Paint applied to the bottom of the renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting pool can be seen peeling and floating to the surface of the water. A man was arrested on Friday for reaching into the water to touch paint floating near the side of the pool. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
June 20 (UPI) — A former Olympian who was riding his bike near the Lincoln Monument Reflecting Pool was arrested after he stopped to look at the paint peeling off of its bottom.
President Donald Trump has blamed algae blooms and paint peeling off the bottom of the pool on vandalism and sabotage, The Washington Post, WUSA9 and WBNS reported that the paint has been seen peeling and floating to the top of the water for days.
David Hearn, a resident of Bethesda, Md., was arrested on Friday for damaging public property after reaching into the water to touch the peeling paint.
In several interviews, Hearn said that he went to look at the pool, the condition of which he’d read about in news reports.
Reporters at WUSA9 said they had witnessed people pulling paint off the pool during the last couple of days, including at least one that used kitchen tongs.
“I didn’t vandalize anything,” said Hearn, who posted a picture of the peeling paint he was looking at on social media after he was released by police.
Weeks after the Trump administration’s $13 million refurbishment effort on the pool ahead of the United States’ 250th birthday, algae could be seen growing throughout the pool, turning it green.
Park service officials added chemicals to kill the algae, but the next day, pieces of the paint applied to the bottom of the pool started floating to the top of the water.
When Hearn approached the pool, he said that he saw part of the paint peeling off the bottom of the pool and floating up, leaned down to touch it and then was suddenly being arrested.
“I reached in there, and I was able to grab the end of that flapping piece, the already peeling piece,” he said. “It was attached to the bottom. I didn’t remove anything.”
Emily Miller, a conservative journalist, posted video on X that showed Hearn near the pool, and then walking away from it before he was arrested for damaging public property.
Trump later in the afternoon said in a post on Truth Social that multiple people have been arrested for vandalizing the pool and that “work will begin immediately on its repair.”
“The United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Pool,” Trump said in the post.
“Who would do such a thing?” he said. “These are very serious crimes having to the do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail!”
Hearn, who competed in three Olympics in the canoe slalom and won two world championship in whitewater racing, is due in court on July 9.
President Donald Trump presents a Medal of Honor to Tom Ripley on behalf of his father, John W. Ripley, during a Medal of Honor award ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
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