Interior Secretary Doug Burgum publicly pushed back on Donald Trump’s explanation for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s algae problem, saying the green buildup was gone and had come from the pipes as the pool was being filled. He also defended the claim that the pool’s bottom had been cut by multiple gashes totaling 350 feet, keeping the fight over the Trump administration reflecting pool repairs in view on Sunday.
The dispute matters now because the pool was still not finished after the July 4th weekend, and fencing remained around the site even as Trump kept promoting the work as part of his broader beautification projects in D.C. Trump had posted one week ago on Truth Social blaming “criminally made algae” for the Reflecting Pool’s swamp-like appearance, then posted photographs of the refurbished pool while at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia.
Burgum’s account was more restrained than Trump’s. In remarks to on Sunday, he said the algae was only a momentary problem and was caused by algae in the pipes, not by vandalism. He said there were multiple gashes that added up to 350 feet, and he said he had not been expecting “a small group of people” who wanted to destroy what is part of the Lincoln Memorial. That left him backing part of the president’s case while rejecting the suggestion that the algae itself was the result of sabotage.
The Reflecting Pool had already been surrounded by fencing after it was closed because of green algae and peeling aqua-blue coating. A top Interior Department official said the National Park Service team was vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the pool, a sign that the cleanup was still underway even as the political argument over what caused the damage was playing out in public.
Trump’s blame moved beyond the pool itself. He also posted about repair and refurbishment work at DuPont Circle, Lafayette Square and the Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial, folding the Reflecting Pool into a larger boast about what his team had fixed in the capital. But Burgum’s comments left one central question hanging: if the algae came from the pipes and the cuts totaled 350 feet, what exactly caused the damage Trump called vandalism, and how much of the $15 million project still needs to be finished before the pool is truly back in service?
