Faced with a rapidly unraveling $14 million renovation, President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool will probably require at least a partial draining, as algae overtook the water and the freshly applied blue coating began separating from the basin floor.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump declared that U.S. Park Police had taken multiple people into custody over alleged vandalism, cautioning that those found guilty could face "years in jail," according to NBC News. Without offering any supporting evidence, Trump further alleged on Truth Social that someone had introduced corrosive and destructive chemicals into the pool, according to The Associated Press.
David Hearn, a 67-year-old three-time Olympic canoeist from Bethesda, Maryland, was among those taken into custody; he told NBC News that after stopping at the pool at the end of a bike ride, he spent five hours in detention simply for making contact with a loose piece of the new coating. "I didn't remove, tear, rip, break or destroy any of it," Hearn told NBC News. "The condition of the reflecting pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there." According to CNN, Hearn has been charged with destruction and defacing of government property, with a court date scheduled for July 9.
An accelerated deadline tied to the nation's 250th anniversary celebration on July Fourth pushed costs to nearly seven times the original $1.8 million budget, the administration acknowledged, according to CNN. Algae had begun appearing at the waterline within a single day of the pool being refilled, according to CBS News. In response, crews poured hydrogen peroxide into the pool and installed an ozone filtration system in an attempt to address the bloom; the Interior Department simultaneously declared the water "crystal clear" in a post on social media, according to The New York Times.
Come Friday, the algae had resurged and large sections of the coating had detached from the basin floor, including one bare patch comparable in area to a park bench and a loose sheet of material moving with the current, according to The Times. Trump said Saturday he had met with contractors to discuss the necessary repairs.