Nikki McCann Ramirez
View all posts by Nikki McCann Ramirez June 22, 2026
A piece of the new blue paint, a part of Donald Trump's renovation, peels off from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool on June 18, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Christine Kao/The Washington Post/Getty Images Donald Trump has once again threatened to prosecute the supposed “vandals” he’s claiming have turned the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool into an algae-infested mess, with the paint job the government spent millions in taxpayer money to apply already peeling off.
The shoddy, rushed “renovation” carried out through an overpriced no-bid contract is not the problem, nor are the pool’s longstanding filtration issues that experts warned a layer of epoxy would not fix. No, the president has decided that his humiliation lays at the feet of unnamed, invisible operatives sabotaging his latest vanity project.
“Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP!” Trump wrote Monday morning on Truth Social.
“It has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water, and the beautiful new grass field has been destroyed with a gigantic 86 47 chemically carved into it (Probably inspired by Dirty Cop, James Comey!). 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 added.
The president has been insisting for days now that the issues with the pool are the result of a left-wing conspiracy to humiliate him.
On Saturday, he wrote that the pool had “worked perfectly” once it was refilled, “including the mirror like finish, perfectly reflecting the two Great Monuments, which it never had before!” (The Reflecting Pool had, in fact, reflected the monuments for decades.) “What these terrible Vandals have done is a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.”
Trump claimed that along with cutting a supposed gash into the lining, the vandals had poured “corrosive chemicals” into the water. The Reflecting Pool holds approximately 6.5 million gallons of water, and the only individuals seen dumping chemicals into where those hired to supposedly kill off the algae bloom.
Editor’s picks
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
100 Best Movies of the 21st Century
“Work will begin immediately on fixing the seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool. I just inspected it, and could only say to myself, and those gathered around me, WOW, who would do such a thing,” Trump wrote on Sunday. “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE! We will fix it?”
To emphasize the seriousness of his war against algae, the National Guard and a hodgepodge of local and out-of-state law enforcement agencies have been deployed to the Reflecting Pool to arrest anyone who so much as touches the fetid water. Over the weekend, a former Olympic canoeist was arrested and charged with “vandalism” after reportedly touching a strip of the epoxy resin that is sloughing off of the bottom of the pool.
According to CBS News, at least five people have been arrested for allegedly vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. It’s notable that despite an abundance of security cameras and law enforcement regularly stationed around the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool, the administration has yet to produce any actual evidence of a real act of vandalism.
The notion that a supposed saboteur was able to wade into the Reflecting Pool and cut a 300-foot gash (which Trump previously claimed was a 250-foot gash) into the epoxy without being seen by anyone is also improbable. The more likely explanation lies in the application of the sealant, or in the administration’s application of chemicals to the water in order to kill the massive algae bloom possibly weakening the bond between the plastic and the concrete.
