Trump's claim fizzles as Park Service won't back Reflecting Pool 'gash' in court
The National Park Service refused to corroborate President Donald Trump's claim of a 350-foot Reflecting Pool "gash" in a sworn court declaration filed this week.Frank Lands, the NPS's deputy director for operations, submitted the two-page declaration in an ongoing federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over the pool's renovation. Lands described cut caulk, peeling liner material, and roughly 70 fence post tops thrown into the water. He never used the word "gash." He never cited a 350-foot figure."You'll see it in court," Trump told reporters Monday when asked whether he had visual evidence of the damage.The court filing came and went without it on Tuesday.Trump's description of the alleged damage has kept shifting. He first called it a 250-foot gash, then 300 feet, then "numerous slashes over a very long 350-foot length." However, no photos have been released. The Interior Department, asked for comment, pointed reporters to a post on X."[A] caulk over the foam sealant…was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material," Lands wrote under penalty of perjury.The pool is 2,000 feet long.Meanwhile, at least one of the people arrested denied doing anything wrong. David Hearn, a 67-year-old former U.S. Olympic canoeist, said he stopped at the pool during a bike ride and touched a piece of peeling paint."I didn't vandalize anything," Hearn told The Washington Post.His attorney said they would contest the two misdemeanor citations "vigorously."The renovation cost taxpayers more than $16 million. Trump has promised to drain the pool again around the Fourth of July for what he called a "permanent repair."
