Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Saturday that authorities had not previously disclosed several incidents in which people allegedly directed “threatening messages” at President Donald Trump in and around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as he urged that vandals face consequences.
“We’ve had seven arrests, a number of other citations, 18 police reports,” Burgum said during an appearance on Fox News. “There’s multiple cases both on the grass and in the pool that we had not reported before we even filled it up where people were making threatening messages to President Trump.”
“President Trump came to DC to try and drain the swamp and some of these folks are trying to bring it back,” Burgum added. “It is, as he says, it’s crazy.”
The comments came after vandals left large “8647” markings around the reflecting pool. An Interior Department spokeswoman also said this week that officials had cited “the cutting of fuel lines around the Great American State Fair.” Trump is the 47th president of the United States.
Burgum said the 2,028-foot reflecting pool, which Trump had coated with “American Flag” blue sealant under a $14.7 million government contract, was part of the original 1922 memorial design. He argued that damaging the pool should be treated as an attack on the Lincoln Memorial itself.
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“So when people are using box cutters to do vandalism on this thing it’s the same as if they were throwing paint on Lincoln’s statue in the eyes of the law,” he said.
Burgum’s mention of a box cutter echoed earlier remarks from Trump, who said someone had sliced an approximately 300-foot gash into the pool. The president has blamed vandals for the blue sealant peeling from the bottom after the refurbishment.
“You know, we have 100- … I think 290-, 300-foot slit right through it,” Trump said on June 22. “Probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind.”
Trump also has accused vandals of putting fertilizer in the pool to cause algae bloom that workers remediated by dumping in gallons of hydrogen peroxide, but hasn’t provided evidence.
“They did something to create the algae,” Trump said.
The White House has posted June 19 video it says “catches suspects in the act.” A US Park Police bulletin seeks information identifying the individual “in connection with destruction of government property.”
