President Donald Trump says arrests were made after damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and that repairs will restart after Independence Day. The pool’s $16 million renovation—ordered by Trump and reopened the week of June 8—was followed by algae tu
For weeks. the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool sat between two symbols of national memory—until maintenance problems and vandalism allegations made the site feel suddenly fragile. On June 26. President Donald Trump said the damage would be addressed again after Independence Day. with repairs planned to resume ahead of July 4.
Trump made the case while pointing to arrests he said were connected to the Reflecting Pool damage. “These people are sick. They ripped a scar 350 feet long through the side of the reflecting pool. These are the people we’re dealing with. ” Trump said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual “Road to Majority” event at the Washington Hilton on June 26. He added, “We’ll fix it right after the 4th of July. Kinda let the water out, just fix it.”.
The Reflecting Pool sits between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Its latest troubles trace back to a renovation Trump ordered: a $16 million makeover that began in April and reopened during the week of June 8.
When Trump announced the project in April, he called the pool “filthy” and said it was “leaking like a sieve.” The repairs included painting the bottom of the pool with a color the president picked himself: “American flag blue.”
But just days after the reopening, the pool turned green after an aggressive algae invasion. Soon after, peeling blue paint from the bottom rose to the surface.
To fight the algae, the National Park Service began pouring gallons of hydrogen peroxide to clear it.
Trump has blamed vandalism for the paint damage and the algae. On June 22, he said someone had put fertilizer in the water to create algae. He also said vandals had “very violently” cut a “350-foot slit from one end to the other” in the pool, causing the paint to peel.
That vandalism claim has now been backed by the National Park Service in a court filing tied to the project’s challenges. In a May lawsuit filed by the Cultural Landscape Foundation against the Department of the Interior to stop the project. the NPS deputy director of operations. Frank Lands. described the damage in court documents.
In that filing, Lands said: “On June 9, 2026, after the rehabilitation project was substantially complete, the U.S. Park Police responded to an NPS report of damage to the Reflecting Pool. including a cut in the caulk over the Reflecting Pool’s foam sealant that was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material.” He added: “In addition. approximately 70 fence post tops were thrown into the pool. ” according to Lands.
In the same court record, Lands described the cut as having been made with a “sharp knife.”
Trump’s enforcement message has been equally direct. He said six people have been arrested and seven people have been cited “for the damage they did” in a Truth Social post on June 23. He later returned to the issue at the June 26 event. framing the damage as something that needs fixing immediately after July 4.
The timeline. taken as a whole. is hard to separate: a renovation ordered and publicly defended by Trump—including the “American flag blue” paint—reopened in early June. then quickly faced algae and paint failure. followed by vandalism allegations that describe a 350-foot cut and other physical interference. The response has moved from chemical treatment with hydrogen peroxide to a promised repair restart after Independence Day.
For now, the official plan Trump announced on June 26 is that repairs will resume after Independence Day, with the work scheduled ahead of July 4.
Reflecting Pool Lincoln Memorial National Park Service hydrogen peroxide algae American flag blue Trump repairs July 4 vandalism arrests Cultural Landscape Foundation Department of the Interior Frank Lands