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Trump is 'disappointed' with US attorney Jeanine Pirro and accuses her of 'folding like an umbrella' for dropping the Reflecting Pool charges against a former Olympian.
Emily Maitlis joins Shelagh Fogarty to discuss the story and the reports Trump is considering removing Pirro from her post after nominating her just a year ago. 'Even though she would have agreed with Trump, at least verbally, in the past, she now has to follow the law, and this was a cowboy stitch-up job,' says Maitlis.
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
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0:00
This reflecting pool, which people will have seen in Washington many, many times in those aerial shots of the White House and Washington DC
0:09
it's been in the news for weeks now and the detail of this story has somehow passed me by a bit
0:15
but we've all been forced to focus on it now because of the Attorney General in America
0:18
Yeah, let me set the scene a bit. So Washington is the most sort of neoclassically beautiful sort of city, isn't it
0:27
It's got the Dome of Congress, it's got the White House, it's got the grandeur of what it's trying to say
0:35
Yes, it's where all the marches were and all the inaugurations are. And at the far end, by the Lincoln Memorial
0:41
there is this long reflecting pool. And it's basically, it's like a sort of like the Serpentine Lake or something
0:46
It's a very beautiful part of this, sort of the architecture of political Washington
0:51
And every inauguration, it's centric, isn't it? You know, it's part of the shots
0:56
It's like looking at the top shot of Buckingham Palace or seeing Green Park or whatever
1:01
And a few months ago, Trump decided that essentially it wasn't good enough
1:07
It was the wrong colour. And he was thinking about the 250th anniversary of America
1:13
And he decided that he needed to sort of redo this pool and that the colour was wrong
1:19
And he wanted to go for American flag blue. And so he brought in these contractors
1:23
He spent $14 million redoing the reflecting pool. And clearly, because the anniversary was coming up on July the 4th
1:32
they had to work quite quickly. And so they redid the bottom of the pool. They're kind of painting it
1:37
And it was a cowboy stitch-up job. I mean, there's no other words for it, really
1:42
And so what happened, essentially, was the paint looked great for about three days
1:46
Then it started peeling off. And so passers-by were going to have a look at it
1:51
and reaching their hands in and finding whole bits of sort of paint just floating to the surface and saying
1:57
oh, my God, what's going on here? You know, this doesn't look right. So one of the people who took a photo of what he found in the reflecting pool
2:05
was this former Olympic rower, a guy called David Hernan, and he sort of tweeted out a picture of this, you know
2:11
this doesn't look right to me. He knows a bad lake when he sees. Well, he's probably been on a lot of water, right
2:17
He knows a thing or two about what works and what doesn't. And Trump saw this picture and instead of thinking oh we got a problem with the reflecting pool and all the rest of it he accused this man of vandalism and said we got to have him arrested for vandalising the reflecting pool That the first point at which I came across the story
2:41
OK. The accusations of vandalism. So this is where it's gone to. I mean, this is typical Trump, right
2:46
He lashes out at things that are entirely of his own making. And then he decides that somebody who's pointing out the problem is in fact the villain of the story
2:55
So he pushes this all the way to the courts. and it gets to the Department of Justice
3:02
and the woman at the top, who is the US Attorney for DC
3:06
is a woman called Janine Pirro. Now, she is what we used to call a TV judge
3:12
You know, she's sort of like Judge Drennan, one of these people who's sort of, you know, been very famous on TV, so Trump loves her
3:18
Trump appointed her to this role, serious role of US Attorney for DC
3:22
and she takes this case and she throws it out and Trump can't believe it
3:28
Because everything in Trump's world works in patronage. I mean, she follows the law. She's following the law
3:33
A few months ago, she would have been one of those who agreed with Trump, verbally at least
3:38
that this was, you know, probably vandalism and all the rest of it. But now she's actually got to deal with a case
3:43
She's got to potentially try a man. She might be, you know, putting a guy in jail for something that is clearly nonsense
3:50
And so she just throws the whole case out. Trump is furious
3:54
She folded like an umbrella. She folded like an umbrella. and the point is that if Trump has appointed you to your role
4:01
he can also make you disappear. And so now there's a whole question really over what happens to her
4:08
Does she still have her job? Is he so angry with her that he's going to remove her
4:12
He hasn't done yet. But we're kind of watching this. He's very publicly berated at her, hasn't he
4:18
She choked because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her
4:24
and he goes, I guess she choked. She choked. In other words, she wasn't courageous enough to bring this to court
4:31
And one of the questions that we've been asking on the newsagents is, this is what happens when the rubber hits the road of fantasy, of made-up stuff versus reality
4:43
You know, Trump is now embodying and inhabiting this world of complete... Make-believe
4:49
