President Donald Trump has been going to great lengths to try to explain what happened with the reflecting pool project he spent so much time boasting about. Before the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was refilled with water, Trump spent a lot of time bragging about how the pool would be a beautiful “American flag blue” color and also “bigger than skyscrapers.”
But after the pool was filled with water, it quickly turned green. Trump has blamed vandals for this, but unfortunately for him, what he’s saying now doesn’t line up with what he said before, like at all. And just in case anyone forgot, CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins has reminded everyone. Oof.
Trump has tried to say that someone “cut” the pool with a knife.
Leavitt: The vandalism is very real. Despite what Tim Walz wants to say. There have actually been six arrests at the Reflecting Pool where, again, these deranged individuals—many of them longtime donors to the Democratic Party, to Barack Obama, to ActBlue—have been vandalizing… pic.twitter.com/jGV6jZiccx
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 23, 2026
On CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins played a clip of Trump trying to explain what happened to the reflecting pool. “Somebody went in with a knife and cut it,” Trump claimed in the clip. “They cut it up good. And then they cut it 200, 350-foot slips in the form of lots of little slips, a real horrible stuff.”
As Collins pointed out, officials have not shared any photos or videos to back up this claim.
Besides, Collins pointed out that Trump previously said this “wasn’t even possible.”
His current claims do not match what he said about the renovation project back in May, and Collins had another clip to prove it. “This will last for at least 50 years,” Trump said in this clip. “You’ll never have a leak. It’s very strong. You couldn’t, if you had a knife—I don’t want to give anybody ideas—if you had a knife, you can’t even cut it. So strong, so powerful. It’s like powerful rubber.”
Yikes. Collins also referenced a report from The New York Times. According to the publication, National Park Service workers really did find two cuts in the pool. However, those cuts do not appear to be related to the pool’s green hue caused by algae or to the peeling of Trump’s “American flag blue” coating.
Trump has taken to Truth Social multiple times to try to explain the situation.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is blaming the “liberal media” for the amount of attention this pool chaos is getting. Critics were quick to tell Leavitt that her boss is the one who is making this a big thing.
On June 23, Trump took to Truth Social to claim that “the 350 foot gash, made by a very sharp knife or razors, is actually numerous slashes over a very long 350 foot length.” He said this was “purposefully and criminally done, and somebody had to work very hard, probably in the dark of night, to create such a condition.”
In a separate post, he claimed, “Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP! It has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water, and the beautiful new grass field has been destroyed with a gigantic 86 47 chemically carved into it.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration has not provided evidence to support these claims, and it seems that the peeling of the “American flag blue” and the algae problem were not intentional.
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