President Donald Trump says the U.S. Park Police have rounded up a ring of vandals who sabotaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The actual arrest record tells a much smaller story: one 67-year-old cyclist who says he reached into the water to touch a piece of paint that had already fallen off.
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In a Truth Social post Saturday, Trump escalated his days-long insistence that his troubled $14 million renovation was the victim of a crime rather than a botched paint job. “The United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll,” he wrote, misspelling “Pool.” “Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair.”
According to The Washington Post, Park Police arrested a single person on Friday: David Hearn, a 67-year-old man from Bethesda and a three-time Olympic canoe slalom athlete, on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property.
Hearn’s account bears no resemblance to a coordinated assault on a national landmark. He told the Post he had just finished a 52-mile bike ride, including a loop around Hains Point, and swung by the Lincoln Memorial to see the refurbished pool for himself. Noticing a chunk of the new “American flag blue” liner that had partially detached from the bottom, he reached into the water to feel it. Moments later, as he was getting ready to leave, officers put him in handcuffs.
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“I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn told the paper. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
The footage that fueled the arrest came from conservative journalist Emily Miller, who posted video online and claimed Hearn had grabbed a hose used by cleanup crews. Hearn said he only reached for the loose sealant. Either way, the charge is a misdemeanor, not the felony-grade “destruction of National Monuments” the president invoked, and it carries nothing resembling the “years in jail” he promised.
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We will report on additional details if more evidence surfaces.
