WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Saturday said that multiple people had been arrested in connection with alleged vandalism of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, including an Olympic canoeist, as the administration’s $14 million project to renovate the site has faced multiple setbacks.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.In a pair of posts Saturday on Truth Social, Trump, without evidence, blamed vandals for the damage to the pool and said the alleged crimes could warrant “years in jail.” “Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments,” Trump said in one post.
The 2,030-foot pool, which sits at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, has been beset by an algae bloom as workers refilled it after they gave the floor a new “American flag blue” coat of sealant.That coating has begun to peel off, with chunks appearing above the surface of the water.Trump said that he had met with contractors Saturday and that much of the water might have to be drained to repair the pool’s floor.“What these terrible Vandals have done is a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and should be dealt with accordingly,” Trump said in the second post.“They took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250 foot long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete,” he added.
“They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool.”A tear in the recently applied sealant can be seen on the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Thursday.Chip Somodevilla / Getty ImagesThe renovation has been a pet project of the president and coincides with a broader beautification effort of Washington for the country’s 250th anniversary.Despite efforts to clean the algae, the bloom and peeling coating continue to draw the attention of on...