PoliticsDonald Trump Rejects 'New York Times' 9/11 Story Exposing Reflecting Pool Contractor Errors as Damage and Renovations Remain Under Scrutiny
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool remains under repair after the contractor acknowledged errors contributed to the liner's damage.
Sept. 14 2026, Published 3:15 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump rejected a New York Times report that exposed severe internal contractor errors during the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, hitting back at the paper for publishing the story on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The friction centers around conflicting explanations for why the pool's new blue liner began peeling and blistering.
On September 11, the NYT published internal documents showing that the project's contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, explicitly admitted that "human oversight" and design errors caused the failure.
Administration Blames Alleged Sabotage
The Trump administration has continued to point to alleged vandalism as a factor in the Reflecting Pool's damaged liner.
The company said workers applied too little primer and layered two chemically incompatible compounds. The top layer heated up beyond what the lower layer could handle, creating massive blisters and tears.
Trump and the Department of the Interior pushed back heavily on Truth Social.
The administration accused the paper of wasting time and investigative resources on "a swimming pool liner" on the solemn 9/11 anniversary instead of covering evidence of actual site sabotage.
Sabotage Claims Face New Scrutiny
The Trump administration has continued to point to vandalism at the Reflecting Pool even as the contractor attributed the liner's widespread damage to flaws in the renovation.
The administration has consistently blamed knife-wielding vandals for tearing the "American flag blue" pool lining.
The Department of the Interior reiterated that the site suffered significant vandalism, including 342 feet of razor-blade slashes across the pool coating, chemical burns on the surrounding grass, and "8647" spray-painted in large black letters.
The administration used the pushback to highlight physical evidence of site sabotage that they claim the newspaper ignored.
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Vandalism Case Falls Apart
Federal prosecutors dropped the case against former Olympian David Hearn after evidence indicated faulty installation work caused the Reflecting Pool's damage.
However, legal cases against alleged vandals have fallen apart.
The Justice Department dropped felony charges against a primary suspect, three-time U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn, after authorities and the U.S. Attorney's Office concluded that botched installation work, not vandalism, caused the structural damage.
While Trump previously conceded in August that "some contractor error" was involved because of the rushed pre-July 4th construction, his latest reaction firmly redirects the blame to bad actors and media bias rather than structural mistakes.
Despite internal documents from the contractor (Atlantic Industrial Coatings) admitting to "human oversight" and a botched installation involving incompatible chemicals, Trump continues to insist that sabotage is the main culprit.
Trump Revives Vandalism Claims
Trump acknowledged contractor errors in August but continued to allege that vandalism also caused damage to the Reflecting Pool.
His administration recently cited specific metrics of destruction that they claim the media is ignoring.
The president’s latest aggressive pushback comes just a month after he briefly pivoted his narrative.
In August, he publicly acknowledged for the first time that there were "some contractor errors" because the multi-million dollar renovation had been heavily rushed to open by the Fourth of July.
At that time, he downplayed the installation error as "inconsequential" while keeping a foot in both camps by continuing to target individuals previously accused of vandalism.
