President Donald Trump claimed to have found slashes the size of three football fields in his new-look Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Trump, 80, spent more than $14 million of public money to renovate the iconic site, but it looks worse than ever. Since he awarded the no-bid contract to a company he has ties to, the pool has hosted algal blooms that have turned the water green, rather than the “American flag blue” that Trump wanted.
The pool was pumped dry on Monday “in order to fix the scars and damage that was done by the Vandals two weeks ago,” Trump posted on Truth Social later that evening. He has claimed that people purposely damaged the “American flag blue” coating he ordered for the basin.
He has variously described the gashes as being 250 feet and 350 feet long, but now, in his wildest assessment yet, Trump claimed that “vandals” created a “300 yards long” tear in the lining. That’s 900 feet.
“The slashes were 300 yards long, and the floor of the pool was cut and then pulled upward, with great force, by these thugs,” he claimed, adding that “these Country hating sleazebags should pay a big price for the damage done.”
In June, during a signing ceremony for an Executive Order on Quantum Technology, Trump mixed a few different claims. “You know, we have 100 and--we have a--I think 290, 300 foot slit right through it,” he claimed.
In a follow-up Truth Social post, he was equally confusing. “The 350 foot gash, made by a very sharp knife or razors, is actually numerous slashes over a very long 350 foot length,” he explained.
The problem is that there is no visible evidence of such a large gash in the lining, even though the basin has been laid bare for all to see. Indeed, CNN went down to the D.C. memorial on Monday and failed to find any evidence of the large mark Trump has complained about.
Pictures of the mostly empty pool also provide little indication that there is any mark whatsoever, let alone a “300 yards long” tear.
In a more unhinged follow-up to his first post, Trump attacked a critic of his claims and even said that “vandals” caused the algae blooms.
“ABC Fake News and its shaky anchor, David Muir, said that the Reflecting Pool was drained to address Peeling Paint (there is no paint, it was slashed with a knife, or box cutter, high grade colored waterproofing liner - it was VANDALISM!) and Algae Blooms (also caused by Vandals, but removed long ago!). In other words, the story was FAKE NEWS, but heavily slanted away from the real cause of the problem, Vandalism. It will be fixed soon, and better than ever,” he ranted.
Algal blooms occur when heat and sunlight mix with an overload of nutrients in the water. Trump has maintained that bad actors poured a substance into the pool to create the buildup.
Authorities have charged at least three people with destruction of property after they allegedly removed pieces of blue paint from the pool, and all have pleaded not guilty. Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn entered the same plea last week after being indicted on the same charge.
In a July 5 appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum insisted the government could “absolutely” prove vandals were responsible, saying photographs support the allegation.
The Daily Beast has asked the White House to provide evidence of the alleged damage.
