MS NOW95%
Trump blames ‘radical left lunatics’ and an ABC reporter for reflecting pool issues 34%
By Clarissa-Jan Lim71%
6/20/2026, 8:24:25 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Out-Group Homogeneity Bias, Negativity Bias, and Optimism Bias, with Confirmation Bias as the most egregious example at 23.1% saturation with 134 hits. Analysis detected 1,299 faulty-reasoning hits from 580 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 42.1% and a BS Rank of 34% (14,032 of 21,175 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 66.30% of the article peer group.
President Donald Trump said law enforcement is investigating vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and suggested that “radical left lunatics” were behind some of the structure’s issues.
Almost immediately after the completion of a $14 million renovation that was carried out at Trump’s behest, the reflecting pool has run into a myriad of issues.
The water turned green from an algae bloom and the new blue paint has been peeling off the bottom.
“Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the Pool, they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed,” Trump wrote on social media late Friday, apparently referring to the stenciling of the numbers “86 47” on the lawn near the pool.
He added that vandals were trying to “destroy and demean our beautiful work.”
The president also accused ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl of “sticking his hand into the Pool, and trying to rip the rubber off of the surface.”
Karl showed the peeling blue rubber from the bottom of the pool in a news segment that aired Thursday.
U.S.
Park Police responded last week to a report of vandalism over the numbers “86 47” that were written into the grass near the pool.
The Trump administration has called the use of those numbers in other instances a threat against the 47th U.S. president, an assertion at least one judge has dismissed.
On Friday, Park Police arrested a man on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property, The Washington Post reported.
The man, former Olympic canoe competitor David Hearn, told the Post that he noticed a piece of the pool liner was detached and reached into the water to feel it.
He denied grabbing a hose from National Parks Service employees who were pumping out algae, as was claimed on social media.
On Saturday afternoon, Trump posted that Park Police had arrested “multiple” people for vandalizing the pool.
“These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments,” the president wrote.
“Years in jail!”
Trump did not mention Hearn’s arrest or allude to that specific incident in his posts.
A conviction on the misdemeanor charge Hearn faces is punishable by fines and up to a year in jail.
The pool renovation work had alarmed some Interior Department staff who expressed concern about the speed and quality of a contractor’s work on the structure, The New York Times reported last month, citing government documents.
The Interior Department resorted to pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water to eliminate the algae, which the pool has long been plagued by.
On Wednesday, the department said it had “killed the algae” and that the National Park Service was “vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts” of the pool.
But the green hue of the water persisted into the weekend.
Trump, however, said in his post Friday night that the algae in the pool “is 75% gone” and “will soon be completely remedied.”
The area he said was vandalized will be fixed early next week, he added.
“It’s a shame that the Radical Left Lunatics, most likely Dumocats, who have spent their lives trying to ruin our Country, are free to do so,” he added.
“Law Enforcement is actively investigating this situation, and will hopefully have it resolved soon.”
The Interior Department previously said it was investigating the grass vandalism.
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