Trump Blames Sabotage for Reflecting Pool Failure

One person has been charged in connection with the pool. David Hearn, a 67-year-old former Olympian, told The Washington Post he was arrested on a misdemeanor destruction-of-government-property charge after stopping to touch a piece of detached blue paint during a bike ride. US Park Police officers and National Guard members detained him.

"I didn't destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs," Hearn told the Post. He said he only grabbed an already-flapping piece of paint.

The National Park Service did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

An AFP photographer saw blue paint bits being pumped out alongside green algae that has turned the water swampy. Someone had traced the word "TRUMP" into the green scum at the pool's bottom, where the blue paint is patchy.

The Reflecting Pool sits at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. The renovation is part of preparations for the July 4 celebration of 250 years of US independence.