President Revives the Story of His Reflecting Pool Fiasco, Arlington Apologizes for Anti-Immigrant Retweet From Weather Alert System, and DC Has a New Gossip Columnist

Good morning. Sunny and breezy today with a high around 78. A low near 53 overnight. The Wizards visit the Knicks tonight for their first preseason game.

🌎 How well do you know the District? Play our new geography game and test your local knowledge. 📫 You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below. This roundup is available as a morning email newsletter. Sign up here.

I can’t stop listening to

Master P, “Make ‘Em Say Uhh.” The Cash Money & No Limit tour rolls into Capital One Arena tonight with performances by Birdman, Juvenile, Mannie Fresh, Silkk the Shocker and many more.   

Take Washingtonian Today with you! I keep ridiculously long playlists on Apple Music and on Spotify of this year’s music recommendations. Here are 2025’s songs (Apple, Spotify), too.

Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:

Do over

President Trump took a mulligan on the campaign trail yesterday, tweaking an earlier thought experiment to make it clear that he would disapprove of Iran nuking Southern California. (NBC News) Protesters kept interrupting the President at a rally in San Antonio. (Washington Sun) Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who faces a spirited race for reelection, didn’t attend the rally, where Trump also said he would bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon Roger Clemens. (AP)

The war

Trump is mulling a return to military action in Iran before the midterm elections, on the theory that big attacks “would make the president look like he got a win and that gas prices would start going down,” as one person familiar with the idea put it. (Atlantic) Iran’s attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz “hit their highest last week of any week since the ​Iran war began” in February. (Reuters) Oil prices rose in early trading. (AP)

Administration perambulation

Before she became the US’s ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle solicited $100,000 from the colorful Kentucky lawyer Eric Deters, who asked for her help with a tax matter, with securing him an appearance on Tucker Carlson‘s podcast, and with getting some lyrics he’d written in front of Kid Rock. Assuring him she’d been in touch with Billy Long, then the IRS commissioner, Guilfoyle—the former fiancée of Donald Trump Jr.—reportedly asked Deters to pay her American Express bill. (WSJ) Speaking in Athens yesterday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised Guilfoyle, who previously raised eyebrows in Europe by reportedly implying the US could topple Greece’s government if it felt like it. (Politico) Trump will present National Medal of Science awards to Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, and Sergey Brin at a summit today. (Bloomberg) The Democratic National Committee and the group Common Cause filed separate lawsuits yesterday about taxpayer-funded TV ads that praise Trump. (AP) The Department of Homeland Security has scrutinized millions of voter records as it searches for evidence for Trump’s belief in widespread voter fraud. (CNN) The administration is moving to allow the sale of certain peptides via compounding pharmacies despite the fact that “many of the products’ claims haven’t gone through the rigorous clinicals trials that FDA-approved drugs undergo to assess safety and efficacy.” (Washington Post) Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak “is now the country’s biggest since 1991.” (WSJ) Trump plans a celebration of Christopher Columbus, an effort he hopes will resonate with Italian American voters. (Washington Post)

Hidden Eats, by Ike Allen:

The remote strip mall called “Maryland Farms” hosts a United Nations of restaurants and specialty shops: Indian, Bangladeshi, Ghanaian, Dominican, Mexican, and, in the case of Campestre Chicken, Peruvian by way of El Salvador. The menu here is centered around nicely rendered South American-style rotisserie chicken, with the usual sides like fried yuca and rice and beans. Pupusas and nuegados are on the menu too, but it had been too long since I had some classic pollo a la brasa.

Take Hidden Eats with you! Our wicked popular map will show you which Hidden Eats—the out-of-the-way mom-and-pop eateries Ike highlights in this newsletter and in our print magazine—are nearby.

Recently on Washingtonian dot com:

• In which our Sylvie McNamara goes bowfishing for snakeheads.

• Bald men of DC, our time has come. There’s a new podcast about us.

• Exclusive travel deals for Washingtonian readers this month include trips to Myrtle Beach, Washington state, and Philadelphia.

• Lockhouse 8, a quirky new place to stay along the C&O Canal, just opened. Here’s what you can expect there.

Local news links:

• Trump says the Reflecting Pool—seriously, why even bring that thing up at this point—could be refilled this week following a botched renovation he initiated. The President insisted the water feature had been the site of vandalism (courts have generally disagreed) and claimed it is now “vandal-proof.” (Washington Post)

• DC Council member Trayon White asked a judge to dismiss his bribery case following a mistrial. Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for DC, plans to retry White. (Fox 5)

• Arlington apologized after a county-run weather alert system “reposted a tweet earlier this week that targeted immigrants in the United Kingdom using disparaging terms.” It’s looking into how the post happened. (ARLnow)

• The Caps beat the Penguins in their home opener, a game that I inexplicably failed to note in yesterday’s roundup. (Washington Sun)

• The DC Board of Elections dropped a fine it leveled against the District’s likely next mayor, Janeese Lewis George, when she was a candidate. (City Cast DC)

• DC Water says new testing shows the massive sewer spill earlier this year did no permanent damage to the Potomac. (Washington Sun)

• Police in Alexandria say a man drugged a woman at an Old Town bar and raped her on the patio of a hotel nearby. (ALXnow)

• Cops in DC charged a 14-year-old in the beating and robbery of a woman at 8th and Q streets, Northwest, Tuesday night. (WUSA9)

• A girls’ flag football game in Montgomery County on Monday night went horribly wrong, officials say. One adult had to go to the hospital after an altercation in a parking lot. (WUSA9)

• Dilan Shaan Ashar, a University of Maryland student reported missing last week, has been found and is safe, police say. (Fox 5)

• The first of three people convicted of taking part in a bizarre kidnapping scheme intended to silence a woman who accused a man of rape was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison. (City Cast DC)

• Outgoing DC Mayor Muriel Bowser‘s hopes for a massive spa complex along the Anacostia appear to be on the ropes after Lewis George said she wouldn’t support it. (Washington Sun)

• The city of Alexandria “improperly issued 834 tickets totaling more than $83,000” for supposed driving infractions in a school zone that occurred before the scheduled enforcement hours. (ABC 7)

• Someone stole a bust of RFK from RFK. (Washington Post)

• DC is about to have a new gossip reporter: Sarah Beth Spraggins is joining the Washington Sun. Watch what you say when you’re out and about! (Feed Me)

Things to Do:

• The theme of this month’s National Gallery Nights is “Monster Mash”—come in costume and groove to the sounds of the local band Oh He Dead.

• The Noir City DC festival kicks off at AFI Silver.

• Skillet is at the Fillmore Silver Spring.

• “Disney On Ice presents Spotlight Magic!” opens at EagleBank Arena.

See more event picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.