Democrats have a nasty habit. Actually, they have plenty of nasty habits, but this one is enduring. They use imagery to deceive. They’ll take photos of a mostly empty arena or an outdoor gathering and announce a Republican event—particularly a Trump event--was poorly attended. The photo was taken hours before the event began, but they leave that out.

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The Democrat media reproduce images of supposed war crimes by Israel or America, provided by our enemies, without bothering to investigate first, and when we point out they’re faked and/or staged, never apologize, or they print a retraction long after the fact and as quietly as possible.

More recently, they’ve represented photos of the wing of the White House, including the new ballroom, under construction and implied it is the finished product or is indicative of some disaster. 

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They’re up to it again. This time it’s The Washington Post—what a surprise—claiming Trump’s wildly successful renovation of the Reflecting Pool looks little different than the algae-choked, green and brown, malodorous, badly leaking, refuse-strewn swamp of the Obama and Biden past:

The Washington Post faced backlash, including from the Trump administration, after suggesting that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool "looks almost the same" following President Donald Trump's renovations:

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Graphic: X Post

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"After Trump's $10 million renovation, the Reflecting Pool is full again — and looks almost the same," The Washington Post wrote alongside an image comparison of the Reflecting Pool in 2022 and 2026 on X Tuesday.

Uh-huh. If you use a 2022 photo with proper Photoshop filtering. Here’s the same photo with more accurate filtering. Quite a difference, isn’t it?

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Graphic: X Post

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The paper also shared an article from last week on the renovations in an X post that read, "The Reflecting Pool on the National Mall has been refilled following President Trump’s renovations. The project ultimately took six weeks and cost more than $10 million, far more than Trump initially projected."

Obama wasted some $34 million on it and didn’t fix it. “Fact checkers” are trying desperately to pooh-pooh that figure—you have to read 13 paragraphs into this long Snopes “fact check” to discover Obama actually paid $35.3 million. Trump brought it in on time and on budget—he’s known for that—and essentially stopped the massive leaks, made it beautiful again, and installed systems to keep the water treated and beautiful.

Democrats are desperately trying to find “authentic” men to run for office and have wound up with Graham Platner and James Talarico. Donald Trump invited the authentic men who renovated the Reflecting Pool to the Oval Office, where he signed hats for each of them and thanked them for their work. That’s authentic, American manhood.

Note that The WaPo’s comparison showed the pool in 2022. Here’s a much more recent photo:

Graphic: X Post

And another:

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And another taken from a different position and angle. Those things matter with photography:

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This is the most accurate comparison, taken from the opposite side of the pool from The WaPo’s deceptive take:

Graphic: X Post

There is no question the Reflecting Pool, like much of DC, has been in desperate need of renovation for a very long time. It was leaking around 500,000 gallons of water a week, was choked with algae, and stank like a swamp. It’s built on the shifting, swampy ground of the rest of DC, so absolutely stopping all leaks may be impossible, but it’s certainly a dramatic improvement.

And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, you know the rest of the story.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.