Trump blames 'contractor error' for Reflecting Pool damage, invokes new eyewitness claim

President Donald Trump has doubled down on the 'Reflecting Pool Renovation' dropped case in a latest social media post on early Monday morning, August 10, 2026.

Trump, reiterating his previous stance, maintained that a former Olympian caused damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Trump’s latest remarks invoked by an employee of National Park Service who claimed Olympian David Hearn “violently” who damaged and pulled at the pool’s surface before law enforcement officials arrived.

"There was substantial damage to the Reflecting Pool, also, but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“We are working on the pool, and it will reopen shortly. 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,” he added.

Trump attached a screenshot from court records along the post that highlighted interviews with two National Park Service employees, who were at work when Hearn visited the site.

Trump backed his claim on these eyewitness accounts, writing that a National Park Service “career employee, a highly credible witness,” saw Olympian David Hearn “in broad daylight vandalize the Reflecting Pool by ‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating.”

He added that the employee provided testimony to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in early July.

The recent remarks came a day after Trump shared snaps of alleged vandalism amid growing calls for Pirro to revisit the decision to drip charges against multiple people also accused of vandalizing the pool.

The D.C. Superior Court has dropped the charges against the Olympian David Hearn and will later decide on whether Hearn can still face charges.