Burgum says unreported 'threatening messages' against Trump were found around Reflecting Pool

WASHINGTON, DC: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on Saturday, June 27, that authorities discovered previously unreported threatening messages directed at President Donald Trump in and around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool while investigating alleged vandalism at the site.

Burgum said the incidents were among multiple police reports tied to damage around the memorial and called for stronger consequences for those responsible. His remarks come as the Trump administration continues to attribute damage at the recently refurbished Reflecting Pool to acts of vandalism.

Burgum says threats against Trump were among previously unreported incidents

Speaking to Fox News, Burgum said authorities had documented "multiple cases both on the grass and in the pool that we had not reported before we even filled it up where people were making threatening messages to President Trump."

According to Burgum, investigators have made seven arrests, issued several citations and filed 18 police reports connected to incidents at the site. "We’ve had seven arrests, a number of other citations, 18 police reports," Burgum said, adding that several threatening messages had not previously been disclosed publicly.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the alleged messages or provide further details about when they were discovered. Burgum also defended treating damage to the Reflecting Pool as damage to a national monument, noting the pool has been part of the Lincoln Memorial complex since 1922.

“The Reflecting Pool... is part of the monument, so when people are using box cutters to do vandalism on this thing, it’s the same as if they were throwing paint on Lincoln’s statue in the eyes of the law," he said. Burgum said that the administration views the damage as an attack on a protected national monument.

Administration links vandalism claims to damage at refurbished pool

The comments follow claims by Trump and administration officials that vandals intentionally damaged the recently restored Reflecting Pool.

Earlier this month, Trump said someone had cut a roughly 300-foot slit in the pool's new lining using what he described as "probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind." He also alleged that vandals caused an algae bloom by putting fertilizer into the water, though the administration has not publicly provided evidence supporting those claims.

The White House previously released surveillance footage it said showed suspects damaging the site, while the US Park Police has sought the public's help identifying an individual in connection with the destruction of government property.

Earlier this month, the National Mall lawn was also defaced with the numbers "86 47." Separately, former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted over an Instagram post showing shells arranged into the same numbers, a combination that critics have interpreted as symbolically calling for the assassination of the 47th president and as a symbol of “quiet resistance.”