Trump's Own Contractor Admits Its Errors, Not Vandals, Wrecked the Reflecting Pool

The company hired to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has admitted, in writing, that it broke the thing it was paid to fix.

Atlantic Industrial Coatings told the Trump administration in reports dated August 14 and September 2 that both the design and execution of its renovation were flawed, according to government documents reviewed by The New York Times. Workers sprayed too little primer in some areas because of what the company called "human oversight," causing the liner's layers to separate. Separately, the repair plan called for two chemicals that turned out to be incompatible: the top layer got hotter than the layer beneath it could handle, and the heat caused the bottom to blister and come loose. Atlantic said it hadn't expected that reaction because mixing those two products that way was "very uncommon."

The company sits on a $14.7 million no-bid federal contract.

What Trump said happened

None of this is how President Trump described it. "I saw it. They cut it. They cut it very violently," Trump told reporters in June, describing what he called a "350-foot slit" and blaming a "box-cutter or a knife of some kind." As recently as last week, Trump posted on social media, apparently aimed at his own U.S. Attorney, that "Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn't vandalized should go back to Law School!" according to MS NOW.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro's office did charge several people, including former Olympic swimmer David Hearn, with vandalizing the pool. But prosecutors moved to drop those cases starting July 31. A court filing from Pirro's office said the "damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism." Axios reported that the episode created a rift between Pirro and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whom Pirro blamed for telling her office there was significant evidence of prosecutable vandalism when there wasn't.

The no-bid contract and the golf club connection

Virginia-based Atlantic was awarded the contract this spring without competitive bidding, according to The Guardian. The Times reported the untested repair approach was designed in part by David Schutzenhofer, the general manager of Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. The job was rushed to be finished by July 4 for the country's 250th anniversary celebration. It wasn't. The pool remains drained, closed and fenced off, and has also dealt with algae blooms and discolored water, according to The Independent.

Where the administration stands now

The White House hasn't directly disputed the contractor's admission. Spokesperson Taylor Rogers told The Daily Beast: "President Trump promised to make D.C. safe and beautiful, and he's delivering. For years, the Reflecting Pool sat neglected, plagued with algae, and leaking millions of gallons of water. Fixing it was common sense."

The Interior Department has taken a different approach: continuing to insist vandalism happened at all. A department spokesperson told MS NOW that people had "repeatedly reached into the pool and ripped at the coating," and told Axios that crews are now replacing deteriorating water valves, flushing clogged pipes, sealing leaks and pressure-washing the granite coping stones. Interior also said Atlantic is "contractually obligated" to fix its own mistakes and is doing so under warranty, per The Guardian.

It's possible some visitors did reach into the pool and pick at loose, already-failing coating once the liner started peeling on its own. Such damage would be a nuisance problem distinct from the structural failure the contractor now says it caused. But that differs from the claim Trump made in June, when he described a deliberately slashed 350-foot cut and pushed for criminal charges. Pirro's own office, in a federal filing, said flatly that the damage was from installation, not sabotage.

Nobody has produced evidence supporting Trump's specific vandalism story since prosecutors dropped every related case in late July. The contractor's own paperwork, now surfacing through The New York Times, points the other direction.

What isn't resolved: whether the no-bid award to Atlantic will face any independent review, whether taxpayers will be on the hook for costs beyond the $14.7 million already spent given the pool remains closed nearly a year after the project began, and when the Reflecting Pool will actually reopen. The Interior Department has not given a completion date.