The Trump administration has put up fencing around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where the White House has struggled to manage algae blooms and a cracking seal on one of its signature Washington renovation projects.

On Tuesday, TMZ captured video of workers putting up a chain-link fence around sections of the landmark, which the administration has spent more than $16 million renovating since April.

“The Reflecting Pool was always set to be fenced off ahead of the 4th of July,” the Department of the Interior told The Independent in a statement. “As in years prior, one of the launch pads for the fireworks is around the pool so fencing is put up to ensure public safety. With the increase in vandalism by leftist activists, the fencing is going up earlier than originally planned to ensure no more damage is done to this historic site.”

An increased law enforcement presence now surrounds the pool, made up of Park Police, National Guard troops and U.S. Marshals.

The White House claims vandals have sabotaged the project by dumping fertilizer into the pool and cutting what President Donald Trump said was a 350-foot gash into its newly refinished underwater surface.

“It was purposefully and criminally done, and somebody had to work very hard, probably in the dark of night, to create such a condition,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “Likewise, the small area at the bottom of the Pool was cut and powerfully lifted off the surface leaving very jagged, uneven edges.”

Six people have been arrested for damaging the pool, and seven have been cited, according to the president. The administration has yet to publicly present proof of a coordinated effort to damage the pool.

Trump has also suggested the pool has been a target of paid “pro-algae” protesters.

One of those arrested claims he was wrongly accused.

Former Olympian canoe slalom athlete David Hearn says he touched a “loose flap of coating” because he was “curious as a concerned citizen” then was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor.

“It’s a completely unfounded accusation,” Hearn told The Daily Mail. “We’ve already heard many lies from this administration…That’s just another lie.”

Hearn has vowed to fight the charges.

“There was no crime,” his lawyer, Norm Eisen, told MS Now on Monday. “There’s certainly no wrongdoing.”

“This is a Reflecting Pool where people have — for decades — touched the water,” he added. “How can it be a crime to touch the water of the Reflecting Pool?”

Parks workers were aware of problems with the Reflecting Pool throughout early June, even as the president insisted the project had been a success after the pool had been drained, resurfaced, then refilled.

They found cuts in sections of foam within the pool’s expansion joints, rather than its newly resealed coating, and noted a bubbling system meant to deter algae was not operating at full capacity, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

The overall renovation will likely not be complete by July 4, despite the administration’s goal of fixing up Washington monuments in time for America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

“It will not be before the celebrations, that’s for sure,” Francois Rivard, vice president of Rhino Linings, which supplied the spray-on lining used to refinish the pool, told POLITICO. “It would be up to [the National Park Service] to tell you exactly when they plan … but it’s in a matter of weeks, not years.”

“Atlantic Industrial Coatings in conjunction with the US Park Service has identified some areas in the Reflecting Pool that require repairs,” Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia-based contractor overseeing the renovation, wrote in a statement on Sunday on its website. “These areas are a very small part of the massive 7 acre project, and do not indicate a failure of the liner.”

“These repairs can not be made until the pool is drained,” the company added. “As soon as its feasible for the Park, the pool will be drained and AIC will be back to make those needed repairs as part of the warranty.”

The president himself has acknowledged the delays.

“The Reflecting Pool is as beautiful as it can be,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “We will drain some of the water, either immediately before or after the Fourth of July, to do the permanent repair.”