Fiasco: Trump's contractor confesses to Reflecting Pool train wreck

The New York Times reports that the contractor that renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has told the Trump administration that errors in its own work and flaws in its repair plan, caused the pool’s new blue liner to peel and break loose, not vandalism.

The Times reviewed government documents showing the company took responsibility for the decay and damage to the pool liner, despite the administration’s insistence — and prosecutions —claiming the damage was done by delinquents

“President Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals wielding knives or box cutters for damage to the pool’s ‘American flag blue’ liner, even after the Justice Department dropped charges that it had brought against people accused of vandalizing the national landmark,” reports the Times. “But the documents, which have not previously been reported, make clear that the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, found problems in both the design and the execution of the renovation. The documents include Atlantic’s reports to the government as well as daily progress updates from the National Park Service over the past two months.”

Atlantic apparently held its own errors liable in an Aug. 14 report, and then provided additional detail on Sept. 2, according to documents.

The Justice Department, which had charged several people with vandalizing the pool in early July, began moving to dismiss the cases on July 31, according to the Times.

In documents, the company blamed “human oversight” in some patches of the renovation, saying workers did not apply enough chemical primer to gel the layers of the liner together. But the bigger problem, the company said, was that the repair plan itself laid out in the contract actually called for the layers of liner to include two chemicals that are incompatible.

“The chemical on top reached a temperature hotter than what the compound underneath could withstand, and the heat caused the bottom layer to blister and come loose, the documents show. The contractor said it had not expected that outcome because it was very uncommon to mix the two products in that way,” reports the Times. “The failure illustrates the consequences of the Trump administration’s rushed effort to renovate the pool this spring. In a hurry to finish the work before the nation’s 250th birthday on July 4, the government bypassed competition and gave Atlantic a no-bid contract to carry out an untested approach designed in part by the general manager of one of Mr. Trump’s golf clubs.”

The Times reports the government has agreed to pay Atlantic $14.7 million for its work, but the contractor has said the pool is under warranty and eligible for additional repair.

Regardless, the Times reports Interior Department spokeswoman Katie Martin appeared to insist vandals were to blame for the damage, saying that they had “repeatedly reached into the pool and ripped at the coating.”

In July, federal prosecutors acted on President Donald Trump’s claims of vandalism and announced the indictment former Olympic canoeist David Hearn for pulling up a piece of the liner, on a felony vandalism charge.

But in a reversal, prosecutors pushed to dismiss the charges against Hearn and three others alleged vandals.

“Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, wrote that the Interior Department had misled her staff about the extent to which the damage had stemmed from vandalism rather than a ‘botched installation,’” reports the Times.