The damage came after Trump's $14.7 million overhaul of the iconic pool on the National Mall between the Lincoln and Washington memorials.Show Caption
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump blamed damage to the Reflecting Pool — algae and peeling paint — on vandals and said five people have been arrested."It’s vandalism," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on June 22. "We have a 290-, 300-foot slit right through it, probably a box-cutter or a knife of some kind.""They cut it very violently," he added.Trump referred questions about the criminal investigation and the proof of intentional damage to the pool to the National Park Service, which manages the National Mall where the pool is located, and its parent organization, the Department of the Interior. Neither agency responded immediately to USA TODAY's request for comment.Members of a DC task force, a group of federal and local law enforcement officials, made five arrests for destruction of government property at the Reflecting Pool from June 17 to June 21, Brady McCarron, a spokesperson for the United States Marshals Service, told USA TODAY."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!" Trump said on social media.The company that renovated the pool, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, said the areas requiring repairs were "a very small part of the massive 7-acre project, and do not indicate a failure of the liner."The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority issued a permit to drain the 2,000-foot-long rectangular pool for repairs."It’s not a lot of damage, but we’ll probably have to let the water out and refix it," Trump said.The Reflecting Pool is one of the projects around DC that Trump has taken a personal interest in. Other projects include a White House ballroom, a Triumphal Arch, and the restoration of fountains around the city.But the no-bid pool project has drawn the spotlight, after Trump announced it would cost $1.8 million and be done in a week. The price has risen to $14.7 million, and the project was marred by algae and damage to the liner.Trump blamed algae, which turned the water green above the pool’s American-flag blue liner, on vandals, too."If you put fertilizer in the water, you get algae," Trump said. "They did something to create the algae. But that doesn’t matter because that’s been purified. It’s dead, laying at the bottom. They’re taking it out. They vacuum it out."Trump complained about a "crazy pro-algae" protester on social media.Contributing: Reuters
