The Boulder Daily Camera looked at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — green with algae, blue paint peeling off the bottom — and saw the perfect metaphor for the Trump presidency. That tells you everything about where the establishment press's priorities sit: focused on a decorative pond while actual institutions rot and actual dollars burn.

The editorial board laid it out with a straight face: Trump hired unqualified contractors who botched the paint job, a Trump motorcade drove over the wet surface before it cured, workers dumped peroxide in the water, and when it all went sideways, the president blamed vandals and had people arrested — including, reportedly, an American Olympian caught touching floating paint chips. On Truth Social, Trump threatened vandals with "years in jail" and referenced a 10-year prison sentence.

Fine. Shoddy contracting, dodging accountability, overzealous prosecutions — all fair game. A competent press would report that and move on. Instead, the Camera gave us a thousand words of metaphor and buried the actual news in the back half.

Here's what they glossed over: the United States has agreed to help establish a $300 billion fund to rebuild Iran from damage caused by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes during what was called Operation Epic Fury. Where that money comes from is unclear. Lawmakers from both parties are concerned U.S. taxpayer dollars could be on the hook. The memorandum of understanding signed last week essentially returns the strategic picture to the pre-war status quo — the Strait of Hormuz is open, as it was before — while Iran's frozen assets are likely to be unfrozen, releasing more money than the 2015 Obama-era deal did. Details on nuclear restrictions? Still to be worked out. Iran may or may not agree to limits.

So the president launched a war, spent American blood and treasure, and wound up back where things started — except now there's a $300 billion reconstruction commitment with no clear funding source and a better deal for Tehran. That's not a peeling-paint metaphor. That's a bipartisan foreign policy failure, and both parties own it. Trump tore up the Obama nuclear deal in his first term. Now he's essentially reinstalling a weaker version at a higher price.

Meanwhile, Robert De Niro is standing at a celebrity gala in New York telling a crowd that loving America "is starting to sound like an abused spouse saying they love their abuser," as Newsmax reported. The phrase "we all love our country" stuck in his throat.

There it is. The elite consensus in two snapshots: editorial boards comparing a presidency to pond scum, and millionaire actors who can't choke out the word "patriotism" without reaching for a domestic-violence analogy. Neither has a word to say about the $300 billion heading overseas with no accountability, or the decades of bipartisan policy that made it possible.

The paint will be fixed. The money won't come back.