President Trump Admits Contractor ‘Rushing the Job’ Contributed to Reflecting Pool Damage

President Donald Trump is changing his tune — just slightly — on what really happened to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

President Trump, 80, acknowledged in a Sunday, August 9 post on Truth Social, that “some contractor error” played a role in the damage to the Washington D.C. landmark, even as he continued to insist former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, 67, vandalized the pool.

In the social media post, President Trump claimed a National Park Service employee he called “a highly credible witness” saw Hearn “in broad daylight” “‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating,” and that the employee relayed as much to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He also claimed “Numerous other events took place, including using an acid-like material on the just installed grass adjoining the Pool,” adding, “There was substantial other damage to the Reflecting Pool, also but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself.”

Still, President Trump conceded there was also “some contractor error done by rushing the job” in time for the 4th of July, though he insisted it affected only a “very small area” and was “relatively inconsequential.” He said security cameras “have been, and are being, installed.”

Hearn, meanwhile, was arrested on June 19 and indicted on July 2 on one charge of destruction of property of $1,000 or more; he pleaded not guilty a week later, per D.C. Superior Court records. He has said he simply reached into the pool during a bike ride to feel a detached piece of liner. D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman dismissed the case against him on Thursday, August 6, the Washington Post reported.

As National Enquirer previously reported, the case took a dramatic turn after U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, 75, showed up to a tense White House meeting on Monday, August 3, with a box of evidence pointing to shoddy construction — not vandalism. The New York Times reported that Pirro accused Interior Secretary Doug Burgum of misleading the president about the true cause of the damage. Trump publicly said he thought Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” after her office moved to drop the charges.