The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

Get my Daily BS twice-a-day news stack directly to your email.


‘Where do these animals come from?’ Trump erupts, vandal suspects to WWII Memorial arrested

by

WASHINGTON — Someone decided the memorial honoring the Americans who fought and died defeating fascism needed spray paint and a bubble bath.

The National World War II Memorial in Washington was vandalized Thursday with brightly colored graffiti while soap or detergent apparently dumped into its fountain produced large piles of bubbles. The U.S. Park Police are investigating, and the Interior Department says it intends to find whoever was responsible.

By Friday morning, President Donald Trump had seen enough. “Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Then he went nuclear: “THERE CAN BE NO GREATER INSULT TO THOSE AMERICAN HEROES WHO DIED IN WORLD WAR II.”

Trump connected the incident to the ongoing controversy over damage at the nearby Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. “First the Reflecting Pool, now this. We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from???”

Photos from the scene showed the words “Clean hands dirty $” spray-painted on the memorial, along with red and green markings. The meaning — assuming there is one — remains unclear.

The fountain honoring the Atlantic theater was meanwhile filled with mountains of foam.

Police cordoned off the site as investigators examined the damage Thursday, and National Guard personnel were also present in the area.

The Interior Department didn’t mince words.

“The public should know we will find the person responsible for this disgusting act,” the department said.

The Friends of the National World War II Memorial also condemned the vandalism, saying the monument is “a sacred place of remembrance” that should not be defaced as a means of protest or expression. The Veterans of Foreign Wars similarly denounced the act as disrespectful to veterans and military families.

And perhaps that deserves a moment. The memorial commemorates the 16 million Americans who served during World War II and more than 400,000 who died.

Whatever political message somebody thought they were delivering with “Clean hands dirty $,” there are approximately 400,000 reasons they picked the wrong canvas.

Trump’s “first the Reflecting Pool” reference comes with a considerably messier backstory.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was arrested and charged after authorities accused him of damaging the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

But U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office dropped the case after evidence indicated that at least some of the damage was related to faulty contractor work. Trump himself has since acknowledged that rushed construction contributed to problems at the pool while continuing to insist that Hearn separately vandalized it.

Trump has fiercely criticized the decision to abandon the prosecution. He recently highlighted a National Park Service employee’s account saying Hearn had been seen “violently” pulling at the pool’s coating. Hearn says he merely touched material that was already peeling and denies vandalizing anything. The White House has now asked the Justice Department to consider whether another prosecution could be brought.

Unlike the disputed circumstances surrounding the Reflecting Pool, however, there’s not much mystery about what happened at the World War II Memorial.

Somebody spray-painted it. Somebody put something in the fountain. And federal investigators have now arrested the suspected “animal.” 

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

today’s hot news