Donald Trump has acknowledged that repairs to the algae-stricken reflecting pool in Washington DC may not be completed in time for the Fourth of July, when the president plans to convene a big celebration on the National Mall to ring in the country’s 250th birthday.
The iconic body of water began filling with algae blooms and peeling paint after the Trump administration ordered a $14.2m renovation to turn it “American flag” blue, prompting the president to claim – without providing evidence – that vandals armed with a knife had damaged it.
He reiterated the allegation in a social media post on Tuesday, while indicating the repair work may not be completed in time for the country’s semiquincentennial.
“We will drain some of the water, either immediately before or after the Fourth of July, to do the permanent repair,” Trump said.
He also claimed that six people have been arrested, and seven cited, “for the damage they did to our country’s now beautiful Reflecting Pool”.
He blamed the vandalism on a 350ft gash “made by a very sharp knife or razors” that created “numerous slashes over a very long 350 foot length”. Such “slashes” have not been visible during visits by reporters in recent days.
“It was purposefully and criminally done, and somebody had to work very hard, probably in the dark of night, to create such a condition,” Trump wrote. “Likewise, the small area at the bottom of the pool was cut and powerfully lifted off the surface leaving very jagged, uneven edges,” he wrote.
It’s unclear how such extensive vandalism could have been carried at the reflecting pool, which is overlooked by the Lincoln Memorial and often patrolled by police.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that over the weekend, a dead duck was found floating in the reflecting pool and two more carcasses were found in a pond about 250ft away at the Constitution Gardens.
Ducks typically go back and forth between the two bodies of water, and the causes of the deaths were unknown. While the Post was unable to determine what happened to the body of the duck discovered in the reflecting pool, an animal rescue group had retrieved the two carcasses discovered in the Constitution Gardens and planned to perform necropsies.
The botched renovation of the reflecting pool comes amid a push by Trump to spruce up monuments across the capital city in advance of the country’s 250th anniversary celebration. The White House has announced plans for a speech by Trump on the National Mall as well as a fireworks celebration, billed as the largest in history.
Democrats have condemned the effort as wasteful and emblematic of an administration that is uninterested in addressing the economic concerns of Americans. They’ve linked it to Trump’s parallel effort to build a ballroom on the demolished East Wing of the White House, and his attempts to quietly shift taxpayer money to a project he insisted would be paid for by private donations.
