Interior Secretary Doug Burgum spoke with podcast host Katie Miller, wife of President Donald Trump advisor Stephen Miller, about how vandalism of the National Mall’s Reflecting Pool goes back to early June.Burgum, who clashed with CNN's Dana Bash about the issue on Sunday, discussed the topic on "The Katie Miller Podcast," released Tuesday."So, I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist, so I'm going to ask this question," Miller began."There's a lot of cameras on the pool.
There's lot of National Guard.How did somebody cut it and us not know who cut it?""We had very few or no cameras at the beginning, because we have cameras all over our monuments," Burgum replied.
"The reflecting pool is part of the Lincoln Memorial, but there had never been vandalism on this helpless, harmless reflecting pool before."TRUMP SHARES NEWS OF 'CRYSTAL CLEAR' REFLECTING POOL, CALLS FOR VANDALISM SUSPECT'S ARRESTInterior Secretary Doug Burgum spoke to Katie Miller on her podcast about vandalism of the reflecting pool.(Katie Miller Pod YouTube channel)"Until President Trump decided to beautify it," Miller noted."Yeah, until he decided to beautify it," Burgum agreed.
"And then others decided it was a point of attack."However, he noted how the White House has cracked down on such activity."But we got mobile camera stations and towers in, that captured some of the secondary activity.But we did have some vandalism starting as early as June 9th, which we didn't advertise because we didn't want to have copycats," he revealed.
"But we started putting up cameras, we've got better camera coverage today."Miller's full interview with Burgum will be released at 6 p.m.ET.FORMER US OLYMPIAN DAVID HEARN INDICTED IN ALLEGED REFLECTING POOL VANDALISMWorkers continue applying a blue protective coating to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington on May 30, 2026.
(Jose Luis Magana/AP)Amid criticism of Trump's renovations around Washington, D.C., in the lead-up to America's 250th celebration, vanda...