Reflecting Pool saga becomes unwelcome distraction for Trump

Administration Reflecting Pool saga becomes unwelcome distraction for Trump Comments: by Mallory Wilson and Julia Manchester - 06/23/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Mallory Wilson and Julia Manchester - 06/23/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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The growing list of issues surrounding the renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is creating an unwelcome distraction for President Trump as he seeks to complete beautification projects in Washington ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary next month.

Clumps of algae appeared on the floor of the pool within days of the iconic landmark being repainted “American flag blue,” leading to crews pouring in hydrogen peroxide and using special nanobubbler technology at the direction of the Interior Department. Shortly after that, photos emerged showing the paint job peeling off and rising to the surface of the pool.

Trump has deflected blame for the maintenance issues on vandalism, saying multiple arrests have already been made. The developments, however, are tarnishing Trump’s beautification push, which he has prioritized ahead of America’s birthday.

The president doubled down on the claims in the Oval Office on Monday, speculating that a vandal could have sliced the coating in the pool with a box cutter.

“We have a, I think 290-, 300-foot slit right through it. Probably a box cutter or knife of some kind,” Trump told reporters.

He also speculated that fertilizer was poured into the pool to cause algae to grow.

“If you put fertilizer in the water, you get algae,” Trump said. “But somebody said they might have put fertilizer. They did something to create the algae.”

When pressed on whether he had evidence of the vandalism, Trump referred reporters to the National Park Service.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro warned over the weekend that her office would prosecute anyone caught vandalizing the pool, and the Interior Department announced Monday that five people have been arrested for vandalism and five others were issued federal citations.

The arrests included former U.S. Olympic canoe racer David Hearn, who said he was detained by National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police for five hours. Hearn told The Associated Press he touched a piece of the peeling paint that was still attached to the side of the pool and stopped when he was told to by a park worker.

Republicans have dismissed the press coverage as overblown, saying it has no impact outside of the capital region.

“It’s an absurd media-manufactured crisis that only people in the Beltway care about, and it will have absolutely zero bearing on the midterm elections,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist.

“We’ve got a war possibly winding down here, you’ve got the administration uncovering fraud left and right, and we’re talking about this?”

While Trump addressed the U.S. negotiations with Iran in interviews and on Truth Social over the weekend, he also spent a lot of time posting about the Reflecting Pool.

“Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool,” he wrote in a post on Monday.

Trump has also publicly prioritized renovations across Washington. The projects include the restoration of the fountains at Meridian Hill Park and at Columbus Circle outside of Union Station. The fountains’ restoration has been met with praise from many residents in the left-leaning city.

“He has an uncanny ability to step on his own messaging,” said Meghan Hays, a Democratic strategist and former special assistant to then-President Biden.

Hays argued that cost alone could turn off voters ahead of November’s midterm elections, which are set to center on the issue of affordability.

“This is one of those things that will impact the midterms because people see their gas prices really high or they can’t afford groceries or they can’t afford their health care, and then all of the sudden you look around, and it’s like $14 million to fix this, and then it did not work,” she said.

The cost of contract work for the Reflecting Pool was originally slated at $1.5 million but now is set to cost nearly $15 million. The project caught flak after a no-bid contract was awarded to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia firm that has done work on pools at Trump’s golf club in Sterling.

Former President Obama’s administration saw the last set of renovations for the reflecting pool, which ended in 2012 and cost $34 million. The cost was included in an economic stimulus package.

Trump said Saturday that the pool is “probably” going to be drained for the repairs and that they have already met with contractors who will have the repairs done “as quickly as possible.”

In his social media posts about the vandalism, he also referenced an apparent etching of “86 47” in the National Mall’s grass. “86” is slang for getting rid of something, and Trump is the 47th president. Many allies have taken the combination as a threat to the president.

An administration official told The Hill the administration is “working to assess the extent of the damaged areas and will make the repairs as quickly as possible.”

Green algae were quick to make a comeback after the renovations were finished, turning the hand-picked blue color green.

Last week, the Interior Department said nanobubbler technology was being used to kill the algae, an issue that has “plagued every Lincoln Reflecting Pool reopening — most infamously Obama’s reopening — since 1922.”

“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool—just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” it said.

A department spokesperson said the hydrogen peroxide it is using in the pool has “no harmful side effects to marine life or to the environment.”

But a picture of a dead duckling floating in the pool started circulating on social media. Its cause of death is unclear, but many tied it to the reflecting pool.