Trump under pressure to back up claim of sabotage at reflecting pool

Visitors walk along the Reflecting Pool near the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC on Wednesday. Photograph: Tom Brenner/Reuters View image in fullscreen Visitors walk along the Reflecting Pool near the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC on Wednesday. Photograph: Tom Brenner/Reuters Trump under pressure to back up claim of sabotage at reflecting pool President’s promise of photo and video evidence of vandalism at Washington landmark yet to be fulfilled Donald Trump and the Department of the Interior are facing growing pressure to release photo and video evidence substantiating their claims of sabotage at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool in Washington. The $14.7m renovation of the landmark has descended into a farce of algae blooms, peeling paint and dead ducks just days before the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations. Crews have been seen erecting fencing near the area. On Wednesday the US president posted an image that purportedly showed the pool before it was recently refilled with water. “This is the hard rubber surface – No Paint – Before the Vandals cut and pulled it apart!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform . In a previous post, Trump had alleged without providing evidence that a “350-foot gash” had been deliberately carved into the pool’s lining. “It was purposefully and criminally done and somebody had to work very hard, probably in the dark of night, to create such a condition.” Man arrested near Trump’s reflecting pool plans to fight obscenity charge Read more The president added that the interior department would make public photographs and video to prove his point. But as of Wednesday afternoon, no such evidence had materialised. Further doubt was cast on Trump’s claims when the New York Times said it obtained government documents that gave no indication peeling paint and algae blooms were caused intentionally. On Wednesday, the Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to the secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, and National Park Service acting director, Jessica Bowron, requesting documents related to the project, which he said has been “marked by blatant corruption, a shocking lack of transparency, disregard for legal requirements, and apparent incompetence”. “The American people deserve to know how this occurred and what other issues plague the work NPS is currently undertaking in our nation’s capital,” the senator wrote. Trump had pledged to transform the century-old, 2,028ft reflecting pool before the semiquincentennial festivities , draining it and having its bottom coated in a colour he personally selected and dubbed “American flag blue”. He declared the project complete on 6 June, promising the pool would become a gleaming expanse along the National Mall. But a vivid green algae bloom soon clouded the water, obscuring the new blue lining, and pieces of the coating were observed peeling away. A section of liner roughly four square feet in area was seen partially float