Trump Administration Was Warned About ‘Vulnerable’ Reflecting Pool Surface Weeks Before President Blamed ‘Vandals’

A National Park Service employee warned the Trump administration about potential peeling in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool just weeks before the president accused ‘vandals’ of damaging it. An engineer for the Park Service alerted the Interior Department and Park Service personnel to the peeling issue in a June email, new court filings state.

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A National Park Service employee warned the Trump administration about potential peeling in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool just weeks before the president accused “vandals” of damaging it

An engineer for the Park Service alerted the Interior Department and Park Service personnel to the peeling issue in a June email, new court filings state

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was previously arrested on suspicion of vandalizing the pool, but charges against him were dismissed on July 31

A National Park Service employee warned the Trump administration about potential peeling in the newly resurfaced Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in early June — just weeks before the president accused “vandals,” including former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, of damaging the monument.

According to court documents obtained by NBC News and published on Wednesday, Aug. 19, an engineer for the Park Service alerted the Interior Department and park service personnel to the peeling issue in an email sent June 11.

Prosecutors said in the court filing, which included a copy of the email, that they were “not aware of or in possession of” documentation that the Interior Department had regarding installation problems when they initially charged former Olympian Hearn.

The engineer told Trump officials that the “top layer of liner has peeled,” adding that it is “very thin and will not impact the strength of the liner,” per NBC.

The person wrote in the email that the “contractor stated that the peeled area was ‘overspray’ from spraying the perimeter joint with polyurea,” according to the Justice Department. The engineer then warned the administration that the issue could “lead to a 1’-2’ strip that is vulnerable to peeling.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence wrote in the filing that the engineer’s comments “cast significant doubt that the defendant [Hearn] caused damage to the lining.”

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“This information — that the piece of liner peeled by the defendant was overspray, of little or no value — was first furnished to the prosecutors weeks after the grand jury indicted the defendant,” Spence continued per NBC, arguing that the “late provided documents showing blistering and peeling, as noted by the contractors, would sabotage the government’s ability to meet its burden of proof.”

The 67-year-old former athlete was arrested on June 19 and indicted on one charge of destruction of property of $1,000 or more on July 2.

The athlete had stopped to look at the newly renovated pool during a 52-mile bike ride, according to The Washington Post. Hearn reached into the water to see what a detached piece of liner felt like, and moments later, he was being arrested, he told the Post.

He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment a week later, on July 9, and by July 31, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro filed a motion to dismiss charges against Hearn.

The motion claims that the sealant began to peel “almost immediately” after the work was completed. The quick peeling was attributed to a “rushed and botched installation by AIC [Atlantic Industrial Coatings].”

In the filing, the company was accused of “overspraying and a failure of the coatings to bond” while attempting to finish the job before “the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”

“The Trump administration’s case against David Hearn should never have been brought,” Hearn’s attorneys, Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann and Steve Levin, said in a statement on Friday.

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Trump has spent months touting the renovations to the Reflecting Pool, including the installation of an “American Flag Blue” liner and changes he said would beautify the pool and prevent algae growth, boasting of success and criticizing other presidential administrations for allegedly letting it fall into disrepair.

But after the $14 million project was completed earlier this summer, algae immediately returned to the pool and the liner began to fall apart.

Despite the warnings from the Park Service employee, President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed “vandals” for the peeling, alleging that people had used knives and fertilizer to damage the reflecting pool.

“We caught some people vandalizing our beautiful reflecting pool. We have the reflecting pool,” Trump, 80, told a gathering of American farmers at the White House’s remodeled Rose Garden on June 25. “They took a cutter, a box cutter or something very sharp. Can you imagine? Where did these people come up with this? And, they threw a little fertilizer in the water, which is not good.”

On Aug. 16, the president also accused vandals of damaging grass on the National Mall.

“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” wrote Trump.

“Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!” he finished, before signing off with his name.

The grass pictured in the post was the site of the Great American State Fair, a two-week-long Freedom 250 event marking 250 years of U.S. independence, and the Freedom 250 Salute to America event on the Fourth of July.

Politics