President Donald Trump late Friday blamed vandalism for the latest problem with his Reflecting Pool renovation project.
In a post on the Truth Social platform, Trump likened reports of paint peeling in the pool to the plot discovered last week that involved poisoning grass on the National Mall to create a message of Trump’s demise.
He declared that “Law Enforcement is actively investigating this situation, and will hopefully have it resolved soon.”
Trump blames the green reflecting pool on vandals with chemicals:
We’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial. Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the… pic.twitter.com/cw04RsFUn9
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 20, 2026
Trump offered no evidence that malicious actions was involved in the case of the reportedly peeling paint, but made it clear that in the context of the grass graffiti on the National Mall, Reflecting Pool vandalism was a possibility.
“Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the Pool, they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed,” Trump wrote.
“No different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work.”
In the case of the National Mall, the numbers “86” and “47” appeared to have been in the process of being chemically burned into the grass in a manner that could be seen from a great height. The term “86 47” is widely viewed as code for eliminating Trump. (It’s a phrase the Secret Service does not regard fondly.)
It now appears that the marking are in the shape of 8647. https://t.co/YjxFfvABWo https://t.co/ScvE8MuXAJ
— Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) June 11, 2026
He also claimed that Jonathan Karl, ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent, had been “seen sticking his hand into the Pool, and trying to rip the rubber off of the surface.”
That was likely a reference to a report Karl did Thursday in which he reached into the water and pulled what he intimated was a sheet of paint that had floated from the bottom.
Paint isn’t the only problem with the reflecting pool renovation.
The largely stagnant water is also a host to algae — a problem that long predates the Trump presidency and the Reflecting Pool renovation he launched to clean up the pool for the country’s 250th birthday celebrations.
Trump’s Truth Social post alluded to that as well, predicting that was a problem which is on its way to being resolved.
“The algae is 75% gone, and the condition will soon be completely remedied, and the area that was vandalized, fortunately, is just a small area of damage, and will be fixed early next week,” he wrote.
But those are by no means the most pressing problems the country faces, he noted.
“It’s a shame that the Radical Left Lunatics, most likely Dumocats, who have spent their lives trying to ruin our Country, are free to do so,” Trump wrote.
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