Trump disputes his own Justice Department’s findings on Reflecting Pool

The Justice Department had said flawed installation caused the lining of the pool to peel but Trump insists it is a ‘pure case of vandalism’

US President Donald Trump posted on Saturday that he disagrees with his own Justice Department’s findings that a flawed installation, not vandalism, caused the lining of the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington to peel.

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM.”

In a court filing on Friday, Pirro and Assistant US Attorney Michael Spence asked a judge to drop the Trump administration’s case against David Hearn, 67, a former Olympian it had accused of vandalising the pool, which has become a flashpoint over Trump’s efforts to remake Washington.

The renovated pool had quickly developed blooms of algae that tinted the water green, while pieces of the blue lining had peeled off.

Trump, facing criticism over the US$14.7 million renovation, had repeatedly blamed the problems on vandals he alleged had intentionally sabotaged the project.

In their filing on Friday, federal prosecutors said the latest documents they received from the Department of the Interior “indicated a rushed and flawed installation process, with repeated failures of the lining during the installation process, and extensive peeling of the lining throughout the Reflecting Pool”.