Burgum sticks to Reflecting Pool vandalism story as Pirro catches Trump heat for blaming 'botched' installation
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Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has been sticking to his original story that vandals were responsible for damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, despite a court filing from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro saying the department had evidence a “botched” installation was to blame.
President Trump, who has repeatedly railed against the alleged vandalism and efforts to hinder his controversial beautification efforts in Washington, D.C., has embraced Burgum’s version of events, saying Monday that Pirro made a mistake and “folded like an umbrella” in the face of an aggressive judge.
“Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after and — went after her department,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And I guess she choked. I don’t know what the hell happened.”
“I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro,” he added. “She folded like an umbrella.”
Pirro’s office had initially charged U.S. Olympian David Hearn with felony destruction of property over damage to the seal coating of the Trump-renovated Reflecting Pool, but in a court filing late last week, it said the Department of the Interior (DOI) had “provided additional documents … showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI.”
Her filing particularly cited an internal email from a National Park Service engineer that raised concerns about the coating peeling eight days before Hearn’s arrest.
Burgum, like Trump, swiftly pushed back.
“The evidence is clear, vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool. Some of these acts were even caught on camera,” Burgum said in a post on social platform X.
“We also provided the U.S. Attorney’s office expert and eyewitness testimony to the damage done by vandals and provided every piece of evidence they asked for in the requested time line detailing each area of damage at the pool,” he added.
Burgum is a frequent defender of the president and has dutifully carried out his agenda, including by backing his D.C. projects. Back in 2024, he defended the then-presidential candidate during a trial related to hush money paid to Stormy Daniels. Burgum has also taken steps at Interior to stifle renewable power, particularly wind, an energy source for which Trump has longstanding vitriol.
Pirro, a former Fox News host, is also a longtime supporter of Trump’s, but his anger over the dropped charges was explicit.
“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro,” he wrote on Truth Social over the weekend. “I don’t know what she was thinking?”
Asked about Pirro’s filing, Rep. Jared Huffman (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said, “It’s like this immutable pattern where Trump lies, and then all of these sycophants around him embrace the lie and act on it, and then when it blows up on one of them, they try to blame someone else other than Trump, and then when that doesn’t work, they usually get fired.”
CNN reported Monday, citing two sources, that a “furious” Trump is considering replacing Pirro as the U.S. attorney for the District.
Huffman told The Hill that he plans to investigate the Reflecting Pool saga if his party retakes the House next year.
“They’re lighting taxpayer money on fire and bungling the maintenance and the repair of important public resources in the nation’s capital,” he said.
Huffman added that Democrats will specifically look into the contracting process. The Trump administration has given no-bid contracts for work on the Reflecting Pool, an unusual procedure for nonemergency federal work, according to reports from The New York Times.
“The no-bid contracts have become like the go-to corruption tool for this administration. So anytime you’ve got a no-bid contract with these guys, you’ve got to look into who’s getting it and why, and it’s usually someone that’s spent some quality time at Mar-a-Lago,” he said in a brief phone interview, referring to Trump’s residence in Florida.
When asked for comment, the White House referred The Hill to the president’s social media posts. The Interior Department also did not immediately respond to The Hill’s requests for comment.
The filing represents an additional blow to Trump’s efforts to “beautify” D.C. — a major fixation of the president’s.
Leading up to Independence Day, Trump frequently discussed renovations to the Reflecting Pool and other sites around the Washington area.
However, the Reflecting Pool project in particular has seen problems including peeling massive algae blooms, prompting criticism. In response, the administration has blamed “vandals.”
Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, described the situation as a mix of “incompetence and corruption.”
“It’s hard to trust what’s coming out of the administration, and Secretary Burgum has not exactly been transparent throughout his tenure,” Thompson said.
Asked if his latest remarks worsen the secretary’s credibility, she said, “I’m not sure Burgum had a lot of credibility to lose.”
Republicans for their part have been pretty mum about whether they agree with Trump on the cause of the Reflecting Pool damage.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Sunday he’s unsure whether Trump even truly believes that vandals were the cause.
“I don’t know whether he really believes that, or it’s part of his political messaging, or he’s just thinking out loud,” Kennedy told host Kristen Welker on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
“You and I both know the president well,” the Louisiana Republican added. “He exists loudly, and he grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought. I’m not saying he doesn’t really believe it, I just don’t know.”
Kennedy said Pirro “was smart to pull” the case back.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · The Hill ↗ · The Hill ↗
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool damage has become a point of dispute within the Trump administration. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum states that vandals caused the damage and cites eyewitness testimony and video evidence. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, however, filed court documents indicating that internal Department of Interior materials—including a National Park Service engineer's email—suggested the damage resulted from installation defects rather than vandalism. Pirro initially charged Olympian David Hearn with felony destruction of property but withdrew charges after reviewing the additional evidence. President Trump responded by publicly criticizing Pirro's decision. The Reflecting Pool project has encountered ongoing maintenance issues including peeling and algae growth. Some congressional Democrats have announced intentions to investigate the project's contracting procedures, which have included no-bid awards.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · The Hill ↗ · The Hill ↗
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Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has been sticking to his original story that vandals were responsible for damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, despite a court filing from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro saying the department had evidence a “botched” installation was to blame.
President Trump, who has repeatedly railed against the alleged vandalism and efforts to hinder his controversial beautification efforts in Washington, D.C., has embraced Burgum’s version of events, saying Monday that Pirro made a mistake and “folded like an umbrella” in the face of an aggressive judge.
“Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after and — went after her department,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And I guess she choked. I don’t know what the hell happened.”
“I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro,” he added. “She folded like an umbrella.”
Pirro’s office had initially charged U.S. Olympian David Hearn with felony destruction of property over damage to the seal coating of the Trump-renovated Reflecting Pool, but in a court filing late last week, it said the Department of the Interior (DOI) had “provided additional documents … showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI.”
Her filing particularly cited an internal email from a National Park Service engineer that raised concerns about the coating peeling eight days before Hearn’s arrest.
Burgum, like Trump, swiftly pushed back.
“The evidence is clear, vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool. Some of these acts were even caught on camera,” Burgum said in a post on social platform X.
“We also provided the U.S. Attorney’s office expert and eyewitness testimony to the damage done by vandals and provided every piece of evidence they asked for in the requested time line detailing each area of damage at the pool,” he added.
Burgum is a frequent defender of the president and has dutifully carried out his agenda, including by backing his D.C. projects. Back in 2024, he defended the then-presidential candidate during a trial related to hush money paid to Stormy Daniels. Burgum has also taken steps at Interior to stifle renewable power, particularly wind, an energy source for which Trump has longstanding vitriol.
Pirro, a former Fox News host, is also a longtime supporter of Trump’s, but his anger over the dropped charges was explicit.
“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro,” he wrote on Truth Social over the weekend. “I don’t know what she was thinking?”
Asked about Pirro’s filing, Rep. Jared Huffman (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said, “It’s like this immutable pattern where Trump lies, and then all of these sycophants around him embrace the lie and act on it, and then when it blows up on one of them, they try to blame someone else other than Trump, and then when that doesn’t work, they usually get fired.”
CNN reported Monday, citing two sources, that a “furious” Trump is considering replacing Pirro as the U.S. attorney for the District.
Huffman told The Hill that he plans to investigate the Reflecting Pool saga if his party retakes the House next year.
“They’re lighting taxpayer money on fire and bungling the maintenance and the repair of important public resources in the nation’s capital,” he said.
Huffman added that Democrats will specifically look into the contracting process. The Trump administration has given no-bid contracts for work on the Reflecting Pool, an unusual procedure for nonemergency federal work, according to reports from The New York Times.
“The no-bid contracts have become like the go-to corruption tool for this administration. So anytime you’ve got a no-bid contract with these guys, you’ve got to look into who’s getting it and why, and it’s usually someone that’s spent some quality time at Mar-a-Lago,” he said in a brief phone interview, referring to Trump’s residence in Florida.
When asked for comment, the White House referred The Hill to the president’s social media posts. The Interior Department also did not immediately respond to The Hill’s requests for comment.
The filing represents an additional blow to Trump’s efforts to “beautify” D.C. — a major fixation of the president’s.
Leading up to Independence Day, Trump frequently discussed renovations to the Reflecting Pool and other sites around the Washington area.
However, the Reflecting Pool project in particular has seen problems including peeling massive algae blooms, prompting criticism. In response, the administration has blamed “vandals.”
Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, described the situation as a mix of “incompetence and corruption.”
“It’s hard to trust what’s coming out of the administration, and Secretary Burgum has not exactly been transparent throughout his tenure,” Thompson said.
Asked if his latest remarks worsen the secretary’s credibility, she said, “I’m not sure Burgum had a lot of credibility to lose.”
Republicans for their part have been pretty mum about whether they agree with Trump on the cause of the Reflecting Pool damage.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Sunday he’s unsure whether Trump even truly believes that vandals were the cause.
“I don’t know whether he really believes that, or it’s part of his political messaging, or he’s just thinking out loud,” Kennedy told host Kristen Welker on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
“You and I both know the president well,” the Louisiana Republican added. “He exists loudly, and he grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought. I’m not saying he doesn’t really believe it, I just don’t know.”
Kennedy said Pirro “was smart to pull” the case back.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · The Hill ↗ · The Hill ↗
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum states vandals repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool, including damage caught on camera U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's court filing cited Department of Interior documents showing damage resulted from botched installation rather than vandalism A National Park Service engineer email raised concerns about coating peeling eight days before David Hearn's arrest Pirro initially charged Olympian David Hearn with felony destruction of property but later withdrew the charges President Trump called Pirro's decision a mistake and said she 'folded like an umbrella' Trump administration used no-bid contracts for Reflecting Pool repair work Rep. Jared Huffman characterized the situation as reflecting a pattern where Trump makes claims that others act upon, which later collapse Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, described the situation as a mix of 'incompetence and corruption' Sen. John Kennedy expressed uncertainty about whether Trump actually believes the vandalism narrative or if it is political messaging
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · The Hill ↗ · The Hill ↗
- Interior Secretary Doug Burgum maintains that vandals damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, while U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's court filing cited evidence suggesting a faulty installation caused the damage instead
- President Trump publicly criticized Pirro for dropping charges against Olympian David Hearn, saying she 'folded like an umbrella' under judicial pressure
- The Reflecting Pool project has experienced peeling, algae blooms, and other maintenance issues; the Trump administration used no-bid contracts for repair work
- A National Park Service internal email raised concerns about coating damage eight days before Hearn's arrest, contradicting the vandalism narrative
- Democrats plan investigations into the Reflecting Pool saga and the no-bid contracting process if they regain House control