The White House put out a bombastic press release on Thursday praising President Donald Trump for being “right” about vandals causing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s recent issues with its algae blooms and peeling blue bottom.

The release titled, “Radical Lunatics Deface America’s Reflecting Pool — and President Trump Was Right (Again),” cited a grainy Park Police video from June 19 as proof of the president’s claims.

The video showed an unidentified person bending down and reaching into the water in plain sight of more than a dozen other tourists. Also present were park employees appearing to sweep the pool’s bottom. The person appeared to reach in at least twice before pulling out a piece of something and showing it to their companions.

In the days after the blue coating began to come off in sheets, some tourists posted to social media that they had taken scraps as souvenirs.

“Crazed and deranged lunatics have once again exposed their hatred for America with a cowardly, deliberate attack on one of our nation’s most iconic landmarks — the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool,” the release began.

It continued:

President Donald J. Trump was right from the beginning. Fake News hacks and so-called “experts” immediately rushed to mock him, call him a liar, and blame the Trump Administration’s successful renovation instead of the vandals — but they were dead wrong.

Surveillance video captures suspects in the act. Photos and law enforcement reports document deliberate slashes cut through the liner, sides, and coating, as well as fencing and debris thrown into the pool. At least seven individuals have been arrested, seven others have been issued federal citations, and 18 police reports have been filed.

This isn’t random mischief — it’s targeted sabotage by anti-American crackpots who despise a strong, proud, and beautiful country. They cannot build; they can only destroy. They cannot celebrate our heritage; they can only deface it.

National pride will not be surrendered to a handful of deranged anti-American lunatics. Thanks to the Trump Administration’s decisive action, advanced nanobubble ozone technology has already neutralized the algae and repairs to vandalized areas are underway. The Reflecting Pool will yet again be restored to its rightful glory as America celebrates its 250th birthday.

President Trump won’t be deterred from making our Reflecting Pool beautiful.

Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for destroying his $16.4 million renovation by cutting a “350-foot slit” in the blue coating with “knives” in the “dark of night.” This, after Trump claimed in May that the coating would be far too strong to cut with any knife.

He also accused vandals of dumping fertilizer into the pool to make the algae grow. Park Service employees have since dumped gallons of hydrogen peroxide and used tools to vacuum up the green slime. Many critics have also noted that hydrogen peroxide is a paint thinner, which may have caused the lining to peel. Tourists have taken to collecting the peeling bits of the pool lining as souvenirs.

No reporter or influencer  — MAGA-supporting or otherwise — has yet come forward to claim they could see a “slit” or “gash” nearly the length of a football field in the pool’s bottom.

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