Washington [US], August 2 : US President Donald Trump stated on Saturday that he disagrees with findings by his own Department of Justice attributing the peeling lining of the newly refurbished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, to faulty installation rather than acts of vandalism.
"I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool," Trump posted on Truth Social.
"I don't know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM," he added.
The President's public pushback came a day after the Department of Justice conceded in a legal submission that the USD 14 million refurbishment of the landmark was "hasty and botched", confirming it was dropping criminal proceedings against former US Olympic canoeist David Hearn, CNN reported. Hearn had previously been accused of vandalising the site.
According to CNN, two other individuals among the three swept up in the administration's broader push against alleged pool vandals have also had misdemeanour charges dropped by federal prosecutors, citing court records and defence counsel.
Despite the prosecutor's filing, Trump argued that the government was minimising the role of deliberate damage. "There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!" Trump wrote on Saturday.
In a subsequent update, Trump attached previously circulated US Park Police footage, claiming it depicted individuals vandalising the pool while maintenance crews removed algae.
"Look for yourselves at the VANDALISM that took place at the Reflecting Pool," he wrote, though the recording leaves it unclear whether the individuals were damaging the structure or merely picking at the pre-existing peeling lining.
Trump ordered the high-priced renovations to the landmark in May, including applying a bright blue coating to the pool bed in time for Independence Day celebrations, as part of a broader series of aesthetic modifications across Washington monuments that drew widespread scrutiny, CNN reported.
However, in an unusually detailed submission addressing the poor workmanship, Pirro's office assigned responsibility directly to other federal entities, including the Department of the Interior (DOI).
"The damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI," prosecutors noted in Hearn's case filing on Friday.
"A recent visual inspection showed damage throughout the Reflecting Pool, even in the middle of the pool, where a vandal would not likely attempt to peel the lining," the filing stated. "Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt."
Without presenting supporting evidence, Trump has repeatedly alleged that "sick, deranged" criminals ruined the site and asserted they deserved "years in jail."
"The Scum in Court will hopefully be prosecuted to the MAX," Trump posted on July 17, labelling the accused "animals." His descriptions of the destruction escalated from a "250 foot long gash" in June to 300-yard-long "slashes" by July.
However, the chronological sequence detailed by prosecutors directly contradicts the President's claims, CNN reported.
CNN reported that initial records show sections of the blue coating began detaching over a week before Hearn visited the memorial.
On June 11, a National Park Service engineer emailed DOI colleagues highlighting lining separation along the pool's perimeter, the identical zone Hearn was later charged with damaging, according to CNN.
Hearn was taken into custody eight days later, on June 19, and formally indicted on July 2.
CNN reported that federal prosecutors only received documentation from the Department of the Interior outlining major contractor defects weeks after Hearn's indictment.
"Provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case," Pirro's office asserted regarding the Interior Department, adding, "Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment."
Prosecutors further noted receiving "bare-bones police reports from the United States Park Police" and were unable to assess the complete scale of the structural defects until the basin was drained on July 17.
"None of the DOI employees suggested that the poor condition of the Reflecting Pool was largely the result of failures during the process of installing the liner," the filing stated.
Subsequent documentation obtained by prosecutors "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."
Prosecution officials noted the work had been expedited to meet deadlines for events marking the nation's 250th anniversary.
"It was not until after the return of the indictment" that the Interior Department disclosed files "indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026," the court submission read.
Hearn had pleaded not guilty to the felony charge, while local residents and fellow paddlers in Maryland held demonstrations protesting the Department of Justice's prosecution, CNN reported.
Following the dismissal, Hearn's legal team issued a statement reported by CNN: "The Trump administration's case against David Hearn should never have been brought. Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government's approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology."