More Arrests Made Over Reflecting Pool Than Epstein Files

Trump allegedly told his nephew to let his disabled son die, the administration is cutting HIV funding over an imaginary white "genocide," and the Supreme Court sided with cancerous chemicals

Good morning. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

Six people have been arrested over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, while zero have been arrested over the Epstein files. Donald Trump told his nephew to let his disabled son die and “move down to Florida,” according to a new book. The Trump administration is cutting HIV funding to South Africa over a white “genocide” that doesn’t exist. And the Supreme Court just blocked thousands of cancer lawsuits against the maker of Roundup, with the Trump administration arguing for the chemical company.

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Now, let’s get into it.

More People Have Been Arrested Over a Pool Than Epstein

It turns out the surest path to federal handcuffs in 2026 is not touching minors. It is touching a puddle.

In recent days, six people have been detained for supposedly “vandalizing” the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after the freshly renovated basin turned green with algae and its blue paint began to peel. Trump called the alleged perpetrators “sick and deranged” and floated “years in jail.”

As Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam noted to The Hill, more people have been arrested over the Reflecting Pool than over the Epstein files. The Justice Department released millions of Epstein documents, identified at least 10 additional alleged co-conspirators, and brought charges against exactly nobody.

On Epstein, Trump’s preferred tone is detachment. “I think it’s really time for the country to maybe get onto something else,” he said in February. On the pool, he claims someone slashed the bottom with a knife.

One of the people arrested was Olympian David Hearn, who said he leaned over to touch “a loose flap of coating.” He was in handcuffs before he understood what was happening.

In this town, the shallow end gets all the attention.

Trump (Allegedly) Told Nephew to Let His Disabled Son Die

The Republican convention spent a week describing Trump as a “very caring and loving” grandfather and family man. His nephew brought receipts.

Fred Trump Jr., Donald’s older brother, died in 1981. His children were effectively disinherited. Fred Trump III continued to receive funds to care for his disabled son, William, until it was cut off in a dispute settled in 2001.

In his book All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way, Fred wrote that he called his uncle after Robert Trump’s 2020 funeral to discuss the rising care costs for his disabled son, William.

Trump reportedly sighed and told him “maybe you should just let him die and move down to Florida.”

Fred, who campaigns with his wife Lisa for the rights of disabled people, said he should not have been surprised. At an Oval Office meeting that same year with doctors and disability advocates, Trump appeared “interested and even concerned,” then said of disabled patients: “The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.”

Pro-life from conception to the moment you become expensive.

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Trump Pulls HIV Funding Over an Imaginary White Genocide

When the administration couldn’t find a white genocide in South Africa, it decided to start a real one.

After two decades, the U.S. will end a life-saving HIV-prevention and treatment program in South Africa, where more than 8 million people (12% of the population) live with the virus. The State Department says the country will be removed from PEPFAR for failing “to make demonstrable progress on policy requests by the administration.”

Those requests include repealing land-seizure laws, exempting American companies from Black empowerment laws, not aligning with U.S. adversaries, and stopping an anti-white “genocide” that the government, human rights organizations, and independent analysts all agree does not exist.

South Africa receives $400 million annually from PEPFAR, around 17 percent of its HIV response funding. Last year that money supported over 15,000 nurses, counselors, and pharmacists, plus testing, prevention, and treatment across the 27 districts with the highest infection rates.

Current funding is expected to run out in September. UNAids chief Winnie Byanyima asked the U.S. for a planned transition instead of a sudden cutoff. She said, “Please do not take money away because you are taking lives away.”

The Supreme Court Sided With Cancerous Chemicals

Make America Healthy Again, unless Bayer’s legal team gets there first.

In a 7-2 ruling Thursday, the Court blocked thousands of failure-to-warn lawsuits against Bayer, maker of Roundup weed killer, after the Trump DOJ filed a brief in favor of the company and urged the Court to block the lawsuits.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that because federal regulators found a cancer link unlikely and require no warning label, states cannot impose one. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, joined by Neil Gorsuch, writing that Monsanto could have added a warning without violating federal law.

The case was brought by John Durnell, a Missouri man who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after more than 20 years as his neighborhood association’s “spray guy” in St. Louis. A jury awarded him $1.25 million. He never collected it.

The World Health Organization classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015. The EPA says it’s not likely to cause cancer when used as directed. Roughly 200,000 Roundup-related claims have been filed against Bayer.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has repeatedly said glyphosate causes cancer. The MAHA base is furious, but don’t worry — they’ll still vote for the guy whose lawyers did this.

The Part the Billionaires Hate

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Judge Orders DOJ to Produce, Unredact Sought After Epstein Files. A federal judge just ordered the DOJ to unredact Epstein files it had blacked out, including emails about a “torture video,” a draft indictment with co-conspirators’ names hidden, and FBI interview notes from a woman who says Trump assaulted her as a minor. Journalist Katie Phang sued, and the government’s defense was essentially “she should have filed a FOIA request,” which the judge noted the DOJ had already denied. The administration that promised to blow the Epstein case wide open is now in court arguing it shouldn’t have to show its work, and a judge just told them they have until July 2 to comply or explain themselves.

Mamdani’s Rent Freeze Passes for 1 Million Units. New York’s democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani just delivered on his signature campaign promise six months in: the city’s Rent Guidelines Board voted 7–1 to freeze rents on nearly a million stabilized apartments for two years, covering about 40 percent of NYC’s rental stock and roughly 2 million tenants. The lone landlord representative on the board who opposed it had already resigned hours before the vote, calling the outcome predetermined. Tenants celebrated in East Harlem with pizza and “We Are the Champions” while landlord groups warned the city is collapsing, which is also what they said last time rents were frozen, and the time before that.

DeWine Vetoes Bill Requiring Photo ID for Mail Voting in Ohio. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced late Wednesday that he had vetoed House Bill 472, a Republican-passed measure that would have extended the state’s strict photo ID requirement to mail-in voting. Republicans had bolted the requirement onto an unrelated bill and passed it in a late-night vote two days later, drawing objections from bipartisan elections officials and the Ohio AARP. DeWine, who in 2023 called election security a “settled issue,” wrote that the remote photo ID process was unworkable and offered no real benefit. Republicans hold 65 House seats — five more than the 60 needed to override him — so this veto may not be the last word, but it stands for now.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Miranda Kerr Help Erase $550 Million in Medical Debt for Californians. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and his wife, model Miranda Kerr, made a multimillion-dollar donation to the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, wiping out $550 million in medical debt for more than 261,000 Californians. The organization buys medical debt in bulk for a fraction of its value: every $10 donated relieves roughly $1,000 in debt. San Diego County residents benefited most, with about $99 million erased for 40,369 people, while Los Angeles County saw $26.7 million erased for 17,466 people. Those who qualify, generally people at or below 400% of the federal poverty level, will start receiving letters in mid-July.