Trump says Jeanine Pirro 'choked' in reflecting-pool case: 'Folded like an umbrella'

Trump calling Jeanine Pirro "folded like an umbrella" is the kind of line that gets a laugh and a wince at the same time, because it's Pirro. She's not some career bureaucrat he's never met. She's a longtime friend and defender, now sitting as U.S. Attorney for D.C., and he's roasting her publicly for dropping a vandalism case against a former Olympian over the Reflecting Pool. That's an unusual way to treat someone in your own camp.

The underlying question is worth asking regardless of who's involved. Did the case get dropped because the evidence didn't hold up, or because someone decided a defaced national monument wasn't worth the fight? Those are very different outcomes and the public deserves to know which one happened. Vandalizing a memorial isn't a gray area; it's the kind of thing prosecutors usually want to make an example of, especially given how much attention the reflecting pool and the National Mall get.

But there's something a little uncomfortable about a president dressing down his own appointee in these terms, in public, over a single case. It's fine to want prosecutors to actually prosecute. It's another thing to turn a charging decision into a personal insult contest, because that pressure runs both ways: prosecutors who fear public humiliation for being too lenient can just as easily start overcharging to protect themselves, which isn't justice either.

If Pirro made the wrong call, say why, correct it, and let the office explain its reasoning. Loyalty shouldn't buy someone a pass, but it also shouldn't make them a punching bag for one bad news cycle.