Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Saturday there were unreported cases of people making “threatening messages” to President Trump both inside and around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as he called for consequences for the vandals.
“We’ve had seven arrests, a number of other citations, 18 police reports … There’s multiple cases both on the grass and in the pool that we had not reported before we even filled it up where people were making threatening messages to President Trump,” he told Fox News.
“President Trump came to DC to try and drain the swamp and some of these folks are trying to bring it back. It is, as he says, it’s crazy.”
Vandals put huge “8647” markings around the reflecting pool, and an Interior spokeswoman said this week cited “the cutting of fuel lines around the Great American State Fair.” Trump is the nation’s 47th president.
Burgum said the 2,028-foot pool – which President Trump had painted with “American Flag” blue sealant through a $14.7 million government contract – was part of the original 1922 memorial, and that vandalism was tantamount to an attack on the Lincoln Memorial itself.
“So when people are using box cutters to do vandalism on this thing it’s the same as if they were throwing paint on Lincoln’s statue in the eyes of the law,” he said.
Burgum’s reference to a box cutter reflects an earlier comment by Trump who said someone cut a roughly 300-foot gash in the pool, and blamed vandals for blue sealant peeling from the bottom of the pool following the refurbishment.
“You know, we have 100- … I think 290-, 300-foot slit right through it,” the president said June 22. “Probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind.”
Trump also has accused vandals of putting fertilizer in the pool to cause algae bloom that workers remediated by dumping in gallons of hydrogen peroxide, but hasn’t provided evidence.
“They did something to create the algae,” Trump said.
The White House has posted June 19 video it says “catches suspects in the act.” A US Park Police bulletin seeks information identifying the individual “in connection with destruction of government property.”