Make-believe. It's been a growing leitmotif throughout the presidency. it's exactly right but suddenly you you can't magic up you know a lake with contractors that
5:00
can get it right in whatever three weeks and so you have to pretend that it the fault of other people you have pretend it about vandalism and how how is the lake now Do we know Well I was in Washington last week I mean it very nice
5:14
I think broadly, it's not as good as it was before he started touching it
5:20
But I think it also speaks to a bigger question, which is Trump has actually pretty much given up on the politics of governing America
5:28
He's given up on the politics of the actual presidency, You know, the war or the economy or the cost of living or diplomacy
5:36
And Maggie Haberman, who's the New York Times journalist, who's probably one of the closest people in the media to him
5:42
has estimated that he now spends around 70% of his time, his brain power, thinking about these legacy projects
5:49
Whether it's the ballroom underneath the White House, whether it's the Arcter Trump triumph
5:55
whether it's the reflecting pool that has been painted American flag blue
5:59
he called up Emmanuel Macron to ask him what he should put on top of his new Arc de Triomphe
6:05
In other words, there is a kind of Ozymandias feel to Trump now
6:10
He's trying to establish his own legacy, possibly because he knows that no one else will do it when he's done
6:17
Complete vanity. I was in West Palm Beach just last week making a documentary
6:22
and he's already changed the name of the airport there. It used to be called PBI, Palm Beach International
6:27
and now you go through the highway and there's a big sign saying Donald Trump International Airport
6:33
and there's a garage just opposite the airport which just has this massive placard with a love
6:38
heart saying I heart PBI in other words bring no thanks yeah oh god and before you go a word on
6:45
Ceuta and the quotes invasion of Ceuta by from Morocco I talked about it on air yesterday for
6:53
two hours with callers who had a great deal to say about it and about um the channel as well and
6:58
and the reform suggestion yesterday on the channel i know you've been talking you're going you have
7:03
been talking about it will feature in the news agents what what have you learned or what have
7:06
been the reflection it's interesting how much it is spooking um the eu isn't it they've had
7:12
an urgent meeting of interior ministers i think that's just going on um as we speak and
7:18
essentially they are sort of putting Spain on the naughty step. They are trying to send out
7:24
I think, a message to their own citizens and possibly to parties on the right that Spain has
7:33
got this wrong. And gone rogue. Now, Spain would argue that actually it was partly Morocco's fault
7:38
Morocco kind of turned a blind eye to what was happening Spain and Morocco are falling out at the moment over this question of Western Sahara which is part of well Morocco would say it part of Morocco
7:49
Spain actually, you know, has been quite sort of tolerant towards the idea of Western Sahara and independence
7:56
So there's this whole other geopolitical strand to it. Is Morocco turning a blind eye? Stuff that we never pay attention to here, really
8:01
Well, it's really, as soon as you start, you know, you realise that we're not the only sort of colonial powers
8:06
We have Gibraltar, but Spain has Ceuta, and Malia and then Morocco has Western Sahara
8:11
So there's this sort of, it's really fascinating to see how much everyone is
8:15
I've just been listening to the latest series on The Rest is History, which is about Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh
8:21
and his adventures in America, what's now Western America. And you forget, I had forgotten and I studied Spanish at university
8:28
but you forget how huge and powerful the Spanish and the Portuguese empires were
8:35
Yes, yes. And I think the geopolitics has been. is playing into all this now
8:39
So, you know, Spain recently also changed its laws in the Supreme Court
8:45
which meant that the returns agreement for migrants was kind of a bit more gentle, you know
8:50
it didn't sort of shove them straight back. And I think that certainly..
8:56
That was weaponised, wasn't it, when it comes to Sota a little? Well, well..
9:00
Online or social media? Yes, I mean, I think a lot of people are now looking at Spain and saying
9:04
look, we're trying really hard to sort immigration for the EU and basically Spain is in a key position
9:12
because of this extraordinary border it has with North Africa essentially. Ceuta and Malia are off the coast of Morocco
9:20
It's got this border with Africa. So Africa then becomes, Spain becomes the gateway to the EU through Africa
9:29
and the Italian Prime Minister has now suspended, well you would have talked about it yesterday
9:35
spended Schengen, even though seizure is not part of the sort of free movement arrangement
9:40
So I think there was this sort of discomfort with Spain because they think that Spain is heading in a direction
9:47
which is letting everyone down and letting hard-right actors... And I think a lot of Spaniards feel that way
9:53
You know, the ones who are not supporters of Sanchez. I mean, some of the footage over the weekend of these hats on him
9:59
it made Keir Starmer's life look a lot gentler, didn't it? Well, I have to say it didn't help that Pedro Sanchez has been making videos about his favourite summer playlist on Spotify and wishing everyone a happy summer
10:11
And sitting there in his relaxed Lanzarote hideout whilst, you know, kind of Europe burns
#news