Trump blames arrested ex-Olympian after his $14 million Reflecting Pool paint job fails

A prestige project unravels

For the 250th anniversary of American independence, President Trump made the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool a showcase. The shallow 619-metre basin between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument was drained and repainted a dark ‘American flag blue’ at a cost of at least $14 million (some reports say nearly $15 million). The work was done without competitive bidding by a contractor who previously built a pool at one of Trump’s Virginia golf resorts. When the renovation was unveiled in early June, Trump called it “not an ordinary paint job, but very advanced material that can last 100 years, applied by highly skilled craftsmen.”

Algae and peeling paint appear

Within days, thick algae clouds appeared on the water. While algae blooms are not new at the Reflecting Pool, park staff say the dark colour warms the water faster, accelerating growth. Then, over the past week, the blue coating began peeling away in rubbery strips. National Park Service crews have been using chemicals and equipment to clean the surface, but critics say the rapid deterioration points to inferior materials and a rushed execution.

Trump blames ‘vandals’ for the damage

President Trump took to Truth Social, insisting that the pool had been sabotaged.

“The chemicals they used on the National Mall are similar to those used in the Reflecting Pool to destroy our beautiful work.”

He warned that multiple people had been arrested and that those responsible would face years in prison. Trump provided no evidence linking any specific individuals to chemical attacks, and he later stated the pool would likely have to be partially drained for “necessary repairs.”

An Olympian’s bike ride ends in arrest

One of the people charged is David Carter Hearn, 67, a three-time Olympian and former world champion in canoeing. Hearn told The New York Times he was cycling past the Reflecting Pool on Friday and stopped to look at the failing paint. “I didn’t remove anything. I bent down and felt that 2-millimetre-thick rubbery stuff,” he said.

“I was apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He was detained for hours and now faces a charge of destruction of government property, carrying a maximum penalty of ten years. In his former business, Hearn sold materials for building canoes, and he says his curiosity about the coating was purely professional.

A historic backdrop

Henry Bacon designed the Reflecting Pool over a century ago as a sober mirror for the Lincoln and Washington monuments. It became iconic when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech from its steps in 1963. Now the pool sits at the centre of a blame game over a renovation that, according to multiple reports, never addressed the real problem: miles of decayed underground pipes.