President Donald Trump has hit back at The New York Times over its reporting on damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, after the newspaper published a story on the landmark on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack. Trump shared an X post from the U.S. Department of the Interior on Truth Social early Sunday that accused the Times of spending "time and resources analyzing the Reflecting Pool" on September 11 while failing to report on what the department described as significant vandalism at the site.
The clash follows a Times report that cited contractor documents indicating the pool's deterioration stemmed from design and construction errors during the renovation project. According to the newspaper, contractor Atlantic Industrial Coatings found that workers failed to apply sufficient primer in some areas and used chemically incompatible layers in the liner, contributing to bubbling, peeling and other damage to the newly renovated pool. The Trump administration has previously blamed vandalism for at least some of the damage and federal authorities pursued allegations against individuals accused of damaging the pool.
The Justice Department later dropped a case against former Olympian David Hearn after acknowledging that flawed renovation work had caused the damage, as reported by Newsweek. Newsweek contacted the White House via online form Sunday for comment. This is a developing story.
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