from the authoritarians-are-very-sensitive dept

Wed, Jun 24th 2026 05:28am - Karl Bode

Earlier this year America’s idiot king offered a no-bid contract to one of his ex-con Mara Lago donors to “fix” the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. It… did not go well. Said pool is now full of algae and peeling paint, and it’s created an interesting attention flashpoint for the press and another perfect metaphor for the Trump administration’s corrupt crony capitalist bonanza.

As ABC News reports, Trump has repeatedly (and falsely) tried to claim that the disaster is a result of vandalism, despite there being no evidence (the pool is under 24/7 video surveillance):

“Trump first made the claim the lining had been cut in a post on his social media platform on Saturday, saying then that vandals had put a 250-foot-long “gash” in the lining.

Neither the Interior Department nor the White House has provided evidence that the pool lining had been cut.”

Thin skinned authoritarian that he is, Trump doesn’t like when journalists explain how incompetent and corrupt he is. So he immediately took took his personal money-losing propaganda website to once again threaten ABC with lawsuits for doing (what really is fairly innocuous) journalism:

The man is genuinely not well.

ABC did, of course, pay Trump a $16 million bribe in 2024 to settle a baseless lawsuit the company could have easily won. But as Trump’s FCC has ramped up its censorship and harassment campaign against ABC, there have been signs that Disney Corporation is starting to show some backbone.

For example one recent filing by Disney/ABC makes it clear that Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr concocted a fake scandal in collaboration (with right-wing friendly broadcasters) to make it seem like ABC’s Houston affiliate did something illegal. All to manufacture a controversy surrounding Democratic Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico (whose empathy and hot girlfriend appear to upset Republicans greatly).

ABC has also recently been airing spots urging ABC viewers to give the FCC an earful about its multiple, overlapping efforts to censor ABC journalists and comedians. As Trump’s health and political influence wanes, you may see formerless feckless companies demonstrate something vaguely resembling a backbone; assuming they don’t have active mergers awaiting regulatory review.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, abc news, censorship, corruption, donald trump, free speech, journalism, media, reflecting pool
Companies: abc, disney