{"id":584,"date":"2026-06-21T18:41:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T18:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=584"},"modified":"2026-06-21T18:41:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T18:41:49","slug":"trump-without-evidence-blames-disgraceful-vandalism-for-reflecting-pool-do-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=584","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Without Evidence, Blames \u2018Disgraceful Vandalism\u2019 for Reflecting Pool Do-Over"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just a week after the completion of President Donald Trump\u2019s much-hyped $14 million renovation of the iconic Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the water is green and a thin layer of \u201cAmerican flag blue\u201d paint originally meant to augment the color of the feature has begun to peel.<\/p>\n

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But rather than blaming Mother Nature or the contractor who won a no-bid contract for the renovation, Trump has turned his ire on another alleged culprit: vandals.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany additional people have been arrested having to do with the disgraceful Vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool,\u201d Trump posted.<\/p>\n

There is little evidence of wide-scale sabotage that may have led to the pool\u2019s rapid decay. Trump claimed<\/u><\/span> on Truth Social that someone slashed the new paint with \u201csome form of knife or blade\u201d and poured \u201ccorrosive and destructive chemicals\u201d into the water, allegations that local authorities have yet to corroborate.<\/p>\n

Instead, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro\u2019s office has set its sights on people who picked at the peeling paint or even simply documented the situation by camera \u2014 as in the case of David Hearn, a three-time Olympian who stopped by the National Mall following a bike ride on Friday to see the pool for himself and ended up in handcuffs.<\/p>\n

Hearn told The Washington Post in an interview<\/u><\/span> after his arrest that he took several photos of the site and touched a piece of the peeling paint that had floated to the surface, but denied pulling it off or otherwise damaging the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t vandalize anything,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cI didn\u2019t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also accused ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl<\/u><\/span>, who also touched a piece of the peeling paint during a broadcast last week, of \u201ctrying to rip the rubber off of the surface\u201d \u2014 an act that Pirro would not rule out prosecuting during an interview on Fox News\u2019 \u201cThe Sunday Briefing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When asked if she would consider opening a case against Karl, Pirro told host Peter Doocy: \u201cIt depends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who is in a position of vandalizing or attempting to vandalize the Reflecting Pool will face the criminal justice system in D.C.,\u201d she added, while extolling the virtues of \u201cbroken windows\u201d prosecutions that go after even minor offenses.<\/p>\n

National Guard members, who the president ordered into D.C. to help tamp down on crime, were seen patrolling near the Reflecting Pool over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Trump had pushed to renovate the pool in advance of America\u2019s 250th birthday, spending nearly $15 million to drain it, seal the bottom and leave a coating of American flag blue paint that he said would reflect better. Algae, which has been a constant issue in the standing water, returned a week after the pool was filled, leaving National Park Service staff last week to pour bottles of hydrogen peroxide<\/u><\/span> into the water and vacuum up the algae from the bottom.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Despite some small initial success, the efforts appeared to have been for naught: The algae rebounded quickly and the coating began to peel, sparking a series of viral stories and ridicule from Trump\u2019s critics.<\/p>\n

To fix the problems that have arisen, Trump said the federal government would \u201cprobably\u201d be forced to drain the Reflecting Pool again to complete repairs. He said that he had already met with contractors and that he planned to restore the structure to its original state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Reflecting Pool was never so beautiful as it was just one week ago, even going back to 1922 when it opened,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social<\/u><\/span> late Saturday. \u201cWe are very proud of what we have done with this magnificent structure, and we will get it repaired, quickly, to an equal level of Beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The president said he would \u201cprobably\u201d be forced to drain the pool yet again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump-white-house"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump, Without Evidence, Blames \u2018Disgraceful Vandalism\u2019 for Reflecting Pool Do-Over - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=584\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump, Without Evidence, Blames \u2018Disgraceful Vandalism\u2019 for Reflecting Pool Do-Over - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The president said he would \u201cprobably\u201d be forced to drain the pool yet again.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=584\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-21T18:41:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"Trump, Without Evidence, Blames \u2018Disgraceful Vandalism\u2019 for Reflecting Pool Do-Over\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-21T18:41:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584\"},\"wordCount\":688,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/b9524e1d7fc47212cfb954b616513de4-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Trump White House\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584\",\"name\":\"Trump, Without Evidence, Blames \u2018Disgraceful Vandalism\u2019 for Reflecting Pool Do-Over - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/b9524e1d7fc47212cfb954b616513de4-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-21T18:41:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=584#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/b9524e1d7fc47212cfb954b616513de4-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/b9524e1d7fc47212cfb954b616513de4-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"National Guard members walk past a National Park Service employee using a vacuum to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Friday, June 19, 2026, in Washington. 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