President Donald Trump on Friday condemned the vandalism of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, calling the act an enormous insult to America’s fallen heroes from the war.
Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday shortly before Melissa L. Farris was announced as the suspect tied to spray-painting the memorial.
“Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals. THERE CAN BE NO GREATER INSULT TO THOSE AMERICAN HEROES WHO DIED IN WORLD WAR II. First the Reflecting Pool, now this,” he wrote.
“We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from???” he added.
The perpetrator spray-painted “Clean Hands Dirty $” according to a picture taken by Washington, DC, freelance photographer Andrew Leyden.
Leyden also said someone had poured bubbles into the memorial’s fountains.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced charges against Farris on Friday morning.
“Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather,” Pirro wrote in a post on X.
“This morning, we are filing two felony charges, Depredation Against Property of the United States and Destruction of Veterans’ Memorials, in Federal District Court against Melissa L. Farris, offenses that carry penalties of up to ten years in prison. She is now in custody,” Pirro added.
The vandalism comes amid Trump’s beautification efforts throughout the nation’s capital. Under Trump, 22 fountains in and around DC have been fixed and are now functioning, including in Meridian Hill Park.
The president also undertook a project to line the bottom of the Reflecting Pool with blue sealant and maintains that the complications observed after completion were largely due to vandalism.
“A National Park Service career employee, a highly credible witness, saw David Hearn (ActBlue) in broad daylight vandalize the Reflecting Pool by ‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday.
He said there was other damage to the pool, but there was a lack of video evidence.
“There was substantial other damage to the Reflecting Pool, also but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself. We are working on the Pool, and it will reopen shortly,” he wrote.
“As with many jobs, there was also some contractor error done by rushing the job for a July 4th opening, but it was a very small area of this massive Pool, and was relatively inconsequential,” he added.
