President Donald Trump on Aug. 9 said that while there was “some contractor error” during renovation at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the damage was “relatively inconsequential” compared with that caused by vandalism.
In a Truth Social post, Trump continued to accuse former U.S. Olympian David Hearn of vandalizing the pool despite prosecutors having dropped charges against him.
He cited the testimony provided to the U.S. Attorney’s Office last month by a National Park Service (NPS) employee who claimed to have witnessed Hearn “violently ripping” the pool’s coating.
Trump also posted a screenshot of a court document detailing authorities’ interviews with two NPS employees who were cleaning the pool when Hearn came to the site.
According to the document, one employee, identified only as W-1, said they saw Hearn use his cellphone to take photos or video of what they believed was damage to the reflecting pool.
W-1 alleged that Hearn then knelt down, placed both hands below the water’s surface, and began to “violently rip and tug at a large portion of the blue pool coating.”
W-1 then asked the second NPS employee to call the police and told Hearn to stop touching the pool coating. Hearn allegedly responded that the NPS personnel were “awfully sensitive about the pool” and continued to tug at the coating until National Guard soldiers arrived at the scene, according to the document.
Trump said the NPS worker is “a highly credible witness” in the case, while also citing other vandalism at the site, alleging that “an acid-like material” was used to write “86 47” on newly installed grass adjoining the pool. He said the phrase was likely inspired by former FBI director James Comey.
Comey was indicted in April over a May 2025 post showing seashells arranged to spell “86 47,” which prosecutors described as a deliberate threat against the president of the United States.
“There was substantial other damage to the Reflecting Pool, also, but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage itself,” Trump wrote, noting that security cameras had been installed at the site.
“We are working on the Pool, and it will reopen shortly. As with many jobs, there was also some contractor error done by rushing the job for a July 4th opening, but it was a very small area of this massive Pool, and was relatively inconsequential.”
According to the filings, the work was done with flaws in “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”
“Now that people are able to see it up close, they are reporting pure VANDALISM,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “People were on their knees with their hands in the water at the exact location of the ‘slashes.’”
