President Trump said Sunday that work would begin immediately to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which turned green with algae and saw its new coat of paint peel just days after workers completed a $16 million renovation project spearheaded by the president.
Trump blamed vandalism for the new issues plaguing the Reflecting Pool, which he had pledged to make “American flag blue” ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
“Work will begin immediately on fixing the seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool,” the president wrote on Truth Social in one of several weekend posts about the pool saga. “I just inspected it, and could only say to myself, and those gathered around me, WOW, who would do such a thing? SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE!”
Trump also alleged that someone “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.” The location of the alleged gash was not immediately clear.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, the president said the gash” was 300 feet, and that “chemicals have been illegally placed in the water.”
“Please remember that there is a 10 year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things — Which will be fully enforced!” he added.
What is the Reflecting Pool, and why does Trump want it cleaned?
A National Park Service worker uses a vacuum pump to clean algae from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 16.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The Reflecting Pool, which was built in the early 1920s, is more than 2,000 feet long and 167 feet wide, and sits between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
Trump’s push to clean the pool was part of his administration’s overall effort to beautify Washington, D.C., in anticipation of the events surrounding America’s 250th anniversary.
The president decried his predecessors for allowing the pool to turn green with algae and ordered that it be lined with “American flag blue” paint so it would better reflect the Washington Monument.
Trump announced the clean-up project in April, saying he was inspired by an unnamed friend visiting from Germany who called the pool “filthy,” “disgusting” and “not representative of the country.”
“As a developer, I’ve probably built more than 100 swimming pools in different buildings I built, and I have some really good pool builders,” Trump said about the project. “They’re great people. I have such great respect for contractors that are good and such disdain for contractors that are bad. They charge you more money and they give you a bad job, but we — we don’t accept it.”
Who cleaned it and what did it cost?
A piece of the new blue paint, is seen peeling from the bottom of the pool on June 18.
(Christine Kao/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The U.S. Department of the Interior awarded a no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia-based company that had worked on the swimming pools at Trump’s golf club in Sterling, Va., to paint the pool, and another to Green Water Solutions, an Ohio-based company, to install a “nanobubble” system to kill algae.
Initially, Trump said the project would cost $1.8 million. Federal records cited by ABC News show the cost had ballooned to more than $16 million.
In April, the pool was drained, and Trump shared photos of workers using paint rollers to coat the concrete bottom with blue paint.
Trump told reporters on June 4 that the new paint would “last 50 to 100 years.”
On June 17, after the pool was refilled, the Interior Department said in a post on X that “advanced nanobubbler technology very effectively killed the algae,” and declared the water is “crystal clear.”
A National Park Service worker dumps hydrogen peroxide into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
(REUTERS / REUTERS)
But within days, the water returned to its familiar green color. Park workers were seen pouring bleach and other chemicals into the pool to try to kill the algae. Then the painted blue lining on the bottom began to peel.
On Saturday, Trump said on Truth Social that contractors would likely have to drain the pool again to repair the bottom.
“What these terrible Vandals have done is a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and should be dealt with accordingly,” the president wrote.
How is this connected to ’86 47′?
The remnants of markings depicting the numbers 8647 near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after recent renovations following a directive from U.S. President Donald Trump to paint it blue ahead of the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 19, 2026.
(Aaron Schwartz/Reuters)
In his Truth Social posts, the president suggested that the alleged vandalism of the Reflecting Pool was connected to grass on the National Mall that was recently altered to read “86 47,” a combination of numbers that officials have said constituted a threat against Trump, the 47th president. According to Merriam-Webster, “86” is a slang term that means “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.” Its use broadened in recent years to include the meaning “to kill.”
Authorities are investigating the matter.
“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,” Trump wrote.
Who was arrested and what were they arrested for?
National Park Service employees use vacuums to remove green algae from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 18.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
On Saturday, Trump announced that multiple individuals had been arrested by the U.S. Park Police for vandalizing the pool.
“These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments,” Trump wrote. “Years in jail!”
The Washington Post reported Sunday that at least five people had been arrested for vandalism and another five people had been issued citations. It’s unclear what exactly the arrests and citations were for.
One person who was arrested over the weekend, David Hearn, a 67-year-old former Olympic canoe racer from Bethesda, Md., told the Associated Press that he was detained by Park Police and National Guard troops for five hours after touching a piece of the peeling paint. He is scheduled to appear in court next month.
Hearn said he had stopped by the pool during a 64-mile bike ride, reached into the pool and touched a chunk still attached to the side.
“I’m a curious citizen,” he said. “I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery.”
