President Donald Trump and the Interior Department are facing mounting pressure to produce photographic evidence backing up claims of sabotage at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Trump alleged on his Truth Social platform that vandals cut a “350-foot gash” into the pool’s lining, calling the damage “purposefully and criminally done” and promising the Interior Department would release photos and video to prove the point. As of Wednesday afternoon, no such evidence had materialized, according to The Guardian.
The $14.7 million renovation of the century-old, 2,028-foot pool was conceived as a showcase for the United States’ 250th anniversary celebrations. Trump pledged to transform the landmark before the semiquincentennial, draining it and coating the bottom with a color he personally selected and called “American flag blue.” He declared the project complete on June 6. But a vivid green algae bloom soon clouded the water, obscuring the new blue lining, and pieces of the coating were observed peeling away. A section of liner roughly four square feet in area was seen partially floating on June 19, according to the report.
The New York Times reported it obtained government documents that gave no indication the peeling paint and algae blooms were caused intentionally, casting further doubt on Trump’s allegations.
Dead birds have also been found. A dead duckling was found floating in the pool on June 21, and the bodies of two more birds — a juvenile and an adult — were recovered from a pond about 250 feet away. The Center for Biological Diversity called on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to launch an immediate investigation and enforce the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. “Wasting taxpayer money turning the reflecting pool into a giant duck death trap just in time for America’s 250th birthday party is as Trump as it gets,” said Tara Zuardo, a senior campaigner at the Center. “Cruel, stupid and selfish.”
Workers have been attempting to combat the algae by pouring hydrogen peroxide into the pool — a chemical that can itself act as a paint remover, experts told The Guardian. The Interior Department said it is using “high-tech nanobubble ozone technology” to cut off the algae’s food supply. Observers noted that the dark blue lining is likely absorbing more sunlight than a lighter surface, raising the water temperature and creating conditions in which algae thrive.
Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia-based company that performed the renovation under a no-bid contract Trump said was based on previous work at one of his golf clubs, said the affected areas represented “a very small part of the massive seven-acre project” and did not indicate a failure of the liner. The company said it expected to carry out repairs under warranty once the pool is drained again.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, sent a letter Wednesday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and National Park Service acting director Jessica Bowron requesting documents related to the project, which he said has been “marked by blatant corruption, a shocking lack of transparency, disregard for legal requirements, and apparent incompetence.” “The American people deserve to know how this occurred and what other issues plague the work NPS is currently undertaking in our nation’s capital,” Blumenthal wrote.
Security has been stepped up around the pool since the weekend, when Trump first insisted vandals were to blame. National Guard members and park police have been patrolling the deck. Fencing was being erected around the site Tuesday evening. An Interior Department spokesperson, Katie Martin, told the Associated Press that the fencing “was always set to be installed ahead of the Fourth of July” but that it had been brought forward due to what she described as an “increase in vandalism by leftist activists” — a claim for which she offered no evidence.
Trump has repeatedly threatened severe consequences for anyone found to have harmed the pool. “Please remember that there is a 10-year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things — which will be fully enforced!” he wrote in one Truth Social post. He asserted that six people had been arrested for allegedly damaging the pool, but only one arrest has been confirmed: David Hearn, 67, a former Olympic canoe racer from Bethesda, Maryland. Hearn said he reached into the pool merely to examine the peeling coating and was detained by National Guard troops and park police for five hours.
DC Water has issued a permit for the pool to be drained. Trump confirmed that “some of the water” would be removed “either immediately before or after the Fourth of July, to do the permanent repair,” though the scale, scope, and cost of those repairs remain unclear. Paul Strauss, the senior U.S. shadow senator for the District of Columbia, told The Guardian: “This was a botched job from the beginning. This is what happens when instead of going through the proper government contracting process you get your buddies from down the street at Mar-a-Lago to do a job quickly.”