JD Vance Has Army Corps of Engineers Change the Flow of a River to Ensure He Has Ideal Kayaking Conditions for his 41st Birthday Celebration

Aug 07, 2025

Nothing captures the imperial quality of the Trump administration better than having the vast apparatus of a continent-spanning government harness to change the course of a river—all in service of the personal amusement of one of the emperor’s favorites.

The Guardian gives an overview:

JD Vance’s team had the army corps of engineers take the unusual step of changing the outflow of a lake in Ohio to accommodate a recent boating excursion on a family holiday, the Guardian has learned.
The request from the US Secret Service was made to “support safe navigation” of the US vice-president’s security detail for an August outing on the Little Miami River, according to a statement by the US army corps of engineers (USACE).
Vance was spotted in the south-western Ohio area on 2 August, his 41st birthday, according to social media posts that noted he was seen canoeing on the river, a tributary that Caesar Creek Lake feeds into.
One source with knowledge of the matter who communicated with the Guardian anonymously alleged that the outflow request for the Caesar Creek Lake was not just to support the vice-president’s Secret Service detail, but also to create “ideal kayaking conditions.”

The Guardian notes that the corps of engineers has done this before, but for large public events, never for one individual. This encapsulates the spirit of the Trump era, in which government is run to serve the private whims of high officials, not for the benefit of the general public.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.