Trump blames ‘vandals’ for damaged National Mall grass and Reflecting Pool after July 4 celebration

President Donald Trump is blaming ‘vandals’ for the current state of the grass at the National Mall.

The iconic landscaped park stretches roughly two miles, from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

On Sunday, the U.S. leader used his social media platform, Truth Social, to upload an aerial image of the grass which appears to have dead patches of grass.

He wrote alongside the image: “Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly. Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!”

However, the spot in question was previously used for a stage that was built for and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebrations, The Associated Press reported.

Trump claimed that more than 400,000 people attended the event before a storm hit the area, delaying his remarks. Crowds gathered to hear from Trump and watch fireworks. AP News says that Trump did not share evidence to confirm the number of attendees he reported.

Photos of the area taken at this time by a streaming webcam atop the Washington Monument show a large bandstand and seating areas covering nearly the entire lawn which Trump says was vandalized. Photos taken by AP News from the following days showed workers removing structures, ‘revealing brown, damaged grass underneath’.

UNILAD has contacted the White House for comment.

This is not the first time Trump has accused vandals of causing damage around Washington D.C. He previously said damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of vandals. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said this month that her office concluded that the damage was caused by poor construction.

In a court filing, Pirro wrote that the damage to the liner ‘was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism’ and blamed ‘contractor error’. She told the court it would be ‘difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt’.

Trump criticised her in response, telling NBC News: “She said there was no vandalism. There was tremendous vandalism. So, she made a terrible mistake. I don’t understand why she did such a stupid thing.”

The pool had been recoated with a new dark-blue waterproofing system, while a separate nanobubble ozone system was installed to help control algae. The administration called the latter “advanced nanobubbler technology”.

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

However, the algae returned within days of the pool reopening, and blue sections of the new coating began peeling away, with pieces of material found floating in the water. The contractor described the problem as localised separation of the finish coat rather than failure of the underlying waterproofing membrane.

Meanwhile, authorities on Friday announced an arrest had been made in connection with vandalism at the World War II Memorial. The words “clean hands dirty $” were spotted painted on the monument and bubbles filled the fountain.

On Friday (August 14) Trump lashed out at vandals after the National World War II Memorial was found spray-painted and with bubbles in its fountains.

The memorial was sealed off with police tape by investigators last week and tourists were turned away. Later in the evening, crews arrived to wash off the paint and clear the bubbles.

Trump compared the incident, which turned out to be accurate, to the Reflecting Pool case.

"Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals. THERE CAN BE NO GREATER INSULT TO THOSE AMERICAN HEROES WHO DIED IN WORLD WAR II," he wrote on Truth Social.

"First the Reflecting Pool, now this. We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from???"

Former Olympian canoeist David Hearn faced up to a decade behind bars, accused of tearing a piece of newly installed sealant up. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on a single felony count of property destruction.

However the Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped all criminal charges against Hearn, with government lawyers admitting the excessive peeling seen on the pool was the result of a 'flawed installation by the contractor' and a 'rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration'.

Trump acknowledged that 'there may have been some contractor difficulty', the BBC reports, but reiterated his claim that the 'major damage' was caused by vandals.