Trump’s ‘Pool Guy’ Doug Burgum’s Reflecting Pool Boondoggle Gets Worse After Trump’s Unverified Vandalism Claims
Burgum’s Boosted and Militarized D.C. Park Police Missing In Action
HELENA, MT – When Donald Trump claimed, without evidence, that the Reflecting Pool had been “vandalized” on social media, one question went conspicuously unanswered: where was the U.S. Park Police? Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has made the force a signature priority, offering $70,000 signing bonuses to new recruits and pledging to double the force’s numbers in Washington, D.C. with the explicit goal of making it “the premier law enforcement agency in the nation’s capital.” Yet neither the Park Police, the National Park Service, nor the Interior Department responded to media requests for comment on the alleged “vandalism” at the very monument Burgum’s buildout was supposed to protect.
“Doug Burgum has spent the last year militarizing the U.S. Park Police with lucrative signing bonuses and a crash hiring surge, claiming it was all about protecting the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall,” said Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks. “Now, after Trump made unsubstantiated claims, Burgum’s boosted and militarized Park Police are nowhere to be found. No statement, no response to reporters, and no accountability. Trump’s self-proclaimed ‘pool guy,’ Doug Burgum, owns the boondoggle, and it’s only getting worse and more costly by the day.”
Despite dispatching the park police, national guard, and AI surveillance systems to the National Mall and the Reflecting Pool, reporters who have attempted to contact the National Park Service and went to Park Police headquarters in Washington, D.C. to seek answers have been completely ignored. Any evidence of vandalism has yet to be confirmed.
Additional Resources:
Doug Burgum’s Reflecting Pool Fiasco Raises Serious Questions About His Future
Doug Burgum Is Letting National Parks Fail As America’s 250th Birthday Approaches
Doug Burgum Raids National Park Fees for Donald Trump’s Political Events and Vanity Projects
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
###
