Washington DC [US], June 25 : US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (local time) said that the Washington reflecting pool is in great shape now and six or seven people are being investigated for the vandalisation they caused to it.
Trump, while talking to reporters alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, said that the pool is not leaking, and further repairs will take place after July 4 celebration of American independence.
"The pool? It's in great shape. No ready thugs. They just told me a little while ago six have been arrested and like six or seven are under investigation. They have pictures and everything else. They went to the bottom. And it's not a paint job. It's very expensive. It's not rubber, but it's like rubber. And they went down with probably a box cutter or a very sharp razor of some kind or a knife. And they cut and then they started ripping it up. You know why because they're sick people. And then the side of the pool right at water level they took razors and they started cutting this very expensive stuff. It's incredible stuff. It's beautiful. And it was so and it's still beautiful," he said.
Trump said that he had earlier signed a statute which says that anyone who hurts federal property will be jailed for 10 years.
"But we have one area where they cut it. It's still holding it's not leaking. But they hurt it. So in about probably maybe after July 4th or maybe before I don't know we'll let a little water out because it's at the edge they'll cut it they'll replace it and it'll be as good as new. But these people should go to jail for a long time. You know there's a statute that I signed when I had my first term that if you do anything to hurt statues or monuments, fountains in Washington DC or federal fountain, it's actually federal all over the country. But you go to jail for 10 years and there's no shortcuts," he said.
Trump explained further that the vandal who hurt the pool was a democrat and a supporter of former US President Joe Biden.
"They have a gash on that beautiful pool it's a reflecting pool. This is a very expensive material then on top of it we did that we did that we did a much bigger job than we said we were going to do because we did all the outer areas and everything else. We did a beautiful job. It's like a piece of glass. And for some reason this disturbed the radical left lunatics. You know the guy that one of the guys he's a member or a big payer to ActBlue, he's a big Hillary supporter, he's a big supporter of Sleepy Joe Biden. No these are a very political thing. But as I understand it six are under arrest. This was pure vandalism," he said.
Trump said that he always believed the pool had great potential and even now with temporary patchwork it looks beautiful.
"It's an amazing thing that we did. Don't forget it hasn't worked properly since it was built because it always leaked in 1922. So it was built in 1922. So that's 100 years more than ago. It's never worked properly. I always said it had great potential. We temporarily patched it even though we stopped the leak it's so good that with all that damage they did it's not leaking. And it looks really beautiful. I just had pictures taken. It's reflective it's beautiful like it did a week ago," he said.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which was constructed in 1922, is near the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in the United States capital in 1963, Al Jazeera reported.
The bottom of the pool has been repainted in a colour Trump calls "American flag blue", and on June 6, he announced the renovation work for the project, which cost USD 14.7 million, was complete. But last week, the blue material at the bottom of the pool began peeling off - with parts of it seen floating on top of the water - and the water had turned verdant with algae, as per Al Jazeera.
Since June 16, US National Park Service work crews have been pouring hydrogen peroxide into the pool to combat the algae bloom.
On June 19, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the pool was vandalised by 'radical left lunatics'.