On June 27, 2026 I posted an article on HWR entitled "Donald Trump Claims the National Mall Reflecting Pool was Vandalized."
On July 2, 2026, a federal grand jury returned a felony indictment against Olympian David Hearn for allegedly damaging the reflecting pool liner and sealant. The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.
On July 31, 2026, the DOJ dropped its lawsuit, admitting that vandalism was not the cause of the reflecting pool damage.
According to the official DOJ motion to dismiss, the lawsuit was dropped because a) at the outset of the case, the DOI (Department of the Interior) provided "less than fulsome information" to the DOJ, and b) later information disclosed by the DOI strongly suggests that a "rushed and botched installation" by Atlantic Industrial Coating (the primary contractor) led to the damage to the reflecting pool lining.
Here's the detailed explanation from the dismissal (bold added for emphasis):
Specifically, the newly released documents reveal that work on installing the lining almost immediately fell behind, due to a combination of very rainy and windy weather, repeated failures of testing on the sealing of the expansion joints, and delays in obtaining sealing product at the worksite. The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed.
‘Almost immediately after work was initially completed, peeling was observed along the pool perimeter. The NPS engineer's June 11, 2026, email stated that the cause of the damage was contractor error via "overspray"; that the peeled lining would not float; and that the peeling would"not impact the strength of the liner." The engineer's report also suggests that removing the liner at the perimeter would have had no negative impact on the economic value of the liner. Moreover, the July 20, 2026, inspection by contractors confirmed that overspray and delamination had ‘occurred, again pointing to contractor error. Finally, 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. 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.
Source:
(July 31, 2026)"UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. DAVID HEARN". documentcloud.org. Retrieved 2026-08-02.
On July 31, 2026, Donald Trump posted the following on Truth Social:
I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don't know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS! President DJT
On August 1, 2026, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum posted the following on X:
The evidence is clear, vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool. Some of these acts were even caught on camera. We also provided the U.S. Attorney's office expert and eyewitness testimony to the damage done by vandals and provided every piece of evidence they asked for in the requested time line detailing each area of damage at the pool.
The Reflecting Pool is part of the Lincoln Memorial and dates back to 1922.
@POTUS cares deeply about protecting our sacred national monuments and his leadership has led the restoration of our Nation's Capital by Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful Again.
Intentional damage done to the Reflecting Pool is no different than defacing any one of our other national monuments.
We won't back down to deranged people who want to destroy, deface, or degrade our monuments.
Aug 3, 2026 Update
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said
The judge was extremely unfriendly to Jeanine, and frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after and went after her department. And I guess she choked. I don't know what the hell happened.
Trump also said that Pirro "folded like an umbrella."
Commentary:
Before I get to Trump's response, let's dissect what Burgum posted on X.
Burgum's own DOI is the government entity that provided the additional information to the DOJ about the damage to the reflecting pool, putting the blame for the damage squarely on the contractor. Still, Burgum insists that vandals have damaged the reflecting pool. Burgum, like Trump, is ignoring the facts and denying objective reality.
Burgum decries "deranged people" in his post, but the real deranged person here is Burgum, NOT the imaginary, made-up vandals.
Burgum's response on X is nothing more than his attempt to suck up to what Trump posted on Truth Social.
Burgum goes on to say that the DOI provided the DOJ everything they asked for "in the requested time line detailing each area of damage at the pool." The lawsuit dismissal states "Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment." Obviously, this is an attempt by Burgum to wash his own DOI of any blame for the "over-zealous" indictment by Pirro and the DOJ. This kind of finger-pointing is exactly the kind of thing we've come to expect from the Trump administration.
Read some of the things Burgum and Pirro said previously about the alleged vandalism in a CNN article entitled "Trump's Reflecting Pool debacle takes a predictably scandalous turn".
Regarding Trump's response, if he wasn't president and he didn't wield so much power it would be beyond laughable.
As always, Trump double's down, completely ignoring the new facts about the reflecting pool damage.
On June 19 through June 24, Trump repeatedly claimed that vandals cut a 250-350 foot gash in the pool liner. Now, confronted by objective reality, Trump goes into "damage control" mode, trying desperately to provide some kind of cover for his false statements back in June.
What's even worse is that Trump posts a photo of the vandalism done to the grass, an attempt to deflect from the lawsuit dismissal which was only about damage done to the reflecting pool, not the grass, and to gaslight anyone stupid enough to believe him. It's almost like Trump is trying say that if the grass was vandalized, then the reflecting pool must also have been vandalized — yet another example of Trump's warped and deluded thinking.
NO, THE "MAJOR DAMAGE" WASN'T CAUSED BY VANDALS, IT WAS CAUSED BY THE CONTRACTOR THAT TRUMP CHOSE TO DO THE WORK.
THAT is objective reality, like it or not.
Regarding what Trump said on August 3, all I can do is shake my head in disbelief at the ever-escalating string of B.S. that comes out of the mouth of the most egregious and dangerous con-man in the history of U.S. politics.
Zooming out to take a bird's eye perspective, this entire reflecting pool debacle shows us all, yet again, the true intent and nature of Trump and his sycophant-laden administration.
These people are "hell-bent" on trashing, vilifying, and demeaning liberals, at all costs. They jump to conclusions, they jump at any chance to attack liberals, they attack each other, they grossly exaggerate, they gaslight, they lie, they have the most disgusting superior, self-righteous attitude, and they boast all the time about their supposed accomplishments, but worst of all they ignore and deny objective reality.
And that's the reason our democracy is in peril.