The president’s estimate of the size of the gash has grown to 350 feet, and he says officials have pictures that the administration has not released.
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President Donald Trump on Monday claimed again that “vandals” had damaged the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool, citing that as a reason to begin new repairs on the controversial project, but he has so far declined to offer evidence.
Trump first made his claim on Saturday: “They took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250 foot long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete,” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Monday, he increased his estimate of the gash to 300 feet in a morning social media post, and then 350 feet in an afternoon exchange with reporters.
“They went in there with the knife,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “Who would think that somebody would go into a pool and take a knife and start cutting it?”
Trump signaled that he plans to drain the reflecting pool to address what he called deliberate damage.
“We’ll probably have to let the water out and refix it,” he said.
A White House official on Monday said U.S. Park Police were investigating the damage.
Trump and White House officials have not provided visual evidence of the gash or of anyone deliberately cutting the bottom of the pool. The president said Monday that officials have “pictures” of the damage and suggested that the administration could make them available to reporters.
“Call the Interior Department,” Trump said.
The Interior Department did not immediately respond to questions about Trump’s claims of deliberate damage to the pool or whether officials would provide visual evidence.
The president’s allegations come amid controversy over the pool’s significant algae growth and peeling paint, following Trump’s rapid renovations to the historic site. The administration spent at least $14 million — far more than Trump’s initial estimate — to renovate the Reflecting Pool and put a dark-blue coating on its surface, which Trump said would preserve the pool for 100 years.
On Monday, as National Guard members and Park Police officers were patrolling the area, finger-shaped streaks in the algae could be seen in some areas near the edges of the pool. The blue paint continued to flake off, and the peeling patches have expanded since Thursday to other areas of the north and south sides of the pool. A reporter who walked the entire perimeter of the pool looking for evidence of a gash could find none.
Several people who have touched the pool or picked up flakes of peeling paint in recent days have been arrested or detained by Park Police officers, who have accused them of deliberately damaging government property. Trump has amplified those accusations.
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The Reflecting Pool site was mostly off limits to the public for six weeks, as teams of contractors worked on Trump’s resurfacing project beginning in late April.
Administration officials two weeks ago declared the project complete and said it was evidence of how Trump’s efforts to remake Washington have been successful.
Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a contractor that worked on the project, did not immediately respond to questions about whether the firm was aware of deliberate damage to the pool.
A long slit in the middle of the pool is now visible from the air, according to photos provided to The Washington Post. That slit has been part of the pool for years; a White House official said that was not the gash Trump was referring to.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation, an education and advocacy organization that sued in May to halt Trump’s work on the project, asked a federal judge on Monday to intercede before the administration undertook further renovations.
“It should go without saying, Congress required agencies to consult with experts and the public before making changes to historic properties for a reason,” the organization wrote in its legal filing.
“The public is now witnessing what happens when, instead, agencies barrel ahead with ill-conceived plans in a hasty manner to meet an arbitrary deadline imposed by the White House.”
Trump last year publicly mused about damage to his renovations of the Rose Garden.
“I happened to notice a huge gash in the limestone that extended more than 25 yards long. It was deep and nasty!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in August, adding that he wondered “was it vandalism or, was it stupidity?”
The president last year said a video quickly revealed that the gash was a result of subcontractors using “a steel cart that was broken and tilting badly, with it rubbing hard against the soft, beautiful stone.”
The president also posted a video of the workers leaving the gash in the Rose Garden.
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“But, how great is the video equipment? We caught them, cold,” Trump wrote.
Miriam Waldvogel contributed to this report.
