President Trump said Saturday that vandals damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the problems are so severe that it will have to be at least partially drained for “necessary repairs.”
Mr. Trump posted late Saturday on Truth Social that “multiple individuals” had been arrested for vandalizing the pool on the National Mall.
Only one person has been arrested: David Carter Hearn, 67, a three-time Olympian in cycling and canoeing, is charged with destruction of government property.
Mr. Hearn has claimed innocence, saying that the arrest was a misunderstanding and that he was just reaching down to grab a strip of peeling blue paint that was floating among the algae-plagued pool. He faces a 10-year prison sentence if convicted of the vandalism charge.
“What these terrible vandals have done is a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and should be dealt with accordingly,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social.
“We met with contractors today, will be probably forced to release and drain much of of the water in order to do the necessary repairs will have them done as quickly as possible. What they have damaged does not even include the earlier killing of a large amount of grass, which was, by far, the least of it,” Mr. Trump posted.
“They took some form of knife blade and put a 250-foot-long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence and money to build and complete. They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the pool. The Reflecting Pool was never as beautiful as it was just one week ago,” the president added.
Mr. Trump did not identify any individual who had been arrested for vandalism, nor did he offer any evidence that vandals poured chemicals or cut a gash into the pool’s facade.
No other individual has been publicly announced as being arrested for vandalism at the pool.
Mr. Trump’s announcement marks the first time he has acknowledged the pool’s deterioration less than two weeks after a more than $14 million renovation was completed. The water has become covered by algae, obscuring the floor that had been painted what Mr. Trump called “American flag blue.” The paint then began to peel off.
Renovating the Reflecting Pool, which opened in 1922, is one of many projects Mr. Trump has undertaken around the nation’s capital as the United States nears its 250th birthday. He has faced intense criticism for the project, after a construction company with ties to Mr. Trump was awarded a no-bid contract to repair and paint the bottom of the pool.
The Interior Department said last week that agency workers had “killed the algae” that had expanded with heat and humidity. But by Friday, the water was still stained by clumps of algae, and the pool’s new coating was missing a large section.
