{"id":214610,"date":"2026-06-23T15:46:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/at-least-5-people-arrested-in-alleged-tampering-with-reflecting-pool-official-says-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T15:46:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:46:44","slug":"at-least-5-people-arrested-in-alleged-tampering-with-reflecting-pool-official-says-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/at-least-5-people-arrested-in-alleged-tampering-with-reflecting-pool-official-says-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"At least 5 people arrested in alleged tampering with Reflecting Pool, official says – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At least five people have been arrested in connection with the alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool<\/a>, an administration official said Monday, as President Donald Trump<\/a> threatened long prison terms for offenders.
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The five arrests and citations to five additional individuals come in the wake of Trump saying<\/a> Saturday, with no evidence so far, that vandals at the Reflecting Pool cut a 250-foot-long \u201cgash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete.\u201d
Among those arrested was former U.S. Olympic canoeist David \u201cDavey\u201d Hearn, who previously told NBC News he was detained for <\/a>five hours Friday after touching a piece of detached coating at the Reflecting Pool.
Over the weekend, following a meeting with contractors at Camp David, Trump said the Reflecting Pool would likely need to be drained again.
Marine One was spotted Sunday flying over the area, and Trump said he had \u201cinspected\u201d the Reflecting Pool.
Trump on Monday morning repeated his claims that the Reflecting Pool is under attack ahead of the nation\u2019s 250th birthday. In a post on Truth Social<\/a>, the president said that the Reflecting Pool has \u201cbeen given a 300-foot-long gash\u201d as \u201cchemicals have been illegally\u201d placed in the water.
\u201cPlease remember that there is a 10-year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things \u2014 Which will be fully enforced!\u201d Trump added in his Truth Social post.
On Monday afternoon, Trump told reporters it was a \u201c350-foot slit from one end to the other.\u201d
\u201cI saw it. They cut it. They cut it very violently,\u201d he said.
When a reporter asked to see photos, Trump said, \u201cYou\u2019ll see it in court, but all you have to do is call the parks department, call the Department of Interior.\u201d
The National Park Service, U.S. Park Police and Interior Department did not immediately respond to requests from NBC News.
Lyndel Monros said the algae was a jarring sight and made the Reflecting Pool anything but the \u201cU.S. blue\u201d that the administration claims is the memorial\u2019s color.
\u201cIt\u2019s not American blue, it\u2019s very green,\u201d Monros told NBC News on Sunday. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what\u2019s going on, but it kind of looks like there\u2019s a septic leak going on, to be honest. It\u2019s a lot worse than what they show on TV. It\u2019s a lot worse in person.\u201d
Hannah Carol, who lives in the area, said the pool has always had a bit of algae, but it\u2019s never looked as bad as it does now.
\u201cIt\u2019s like peeling paint. I got yelled at from the National Guard by just like looking at it too close,\u201d she said. \u201cI saw peeling paint, like, pieces or some type of plastic.\u201d
Carol said she does not understand why the public is being accused of vandalism.
\u201cI think that if there\u2019s a coating that\u2019s peeling off, if there\u2019s an adhered coating that\u2019s peeling off from the substrate, like it\u2019s not going to go back on. You have to peel it up, and you have to redo it, like it\u2019s not like you\u2019re vandalizing or making the situation worse by taking up something that\u2019s already peeled off,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to just slap it back on; you\u2019re gonna have to redo it.\u201d
David McKee, 55, of Memphis, Tennessee, didn\u2019t think the pool looked that bad. McKee said he was driving through D.C. to visit family in Pennsylvania and stopped to see the landmark because of the \u201ccontroversy\u201d surrounding the alleged vandalism.
\u201cIt\u2019s not as bad as I thought,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, I expected to see paint flaking and more algae, but it\u2019s not nearly as bad as I thought.\u201d
McKee said he thinks Trump\u2019s attempts to clean up the pool are good, though he added it bothered him that Trump hired contractors \u201cthat he\u2019s friends with\u201d and that the cost is substantially higher than what the public was originally told it would be.
Work at the Reflecting Pool is being done by Green Water Solutions, which was awarded a $1.7 million no-bid government contract for algae removal.
Green Water Solutions is owned by John J. Cafaro, who gave $250,000 to the Trump Victory Committee in June 2020, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
The company is tasked with using nanobubble technology to address the algae.
Clare Hanrahan, 70, from Asheville, North Carolina, said she thinks that fixing the pool again would be \u201csuch an appalling waste of money in a time in our country when so many are in need.\u201d
Gabe Gutierrez is a senior White House correspondent for NBC News.
Helen Graham is a desk assistant for NBC News.
Senior Breaking News Reporter
Desk assistant at NBC News Washington.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeAt least five people have been arrested in connection with the alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, an administration official said Monday, as President Donald Trump threatened long prison terms for offenders.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}