Donald Trump is no stranger to playing the blame game. But in his latest efforts to deflect responsibility for the growing debacle around his renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in the heart of Washington DC, the US President is taking things to another level.
Trump now maintains that “vandals” are responsible for multiple problems that have turned his obsessive refurbishment of the pool into a national embarrassment, just a fortnight before it’s due to serve as a centrepiece of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
In a Truth Social post on Saturday evening, Trump said that United States Park Police had “arrested multiple individuals” for vandalising the pool, which Trump’s administration controversially spent $14.2m trying to repair and paint “American flag blue”.
“These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of national monuments. Years in jail!” Trump said.
The pool has been plagued with green algae for decades, but Trump promised to solve what his predecessors couldn’t, giving a $14.2m no-bid contract to a company who had never been given a federal contract before but that had performed work at one of Trump golf clubs.
The project was finished earlier this month, but the algae has already returned, and over the past week chunks of the recently laid flooring have already begun peeling off and floating to the surface.
It is a very visible embarrassment for the President, and many Americans have taken a trip to the site in recent days to look for themselves.
Now, it seems, members of the US Park Police have become the latest agents of Trump’s strong-arm approach. On Friday, they arrested David Hearn, a three-time American Olympic canoeist who said he was questioned for four hours.
A piece of the new blue paint peels off from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool (Photo: Christine Kao/The Washington Post via Getty)Hearn said that on a visit to see what all the fuss was about, he reached his hand into the water to try to grab hold of one of the pieces. The 67-year-old claims not to have torn off or removed anything.
For his part, Trump claimed that “many additional people have been arrested” and that they would soon be charged with the “disgraceful vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool”.
He also claimed his renovations had “worked perfectly” and accused the “vandals” of engaging in “an affront to both presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln”.
Up to 10,000 gallons of hydrogen peroxide are being poured in to try to treat the green algae, but Trump also claimed on Saturday that “corrosive and destructive chemicals” were being added into the pool by hooligans.
The pool renovation has been one of the more controversial parts of the President’s rapid attempt to reimagine the US capital since returning to the Oval Office, which also includes his $400m White House ballroom, as well as the giant 250-foot-tall “Arc de Trump” across the Potomac River.
Algae in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as clean-up efforts continue and where blue paint has peeled from the bottom (Photo: Ken Cedeno/AFP via Getty)During multiple briefings with White House reporters in recent months, Trump has spoken with almost evangelical zeal about the project, at one point interrupting an event to talk for almost 15 minutes about its proposed benefits.
But now, far from exhibiting the blue finish that the President promised, the pool is a vibrant green, with little chance of it being remediated in time for America’s birthday bash.
Trump has spent $14.2m of US taxpayer money (and counting) on the renovations and boasted of bringing a trusted contractor to Washington to consult on the pool’s future.
Trump said he had personally chosen both the colour and the material of the flooring and that the contractor had “talked me into it very easily”.
Over the weekend, the contractor’s identity was revealed. John J Cafaro owns the ironically named Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio, and is a Trump donor and a neighbour of the President’s Mar-A-Lago estate. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired to bribe an Ohio congressman.
Now, Trump is clearly looking for who to blame as more and more negative stories about the pool circulate. He has accused some unnamed people of using a knife or blade to “put a 250-foot long gash into the beautiful facade” and said that authorities will “probably be forced to release and drain much of the water in order to do the necessary repairs”.
Workers clean algae from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The President has spent $14.2m of US taxpayer money on the pool’s renovations (Photo: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty)Tellingly, he made no pledge to have the work done in time for the 4 July Independence Day celebrations.
The reflecting pool has become a vivid symbol of the problems besetting the President’s second term; it has turned into an expensive embarrassment and a political nightmare that he can’t seem to escape from.
Yet, as Trump points the finger at others, including a retired Olympian, threatening them with years in jail, it’s clear that he is flailing and trying to put the blame on everyone but himself for the murky waters surrounding his administration.
Hence then, the article about trump wants to throw algae pool vandals in jail he s desperate was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Trump wants to throw algae pool ‘vandals’ in jail. He’s desperate )
Also on site :
- NYT ‘Connections’ Hints, Clues and Answers Today, Sunday, June 21, 2026
- Starmer could step down as early as Monday – Telegraph
- A Glamorous Swiss Resort Hosts Officials for U.S.-Iran Talks