Leavitt fires back at Walz, says 'deranged' Democratic donors vandalized the $16M Reflecting Pool — experts point elsewhere

She offered no further detail about who the people were or how the claim had been verified — no names, and no description of how the donor ties were established.

Some Republicans gave the claim qualified backing. Asked on CNN whether he believed there was evidence of a cut, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said, "I don't know," then added that he assumed law enforcement "has that" and that the alleged vandalism was "against the law."

What experts say peeled the paint

The renovation, ordered to turn the pool "American Flag Blue" for the country's 250th anniversary, has been peeling and turning green within weeks of completion. The administration has blamed vandals, with Trump claiming a roughly 350-foot gash was cut into the lining "by a very sharp knife or razors."

Specialists point elsewhere. The likelier explanation is a paint job rushed to hit a July 4 deadline, with the coating failing to bond and the heavy presidential motorcade that crossed the wet surface in May adding stress. The engineering points to a rushed job, not a knife.

For weeks the administration offered no evidence. Then a National Park Service official said in a court filing that police had documented a liner cut with a sharp knife or razor back on June 9 — the first specifics anyone in the administration had put on the record. The official didn't call it vandalism or name a suspect, and the cut doesn't explain the algae or the peeling across the pool floor. Park Police have since released grainy surveillance footage asking the public to identify someone who reached into the water.

The administration's own numbers keep moving. Trump first said five people were arrested, then six. The count of police reports has run anywhere from 14 to 17.

The one arrestee whose name is public cuts against that picture. David Hearn, a 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist from Bethesda, Maryland, was charged with misdemeanor destruction of government property after he reached into the pool during a bike ride to touch a piece of the already-peeling liner. "I didn't vandalize anything," Hearn told The Washington Post. "I didn't destroy or break or peel anything." His attorney, Norm Eisen, said he'll fight the charge and called the prosecution a distraction from "the corrupt no-bid contracting process." Hearn is due in D.C. Superior Court on July 9.

What it means for your money

Both renovation contracts were awarded without competitive bidding. The $14.65 million paint job went to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia firm that had never held a federal contract but had done pool work at a Trump golf club. A separate $1.74 million filtration contract went to a company owned by John Cafaro, who has given more than $300,000 to Trump-linked committees.

The Interior Department says the White House wasn't involved in the selections, didn't know of the donor ties, and chose the firms for their expertise and ability to meet the deadline. Both contractors say nothing went wrong with the work. Sen. Richard Blumenthal calls it "blatant corruption"; Hearn's attorney, Norm Eisen, calls the no-bid awards a distraction from a "corrupt" process. Republicans call the furor overblown — strategist Ford O'Connell dismissed it as "an absurd media-manufactured crisis that only people in the Beltway care about" with "zero bearing" on the midterms.

Either way, taxpayers aren't done paying. The Park Service plans to drain the pool again for repairs after July 4, with Atlantic Industrial Coatings saying it will cover that work under warranty — but the administration has disclosed no cost for the latest round, even as it replaces grass around the pool and keeps the National Guard patrolling the Mall. For a project pitched at under $2 million, the bill keeps growing.