14 months of Trump’s second term.
“He wants to be a great man of history,” Swan tells me. That desire is driving one of the most radical and consequential presidencies of our time. The authors peel back the curtain on their reporting process, what they learned about Trump, and whether there’s another book in the works.
Also mentioned in this issue: Gavin Newsom, Jack Schlossberg, Ben Shapiro, David Ellison, Tony Dokoupil, Bari Weiss, A.G. Sulzberger, Sean Duffy, and Vanilla ICE.
Got tips? Hit the Party Animals hotline: aidan_mclaughlin@condenast.com. Or text me—my number is 917-817-8266. Complaints will be tied to a cinderblock and dropped in the Reflecting Pool. Praise will be secretly taped and subsequently obtained by Maggie Haberman.
