Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday was slammed by critics for suggesting that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is only in bad shape because people continue to “vandalize” it — and that Democrats are to blame.
“Will any Democrat urge people not to vandalize the Reflecting Pool?” Ingraham wrote on X.
President Donald Trump has been fixated on cleaning the Washington, D.C., landmark ahead of America’s 250th anniversary celebration this summer, launching $14 million in renovations only for the water to be infested by algae and turn green and for the new paint to chip off.
“Come on Laura, no one has vandalize the Reflecting pool….no one!” José Andrés, celebrity chef and founder of the World Central Kitchen charity, wrote Tuesday on X, with another person plainly demanding: “Provide proof of someone vandalizing the reflecting pool.”
Trump has blamed the state of the pool on his Democratic predecessors, and on Monday accused ABC News of failing to report on the costs incurred by past administrations to maintain the pool before threatening to sue ABC over its reporting on his failing renovation work on it.
He has also blamed the peeling paint on supposed vandals, baselessly claiming they “went in there with a knife,” which Ingraham appeared to echo in her post. Critics responded to the plea for people not to “vandalize” the pool with some incisive digs at both her and Trump.
“We’ve been trying to get Trump to stop but he just keeps messing with it and making it worse,” wrote one user on X. “Here you go: I urge Trump to stop vandalizing govt property by employing people with our tax dollars who don’t know what they’re doing.”
Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press
The no-bid $1.7 million cleaning contract was reportedly awarded by the federal government to Green Water Solutions, a company owned by Trump donor J.J. Cafaro, which is trying to fight the algae with a “nanobubble” filtration system to clearly lacking results.
“If someone else vandalized it then there would be footage of it running 24/7 on Fox,” wrote one user, which another person echoed: “We didn’t want Trump to do it in the first place. And as you know, Ms. Ingraham, the pool is under 24-7 surveillance. It hasn’t been vandalized.”
The pushback on social media was extensive — and centered on calls for proof.