President Trump on Reflecting Pool Vandalism

[0:00] Are the contractors who did the initial work with a reflecting pool, are they to blame for the current condition? [0:07] Or is it the vandal that you mentioned in truth? [0:09] You know, we have a hundred and we have a, I think, two hundred and ninety, three hundred foot slit right through it. [0:17] Probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind. [0:20] We had people lifting up the basic, some of the, it's not a lot of damage, but it's, we'll probably have to let the water out and refix it. [0:30] They went in there with, with a knife. [0:33] I was just told by the, by the people over at Parks, they have, five people are arrested and five people are under investigation right now and it's a sad thing. [0:44] In addition to that, they, you know, we put brand new, beautiful grass all around. [0:48] They put these massive letters on the grass, you probably know about that, right? [0:54] And they said 86, 47, they probably got that from the dirty cop, Comey. [1:00] You know he's a dirty cop, don't you? [1:02] Dirty cop. [1:03] He's a crooked guy. [1:04] They destroyed the grass, so that's a big thing, but we're going to get it back very soon. [1:10] National Guard and police have been on hold. [1:14] Would these vandals have gotten so close to do something like that? [1:17] Do you have any proof of this? [1:18] We didn't have, we didn't have a lot of them then. [1:20] Who would think that somebody would go into a pool and take a knife and start cutting it? [1:24] Do you have proof of that? [1:25] Yeah, yeah, they have proof. [1:26] Do you have photos or videos? [1:27] Well, let's put it this way. [1:29] When you have a 350, I think it's 350, not 250, a 350 foot slit from one end to the other, [1:37] you think that's proof? [1:38] Do you think that's proof? [1:39] The boys have been down there today looking for that slit that you mentioned and there's [1:42] no evidence of it. [1:43] Well, just, all you'd have to do is see the Parks Department, they'll show it to you. [1:46] See, see the Secretary, but I saw it. [1:51] They cut it, they cut it very violently, the same thing with the floor, they cut it, [1:56] and then they lifted it, they pulled it, and that's what it is. [2:00] And you know, we've done over 50 monuments. [2:04] Number one, we start with, this is now a safe city, it's the safest, as safe a city as you're [2:09] going to get in the country. [2:10] And when I came here, it was a very dangerous city. [2:14] And number two, what we did is the beautification with the parks and the grass and the removal [2:19] of all the tents. [2:21] This is like a different place. [2:23] One of the things we did is over 50 fountains and statues, most of which were in horrible [2:29] shape. [2:30] All of them were bad, but some were just absolutely horrible. [2:33] Graffiti, you couldn't even see the stone. [2:35] They've all been fixed. [2:37] We also fixed the reflecting pool. [2:40] In fact, if you go over there right now, it looks very good. [2:43] It's up. [2:44] They put, somebody said, fertilizer in the water. [2:47] If you put fertilizer in the water, you get algae. [2:50] But somebody said they might have put fertilizer. [2:52] They did something to create the algae. [2:54] But that doesn't matter, because that's been purified. [2:59] It's dead. [3:01] Laying at the bottom. [3:02] They're taking it out. [3:03] They vacuum it out. [3:04] They vacuum it very carefully out. [3:06] And it'll be back to health pretty soon. [3:08] We're going to have to let the water out to fix the one little, there's two little areas, [3:12] very little areas where they were cut. [3:14] And we'll fix that. [3:15] But it's not leaking or anything. [3:17] It's got a base underneath. [3:18] Part of what's curious about this situation is we stood here with you in April when you [3:23] first revealed the plans. [3:24] I said what? [3:25] In April, you showed us pictures of what you were going to do at the pool. [3:29] And you said you had a guy who was going to do it in a week for about a million dollars. [3:32] Well, it's been two months since 16 and a half million dollars. [3:35] Okay, ready? [3:36] Barack Hussein Obama. [3:37] Have you ever heard of him? [3:38] Yes. [3:39] He spent two years and over $100 million on trying to fix it. [3:43] You know what happened to it? [3:44] Never even opened. [3:45] Correct. [3:46] He took the water for the river. [3:47] You know about that, right? [3:48] It turned out to be putrid. [3:50] And it destroyed the whole thing. [3:52] Spent over $100 million. [3:53] Him and Biden together spent $147 million. [3:57] You know what happened? [3:58] Never opened. [3:59] You don't mention that, right? [4:02] We spent about $10 million. [4:04] Much of the money we spent are park workers. [4:06] They're there whether they do this or not, as you know. [4:09] They work in the park. [4:10] And they're very good workers. [4:11] They did a great job. [4:13] So they were going to spend $300 to $400 million. [4:16] You know that. [4:18] And it was going to take four years. [4:20] I spent about six, seven weeks. [4:26] And I spent probably, in terms of outside, probably $10 million. [4:32] Around $10 million. [4:33] They say $16 million. [4:34] But a lot of that is workers that work for the same thing. [4:36] So they were going to spend $400 million. [4:38] I spent $10 million. [4:40] They were going to spend four years. [4:42] I spent two months, maybe, less. [4:46] And I have a better product. [4:49] Now I can't help it if somebody goes in with a knife and starts hacking it up. [4:55] And we also have pictures of it. [4:57] Can you release the photos? [4:58] We've been asking for that. [4:59] No, at the right time you'll see it. [5:00] You'll see it in court. [5:01] You'll see it in court. [5:02] But all you have to do is call the Parks Department. [5:04] Call the Department of Interior. [5:06] And I don't know if their lawyers will allow you to speak to them. [5:09] Because, you know, you write fake news. [5:11] But call the Interior Department. [5:15] And I understand they've arrested five people. [5:17] And they have another five people that are under investigation. [5:20] Here's the bottom line. [5:23] We made so much progress in this city. [5:26] People don't even recognize it. [5:28] By the way, men...