Interior Secretary Doug Burgum had a testy encounter with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday after she grilled him about the Trump administration’s claims that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was vandalized.

Appearing on “State of the Union,” Bash asked Burgum for proof of the vandalism Donald Trump alleged caused the peeling paint and algae outbreak that has consistently plagued the pool since the president ordered its multi-million-dollar renovations.

“You’re 100% sure that what happened with the liner was vandalism? You can prove it?” Bash asked.

“Oh yeah, absolutely you can,” Burgum said. “And as we drain it, we’ve got all the photographs. We can see, I mean there’s no possible way—”

Bash interrupted him to ask if the photographs were specifically of “a person or people cutting a 300 or 350 foot gash in the bottom of the reflecting pool,” as Trump claimed.

That’s when things got heated.

“Dana, I’m not sure why you and others in the media think that you want to keep trying to question whether or not—” Burgum snapped. “This is an industrial liner. Every farmer and rancher in America that’s had their pickup liner lined by this sprayed-on liner knows that you literally it would never just like peel off or fall off. This is like a strong material.”

CNN's Dana Bash and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during an interview on "State of the Union" on July 5, 2026.

Youtube/CNN.

Burgum claimed that the only way to have slices in one spot and not the other was if “someone physically cut it.” He also alleged that the pool had been leaking 45,000 gallons per day until it was fixed by Trump.

Trump has made a string of wild claims about the ongoing issues with the Reflecting Pool. He has repeated unproven claims that the pool was vandalized with a knife. And last week, while delivering remarks in Medora, N.D., he suggested that the algae had been maliciously placed in the pool.

“We got rid of the algae, which they put in,” Trump claimed. “They had a couple of people with signs [that said] ‘Protect the algae.’ Can you believe this? This world has gone crazy.”