President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that vandals slashed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s new lining and poured corrosive chemicals into the water, claiming multiple arrests. As of this weekend, authorities had not publicly confirmed arrests tied to the alleged sabotage, while experts and reporting have attributed the pool’s green water to an algae bloom.
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social late Saturday that the United States Park Police had made “multiple arrests” after what he described as vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In the post, Trump alleged that someone used a “knife or blade” to cut what he called a roughly 250-foot gash in the pool’s newly installed lining and that “corrosive and destructive chemicals” were poured into the water. He said the damage would require repairs and suggested the pool could need to be drained again.
Public confirmation of the alleged arrests and the specific damage described by Trump was not immediately available. The Associated Press reported that Trump did not provide evidence for his claims and that agencies had not publicly substantiated them at the time of its report.
Separately, a man identified in recent coverage as David Carter (or “Davey”) Hearn, a Maryland resident and former Olympic canoeist, was arrested Friday and charged in connection with alleged destruction of government property near the Reflecting Pool, according to ABC News reporting. Hearn has publicly denied wrongdoing.
The episode comes as the Reflecting Pool has faced a highly visible algae bloom after a recent renovation. Reuters and other outlets have reported that crews used treatments including hydrogen peroxide and other measures to address algae in the water—an issue specialists have said can occur naturally in warm, shallow, relatively still water and is not, by itself, proof of vandalism.
