President Trump on Sunday said there was “some contractor error” with the renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool while still accusing a former Olympian canoeist of vandalizing the Washington, D.C., landmark despite charges against the athlete being dropped.
“There was substantial damage to the Reflecting Pool, also but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We are working on the Pool, and it will reopen shortly. As with many jobs, there was also some contractor error done by rushing the job for a July 4th opening, but it was a very small area of this massive Pool, and was relatively inconsequential.”
Trump claimed that a National Park Service “career employee, a highly credible witness,” saw Olympian David Hearn “in broad daylight vandalize the Reflecting Pool by ‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating.” He added that this employee’s testimony was provided to U.S. Attorney of the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.
The president concluded his post by saying that security cameras “have been, and are being, installed.”
The remarks went up on Truth Social the day after Trump posted photos of alleged vandalism amid a push for Pirro to revisit the decision to drop the charges against multiple people also accused of vandalizing the pool.
This other post on Truth Social included two photos of what appeared to be graffiti and some peeling of the coating of the pool. Both photos were labeled with the word “Vandalism.”
Trump is pushing for the Justice Department to backtrack on its move to drop criminal charges against people accused of damaging the site. On Friday, the president pressed for Pirro to revisit “her hastily made decision.”
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman formally dropped the charges against Hearn and will later decide whether prosecutors can try to charge Hearn in the future.
The president last week accused Pirro of having “choked” in response to the decision.
Pieces of “American flag blue” paint floated to the Reflecting Pool’s surface following renovations to the pool leading up to the country’s 250th anniversary. Trump claimed this, and green algae blooms that appeared in the pool’s waters, were perpetuated by vandals.
Pirro’s office blamed the contractor for overspraying and delamination after the charges against Hearn were dropped.
“The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed,” prosecutors wrote.
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