President Donald Trump is disputing his own Department of Justice's claims that damages to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool resulted from a rushed installation process ahead of America's 250th birthday.
"I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro," Trump said in a Truth Social post about his hand-picked U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He added, "I don’t know what she was thinking?" Trump then shared security camera footage of alleged culprits of the damage, calling "VANDALISM." He accused the individuals of using "a knife or a box cutter, for all to see" to remove his newly-installed lining to the monument.
On Friday, July 31, the Department of Justice dropped federal charges against former Olympian David Hearn. The department previously
alleged Hearn was responsible for over $1000 in damages to the federal property. Pirro's office wrote in a new court filing that damages to the monument were actually "the result of flawed installation by the contractor ... and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026."
The renovations to the reflecting pool are just one of Trump's projects in line with his "beautification" plans for the nation's capital. In an early June post, Trump celebrated new dark blue paint on the bottom of the pool and shared plans on "submerging it in CLEAN, BEAUTIFUL WATER." Later that month, reports surfaced that the new lining on the reflecting pool was peeling and algae was growing, and Trump blamed "SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE!" vandalizing the monument. Now, he is sticking to those allegations, despite the Department of Justice filing blaming faulty construction at the reflecting pool.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump breaks with his own DOJ over reflecting pool vandalism
