White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was plunged straight into another Trump fiasco as she returned to work after maternity leave on Monday.
The 28-year-old has been out of the spotlight since late April, when she took time off to welcome her second child with her husband, Nicholas Riccio, 60, but is now back to business.
Trump’s $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been beleaguered by problems. The president’s hasty “American Flag Blue” paint job has left the water covered with slime-green algae, and now the paint itself is peeling off.

The White House is now blaming the issue on vandals, with Trump saying that five people have been arrested and Leavitt upping that to six, with 17 police reports filed.
“The vandalism is very real, despite what Tim Walz wants to say: ‘It’s an imaginary problem.’ No, it is not. It’s a very real problem,” Leavitt said on Fox News, referring to outgoing Minnesota governor and Trump critic Tim Walz.
On Saturday, he spoke about the pool on X, saying, “Found an imaginary problem, said only they could fix it, didn’t listen to experts, hired buddies who grifted millions, failed miserably, bragged how great it went. The entire Trump presidency in a nutshell.”
Leavitt was unimpressed by his take.
“In fact, I spoke with the National Park Service just before joining the show,” she continued on Fox. “They now have 17 police reports that have been filed in just a matter of a few days.
“There’s actually been six arrests at the reflecting pool where, again, these deranged individuals, many of them longtime donors to the Democrat Party, to Barack Obama, to Act Blue, that have been vandalizing and desecrating our federal monument, one of the most beautiful monuments in the world, the reflecting pool.”
She did not go into further detail about who the people were.
“And that’s why President Trump is not going to stop with this effort. We’re going to not only hold those people accountable, but we’re going to fix the pool, make it, continue to make it beautiful from this despicable vandalism—just in time to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday next week.”
Her words echoed those of her boss. Earlier that day, Trump was quizzed by reporters in the Oval Office, where he launched into a rambling monologue about box cutters and former FBI director James Comey, and admitted the water would need to be let out.
“We had vandalism. Vandals,” he said. “You know, we have a, I think, 290 to 300-foot slit right through it, probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind. Or we had people lifting up the basic —uh, some of the—but it’s not a lot of damage, but we’ll probably have to let the water out and refix it.
“They went in there with a knife. I was just told by the people over at Parks they have five people arrested and five people are under investigation right now, and it’s a sad thing. In addition to that, you know, we put brand new beautiful grass all around. They put these massive letters on the grass. You probably know about that, right? And uh, they said 8647. They probably got that from the dirty cop, Comey.
“You know he’s a dirty cop, don’t you? Dirty cop, he’s a crooked guy. They destroyed the grass. So that’s a big thing. But we’re going to get it back very soon.”
An investigation into Comey was launched in May after he posted a picture of pebbles on a beach laid out to read 8647.

The 86 is an old-fashioned shorthand used by chefs to mean something has been rejected or is to be disposed of, while Trump is the 47th president of the U.S.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for more information.





