President Donald Trump pointed the finger at those who wrecked one of his Washington renovation projects.
Something went up on the fences around the Lincoln Memorial this month, and it wasn’t good news for anybody who reads it closely.
New signs now tell visitors that crews are “repairing areas damaged by vandals,” and that previous administrations let the landmark rot. Clogged pipes, filthy granite, decades of neglect since 1922.
The pool will stay drained, the signage promises, until it can “truly reflect the beauty, dignity, and grandeur of our nation’s capital.”
Then, social media users discovered updated images of the Reflecting Pool, and the signs stopped mattering.
The footage from Wednesday, Aug. 26 shows workers pulling the pool apart by hand. Photographer and videographer Joe Flood posted the footage in the early hours from the drained basin.
By the afternoon, it had reached almost a million views.
As crews power-wash the bottom of the pool, the blue sealant, as seen in the video, comes up in chunks. Workers can be seen peeling flaps of the liner off the basin floor by hand.
Meanwhile, the pressure washer knocks loose more scraps of the coating. “Sealant is coming up in chunks at the Reflecting Pool,” the X user captioned their post.
The Daily Beast, which reported on the footage, said the White House sent its questions to the Interior Department, which did not immediately respond.
Meanwhile, the replies under Flood’s video were merciless.
Sealant is coming up in chunks at the Reflecting Pool pic.twitter.com/C2x17nlEXW
— Joe Flood (@joeflood) August 26, 2026
“We’re watching the culprits right now,” one person wrote sarcastically. ”I thought it was indestructible and could never be removed,” another posted.
One X user did the math: “The fact that it’s so easily peeled up with just a pressure spray shows that the coating was never applied or allowed to cure properly, because it had to be done in time for the Child in Chief’s b’day. This admin does nothing but waste taxpayers’ money.”
Others counted heads. Many noted, “No gloves. No tools. One person holding a power washer. Two guys ripping up sheets with their hands. The rest watch. No other equipment in sight.”
Another eagle-eyed viewer zoomed in and wrote, “Wow, 7 workers but only three working. Good job, guys. Drain the swamp.”
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is 104 years old and one of the most photographed spots on the National Mall.
The Reflecting Pool is still empty and closed off – the scene this morning pic.twitter.com/Ay8lAOrdHB
— Joe Flood (@joeflood) August 26, 2026
Trump ordered it renovated ahead of the country’s 250th birthday celebrations, and his personal touch was the color. He dubbed the coating “American Flag Blue,” and boasted the work could last a century.
It did not last the summer. The liner began peeling within weeks, and the pool produced its worst algal bloom in years. It has been drained, refilled and drained again since June. Crews started the latest round of repairs last week, per The Washington Post.
Trump’s explanation has never wavered. He claims vandals did it. He claimed someone cut a gash hundreds of feet long into the liner and called the culprits “sick, deranged people.” His own Justice Department, however, disagreed.
In a 20-page filing, Pirro wrote that internal Interior Department documents showed the damage was caused by “flawed installation by the contractor” and a rush to finish before the July Fourth events. Charges against three other people were dropped as well, according to the NPR.
Trump did not take it well. He said he was “very disappointed with Jeanine Pirro” and that she “folded like an umbrella.”
He then posted on Truth Social, ”There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” It was a familiar move for a president who has lost it over the pool damage before.
Jeanine Pirro, his top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., moved on July 31 to dismiss the felony case against David Hearn, a 67-year-old three-time Olympic canoeist accused of ripping up the pool floor.
Meanwhile, new signs have gone up on the fencing around the pool, advising visitors that crews are “repairing areas damaged by vandals.”
The wording on the signs also blames previous administrations for the landmark’s condition, citing clogged pipes and dirty granite.
The pool will stay drained, the signage says, until it can “truly reflect the beauty, dignity, and grandeur of our nation’s capital.”
The company handling the fix is the same one that botched it the first time. Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which was awarded a no-bid contract for the original job. They’ve been rehired, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum saying “they did a fantastic job,” per PBS.
Trump said back in April that he picked a contractor who had previously worked on one of his own swimming pools. He has since floated a whole new design for the pool. A pitch that had fans zooming in and deciding he’d gone too far.
For now, the crews are still down there with pressure washers, pulling up a president’s paint job by hand.
