Said David Carter Hearn, 67, “a cyclist and three-time Olympian as a canoeist who says he stopped at the [Reflecting Pool] on Friday just to have a look, then reached down to touch a strip of peeling blue paint mixed with the algae. The U.S. Park Police arrested Mr. Hearn shortly after, accusing him of destroying government property, a crime that can carry up to a 10-year prison sentence.”
“The administration has not released the names of others accused of vandalizing the pool, a crime that Mr. Trump said on Saturday could lead to ‘years in jail.’ In a later post, he said without evidence that vandals had ‘poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool.'”
I don’t know if the claims of vandalism are true, but the temptation to vandalize was obvious and strong even before Trump started talking about vandals. Now, it’s unavoidable, and I think we will never have our pool back where it belongs in the American psyche. It’s a mess, a bone of contention, a symbol of everything and anything people don’t like about Trump. The pool never worked as it was intended, and now its essential badness is glaring at us, and it will never calm back down into the serene murky swamp it once was.