{"id":75133,"date":"2026-06-20T19:54:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T00:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/20\/former-olympian-among-those-charged-with-vandalizing-reflecting-pool-trump-vows-immediate-repairs-report\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T19:54:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T00:54:47","slug":"former-olympian-among-those-charged-with-vandalizing-reflecting-pool-trump-vows-immediate-repairs-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/20\/former-olympian-among-those-charged-with-vandalizing-reflecting-pool-trump-vows-immediate-repairs-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Olympian among those charged with vandalizing Reflecting Pool; Trump vows immediate repairs: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Multiple people have been arrested this weekend after allegedly vandalizing the newly refurbished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prompting a strong response from President Donald Trump<\/a> and an increase in security at the site.<\/p>\n

Journalist Emily Miller posted a two-minute video<\/a> Friday on X showing a man in lime green racing gear questioning a National Guardsman before being handcuffed by U.S. Park Police.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a> later identified the man in Miller’s video as David Hearn, 67, a three-time Olympian who was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property.<\/p>\n

TRUMP SAYS VANDALS USED CHEMICALS TO DAMAGE NEWLY RENOVATED REFLECTING POOL NEAR LINCOLN MEMORIAL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Hearn told the outlet he had just finished a 52-mile bike ride when he noticed a “partially detached piece” of the new pool liner<\/a> and “reached into the water to see what it felt like.”<\/p>\n

While Miller claimed in her post that Hearn “grabbed” a hose that National Park Service<\/a> workers were using to remediate algae growth, Hearn told The Washington Post the hose “may” only have been touched by his bike tire.<\/p>\n

“I didn\u2019t vandalize anything,” Hearn told the outlet.<\/p>\n

TRUMP TAKES MOTORCADE INTO REFLECTING POOL, BLASTS PAST \u2018$38M DISASTER\u2019 FIX UNDER OBAMA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Hearn, who was arrested in 1996 on charges of canoeing on the Potomac River but later had them dropped, said, “I didn\u2019t destroy, break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was happening, I was already being handcuffed.”<\/p>\n

Miller reported that seven people were detained Friday and five people were detained Saturday in separate incidents, which has led to a major security surge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump addressed the recent incidents Saturday afternoon on Truth Social, confirming that the Park Police arrested “multiple” people for vandalizing “our Nation’s magnificent Reflecting Poll.”<\/p>\n

“Who would do such a thing?” the president wrote in the post. “These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments<\/a>. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair.”<\/p>\n

Trump on Friday noted Park Police have had “real problems” with vandalism<\/a> at the Reflecting Pool as the administration faces scrutiny over peeling paint and algae growth just weeks after a $14.8 million restoration project was completed.<\/p>\n

The White House<\/a>, U.S. Park Police and Miller did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Multiple people have been arrested this weekend after allegedly vandalizing the newly refurbished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prompting a strong response from President Donald Trump and an increase in security at the site. Journalist Emily Miller posted a two-minute video Friday on X showing a man in lime green racing gear questioning a National Guardsman … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}