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President Donald Trump publicly rebuked his hand-picked U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro on Saturday after her office abandoned the felony case built around his false claims that vandals damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday afternoon. “I don’t know what she was thinking?”
Trump insisted it was “a pure case of VANDALISM,” citing damage to the pool and an unrelated “86 47” marking found in grass elsewhere on the National Mall. He acknowledged “some contractor difficulty” but said vandals caused the major damage.
Related: Trump’s Reflecting Pool lie needed a vandal. Jeanine Pirro served him up an innocent American
For weeks, Trump had described an enormous gash supposedly cut into the pool’s new blue coating. The alleged cut began as 250 feet in his telling before growing to 350 feet. He repeatedly blamed a “box cutter or a knife of some kind,” declaring, “I saw it. They cut it. They cut it very violently.” His administration never produced evidence that anyone created such a gash.
The unsupported vandalism claims nevertheless triggered an extraordinary federal response. Authorities erected fencing, deployed National Guard patrols and surrounded the public pool with roughly half a dozen mobile surveillance stations. The towers used AI-powered technology designed to detect activity and automatically deter perceived threats. After the basin was drained, the FBI Washington Field Office’s Evidence Response Team assisted U.S. Park Police investigators at the site.
Trump: “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned …There may have been some contractor difficulty, but major damage was caused by VANDALS!”
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 1, 2026 at 12:41 PM
Related: D.C. 'sandwich guy' not guilty of assaulting a federal agent, jury finds
On Friday, prosecutors moved to dismiss the indictment against David Hearn, a 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist accused of pulling up part of the pool’s new blue coating. The filing said Interior Department records revealed that the widespread damage followed a “rushed and botched installation” marked by blistering, overspray, failed bonding and peeling that began before Hearn encountered the material.
Prosecutors wrote that they would not have sought the indictment had the Interior Department disclosed the information earlier.
Pirro had initially described the evidence against Hearn as “tremendous.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also said publicly that he was “100 percent sure” vandals were responsible.
