'You're an idiot': New York politician mocks Trump's Reflecting Pool '350-foot gash' claims

Melanie D'Arrigo, a prominent social activist who previously ran for Congress in 2022, tore into President Donald Trump's claim that vandals caused a 350-foot gash in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — damage he said left the coating bleeding its color. "If you think someone sliced a football field-sized tear in the Reflecting Pool with a box cutter, congratulations, you're an idiot," she wrote on X.

D'Arrigo was responding to Trump's comments during a speech at a policy conference of a conservative advocacy group, where he said those arrested in connection with the vandalism at the pool were vandals. "They've got others in line to be caught. But we just inspected it. We'll fix it right after the Fourth of July. Got to let the water out, just fix it. They would cut it, and they would grab this very expensive and very good material, totally water-free. And it is ripped. These people were sick," he asserted.

The 80-year-old added that the vandals "ripped a scar, 350 feet long" through the side of the pool. "These are the people that want to destroy our country. But the reflecting pool is so beautiful," he concluded. D'Arrigo, who is the executive director of New York for Campaign Health, a statewide coalition dedicated to passing and implementing the New York Health Act, is among several critical voices who have questioned the lack of evidence for his claims since he blamed the vandals a week ago.

The president earlier claimed that they took some form of a knife or a blade and put a 250-foot-long gash into the facade of the pool. "They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the pool," he wrote on Truth Social. Critics like Ted Lieu pointed out that the president would have been brandishing the evidence and "shoving the pictures" if he had actually had them.

Among the six arrested for the vandalism, one of them was a three-time Olympian, David Hearn, after allegedly reaching down to touch a flap of blue liner that had peeled away from the pool. Hearn denied any wrongdoing, and his attorney, Norm Eisen, said that touching the water was not a federal crime and that Hearn bore no responsibility for the pool's condition, blaming Trump's no-bid renovation contract instead.

Ed O'Keefe, in his report for CBS News, revealed that the monument was under heavy security, including U.S. Marshals, after the vandalism claims came to light. O'Keefe was unable to find evidence of the 350-foot gash on the pool floor as described by Trump. noting that Trump had previously claimed a knife would not otherwise be able to penetrate the pool's coating. The controversial restoration began in April and was completed in June, with the opening hitting multiple early snags, including an algae bloom that turned the water green.