WASHINGTON — The paint is peeling from Washington’s Reflecting Pool after the renovation ordered by President Donald Trump, and he is now alleging that someone damaged it intentionally.
“We’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool,” he posted on his social media site Friday night. “Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the Pool, they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed.” He offered no details to substantiate his claim.
Trump administration uses hydrogen peroxide and tiny bubbles against algae in Reflecting Pool
Agencies responsible for law enforcement and upkeep on the National Mall — the U.S. Park Police, National Park Service and Interior Department — did not respond to requests for comment. But David Hearn, a 67-year-old Bethesda, Maryland, man who stopped by the pool while on a 64-mile bike ride, said authorities arrested him and held him for five hours on Friday after he reached down into the pool.
Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer who owned a company that provided materials to build watercraft, said it was scientific interest that drew him to the pool. He told The Associated Press he wanted to examine the peeling new coating on the bottom of the pool that Trump had ordered installed.
He said he briefly touched a chunk that was still attached to the side of the pool, then let go shortly after a park worker told him to. But, Hearn said, he was then detained by National Guard troops and Park Police.
“I’m a curious citizen,” Hearn said in a telephone interview. “I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery.”
The Washington Post first reported on Hearn’s arrest, and he said he has a date to appear in court next month and is looking for legal help.
Even if someone pulled ribbons of paint from the side of the pool, it would not explain the clouds of algae in green water and swaths of loose blue paint detached from the bottom.
Trump insisted something nefarious has been going on at the scene. “No different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work,” he posted on Truth Social.
That was a reference to the discovery of large numbers etched in discolored grass on the National Mall the week before: “86 47.” Authorities said the numbers could have been meant as a threat to Trump, the 47th president. The number 86 can be slang for “getting rid of.” They are investigating.
Trumps claims came after days of negative attention to the state of the pool, which he made a point of rehabbing to the tune of more than $14 million for the coming America 250 celebrations. The pool was swiftly beset by an algae bloom that returned its waters to the greenish color that Trump had tried to replace by having the bottom painted “American flag blue.”
Federal workers treated the pool with chemicals to kill the algae. Now chunks of the blue paint are gone, exposing its rocky bottom.
