Trump putting MAGA 'puppet' in charge of probe into Reflecting Pool fiasco

U.S. President Donald Trump un the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 6, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

U.S. President Donald Trump's foes have been consistently critical of his makeover proposals for the Washington, DC area, from a White House ballroom to the Kennedy Center to a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. And Trump is drawing scathing criticism for the damage inflicted on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Now, according to the Daily Beast, a major Trump loyalist — Project 2025 author Dennis Kirk — will likely be in charge of any possible investigation of the "Reflecting Pool fiasco."

"Donald Trump is planning to put one of his most reliably right-wing goons in charge of any eventual investigation into his botched renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool," journalist William Vaillancourt reports in the Daily Beast. "The 80-year-old president personally oversaw the $16 million project to refurbish the DC landmark, only to watch as the waters turned slimy green and the pool lining split. He quickly blamed the damage on vandalism, even though his handpicked DC prosecutor couldn't make any charges stick and passed the blame to Doug Burgum's Interior Department, which was in charge of the refurb."

Trump, Vaillancourt notes, has nominated Kirk "to run the Interior Department's Inspector General Office — the watchdog that will oversee any investigation."

In 2024, Project 2025 was the Heritage Foundation's in-depth blueprint for a second Trump administration. Trump, during the 2024 presidential race, distanced himself from the highly controversial document. But critics countered that Project 2025 was written by some of Trump's closest allies — including Kirk.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California) is a scathing opponent of the Kirk nomination, attacking him as a "fake and fraudulent watchdog."

In an August 5 post on his website, Huffman said of Kirk, "Each and every thing this political puppet does will be in service of Donald Trump. This man helped write the Project 2025 playbook for seizing control of the federal workforce. Now, he sits inside the office charged with rooting out corruption at Interior, the department that manages our national parks, public lands, Tribal programs, and now under Trump, gold-slathered statues and a botched Reflecting Pool renovation. That same office is weighing serious ethics investigations into senior officials in this administration. It's no surprise the White House suddenly wants its own man inside the one place that Trump's cronies still have reason to fear."

Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, is lambasting the Kirk nomination as well — noting the firing of for Interior Department Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt.

Weiss, in an official statement, warned, "Interior's watchdog was fired, left vacant for 18 months, and is now hosting one of the architects of Project 2025. At least five investigation requests from members of Congress are sitting in that office right now, and its integrity has been compromised. Congress cannot outsource its constitutional oversight duty to an inspector general’s office taken over by the White House."

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