{"id":659018,"date":"2026-06-26T08:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/659018\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T08:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:40:10","slug":"reflecting-pool-liner-cut-with-sharp-knife-or-razor-national-park-service-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/659018\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting Pool liner cut with sharp knife or razor, National Park Service says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A liner along the bottom of the Reflecting Pool in Washington DC was cut with a sharp knife or razor earlier this month, an official at the National Park Service has said.<\/p>\n

Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the park service, said in a court filing on Thursday that US Park Police had responded to a report of an incident on 9 June regarding the pool’s liner, which caused damage to the foam sealant that had been installed as part of a recent multi-million dollar rehabilitation project.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump blamed vandals for “a 300-foot-long gash” and accused someone of putting fertiliser in the water.<\/p>\n

The president was pressed by CBS News during an interview, external<\/a> for evidence of the slit, which Trump said would be provided in court. <\/p>\n

In the recent court filing, Lands said a US Park Police report indicated damage “including a caulk over the foam sealant that was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material.”<\/p>\n

It also detailed that “approximately 70 fence post tops were thrown into the pool”.<\/p>\n

However, it does not say when exactly the damage occurred and does not identify anyone who might have been involved. <\/p>\n

The statement in the court filing is part of a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit organisation seeking to stop the Trump administration’s work on the site. <\/p>\n

It is also the first public record detailing how the pool may have been damaged after work on the project was completed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A liner along the bottom of the Reflecting Pool in Washington DC was cut with a sharp knife…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-659018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}