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President Donald Trump issued a threat to ABC News in a Truth Social post Monday evening, complaining about the news organization’s coverage of the algae growth that has occurred after recent renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Earlier this year, Trump gave a no-bid contract to a company to clean the pool, after which the bottom was painted blue to increase its reflectivity. Despite initial claims that the project would only cost taxpayers $1.8 million, the total cost of the project has ballooned to nearly 10 times that amount, currently around $16 million.
As the summer heat appeared to result in new, widespread algae growth in the pool, workers began filling the water with hydrogen peroxide. That move appears to have caused parts of the blue paint to come off the bottom, with pieces visibly floating to the surface.
In his Monday night missive, Trump whined that ABC News, which had reported on the situation in a two-minute segment that evening, “failed to report that their close ‘friends,’ Dumocrats Obama and Biden, spent over 100 Million Dollars on the Reflecting Pool, and it never worked.”
Trump also said that his project “came out great,” blaming “vandalism” for the pool’s current problems. The president has provided no evidence for his claims.
“We are preparing lawsuits against ABC for false reporting,” Trump added in his post.
Trump then alluded to previous attempts to sue the company that resulted in a $15 million settlement, and suggested that the new lawsuit could be sent to the U.S. Treasury. Notably, the settlement he referred to was given to the future Trump Library, not to the Treasury Department.
In a separate post, Trump again made unfounded claims that a “300-foot-long gash” in the paint in the pool was caused by vandals, and implied that his administration would charge those supposedly tampering with the monument with “a 10-year prison sentence.” Earlier this year, however, Trump had said that the project was impervious to the kind of vandalism he’s now saying took place.
A CBS News investigation into the Reflecting Pool found no signs of the vandalism the president had described.
Trump had also previously claimed the paint job would last for 50-100 years without the need for additional repairs. It is likely the pool will need to be drained again to deal with the current situation.
As of Monday, at least five individuals have been arrested for their presence at the reflecting pool, officially being charged with vandalism. A total of 14 citations have been given out.
Among those arrested was former Olympian David Hearn, who had stopped by the pool and, per his account, merely reached into it to touch a piece of paint that had come off. Hearn didn’t remove the paint from the pool, and stopped touching it after being told by an officer to pull his hand out.
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“I’m a curious citizen. I reached down to see what it felt like,” Hearn later explained. “It was very rubbery.”
Despite complying with the orders from the officer, Hearn was detained and charged with vandalism.
Following Trump’s baseless claims, the National Guard began patrolling the perimeter of the monument, and newly installed cameras have been placed in the area.
Prior to the renovations, it wasn’t uncommon for visitors to the Lincoln Memorial to reach their hands into the pool without incident. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) questioned why members of the National Guard were arresting people.
“Dear @USNationalGuard: What laws, if any, are being violated if a person touches the water in the reflecting pool?” Lieu wrote on X.
In an update to a lawsuit they filed against the reflecting pool’s renovations, the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., said the new challenges to the monument were entirely predictable.
“This is the foreseeable result of [the Trump administration’s] decision to bypass the consultative process required by law and which must occur before the government can alter our nation’s most sacred spaces,” the organization stated.
Despite Trump’s new threats against ABC News over its reporting on algae growth and the disrepair of paint in the monument, the company appears to be taking different strategies in recent days rather than planning to settle with the government again.
Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it was opening an investigation into ABC’s daily “The View” program, alleging that the show may be violating rules on equal airtime for politicians. ABC argues that the show is considered a news program, and is thus exempt from those rules. The investigation, the network stated, violates their First Amendment freedoms.
On Monday, several ABC-owned affiliate stations began broadcasting messages to viewers, urging them to submit public comments to the FCC against the investigation.
“The View has hosted your favorite guests and covered the issues you care about for nearly 30 years,” one commercial explained. “Now the FCC wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show.”
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The ad then told viewers to scan a QR code, linking them to the FCC website.