Trump vows jail time after recent arrests at Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
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Multiple people were arrested this weekend for allegedly damaging the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prompting a strong response from President Donald Trump and increased security at the site.
Journalist Emily Miller shared a two-minute post. video X Friday shows a man in a lime green racing suit questioning a National Guardsman before being handcuffed by U.S. Park Police.
Washington Post He later identified the man in Miller’s video as David Hearn, 67, a former three-time Olympian who was arrested on misdemeanor charges of destruction of government property.
National Park Service employees and contractors use vacuum cleaners to remove green algae from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., on Thursday (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Hearn said he had just finished a 32-mile bike ride to the exit when he noticed a “partially detached piece” of the new pool liner and “lay down in the water to see what it felt like.”
While Miller claimed in his post that Hearn “caught” the hose that National Park Service workers were using to fix the algae bloom, Hearn told The Washington Post that the hose “could have been touched” only by a bicycle tire.
“I didn’t damage anything,” Hearn told the press.
Paint is peeling from the base of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. (Annabelle Gordon/Reuters)
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Hearn, who was arrested on charges of canoeing on the Potomac River in 1996 but later dropped them, said: “I didn’t destroy, break or rob anything. By the time I realized what had happened, I was already being handcuffed.”
Miller said Saturday that seven people were detained in separate incidents at the pool on Friday, leading to a major increase in security.
Former US Olympian David Hearn arrested for allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC (David Madison/Getty Images, File)
Trump addressed recent events on Truth Social Saturday afternoon, confirming that Park Police had arrested “multiple” people for vandalizing “our nation’s magnificent Reflect Poll.”
“Who would do such a thing?” The president wrote in the post. “These are very serious crimes related to the destruction of National Monuments. Years of imprisonment! Repair work will begin immediately.”
National Guard members walk past a National Park Service worker using a vacuum cleaner to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington on Friday. D.C. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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Trump on Friday noted that Park Police had “real problems” with vandalism at the Reflecting Pool, as the administration faced scrutiny over peeling paint and algae growth just weeks after the completion of a $14.8 million restoration project.
The White House, U.S. Park Police and Miller did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.
