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WASHINGTON — President Trump says vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial — in the spot where he had a stage built and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebration.

Trump made the accusation in a social media post on Sunday without saying why he believes it’s the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. The Republican president posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across much of the sprawling turf.

“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” Trump said on his social media website.

“Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!” he added.

Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for damage to his renovation projects in the nation’s capital, often without evidence and sometimes despite opposing accounts from his officials. He lashed out at U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro this month after her office concluded that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of poor construction and not the work of vandals, as Trump claimed.

Authorities on Friday announced an arrest in connection with vandalism at the World War II Memorial, after the words “Clean hands dirty $” were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain. Pirro said felony charges were being brought against Melissa L. Farris, who was in custody and couldn’t be reached for comment.

A woman identified on her Facebook page as Melissa Lovewell on Thursday posted a video in which she is seen taking cans of spray paint from her bag and then painting the monument. “I will wait here to be arrested for spraying our veterans’ fountain,” she says. “It was me. I’m doing it. It’s on camera.”

The woman was identified by her Kentucky driver’s license as Melissa L. Farris of Elizabethtown, an arrest warrant says.

Charging documents in that case make no mention of the grassy area Trump is highlighting in his new claims. Authorities said Farris had been arrested previously for camping on federal property a few blocks from the World War II Memorial, but not the area cited by Trump.

That stretch of lawn is instead where a large stage was built and crowds gathered to hear from Trump and watch fireworks at a July 4 event celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Trump claimed without providing evidence that more than 400,000 people attended the event before a storm hit the area and delayed his remarks.

Photos from the time, taken by a streaming webcam atop the Washington Monument, show a large bandstand and seating areas covering nearly the entire lawn that Trump now says has been vandalized. Associated Press photos from the days that followed showed workers removing the structures, revealing brown, damaged grass underneath.

On Aug. 1, Trump posted a different photo of the same area that appears to show the numbers “86 47” — which federal officials have said constitutes a threat against Trump, the 47th president — emblazoned into the grass. He cited it as evidence refuting Pirro’s conclusion, calling it “a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass.”

“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” he wrote.

Those numbers are not visible in the photo Trump posted to social media on Sunday.

Over the weekend, the Inland Empire radio station, KCAL-FM 96.7, started playing music without any on-air staff.

The Redlands-based radio station laid off all of its radio personalities last week and transitioned into an “All Music, All the Time” classic rock format.

“96.7 KCAL Rocks is turning the page today. Thank you to every listener who made the last chapter what it was,” the station’s staff wrote in a social media post. “Classic rock. Nothing but music. All day across the Inland Empire.”

The station’s veteran radio hosts, part-time and weekend fill-ins, were all cut from the rock station, including Daryl Norsell, who worked at the station for 42 years; Patrick Tish, who said he worked at the station for 15 years and Nikki Preston. John DeSantis, the evening host and program director for the past six years, confirmed the layoffs in a social media post.

“They will be moving to an automated, human-less format. To say this is shocking is an understatement. I have a lot to process, and will be saying more shortly,” DeSantis wrote. “But for right now, I just want to thank all of you for letting me be part of the KCAL family. It has been a radio dream come true. You will always rock.”

The radio station has served the Inland Empire ever since first hitting the airwaves in 1965. KCAL is owned by Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation, which also operates the area’s classic hits radio station, KOLA 99.9FM. Together, the two stations reach over 800,000 weekly listeners in the Riverside-San Bernardino market, according to Anaheim Broadcasting. The company could not be reached directly for a comment on the layoffs.

“We rebuilt KCAL around the music our listeners grew up on, the songs and the artists that made classic rock,” Kelly Sanders, the chief operating officer of Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation, said in a news release to the Southern California News Group “KCAL will deliver a focused, consistent listening experience with broader appeal for both our audience and advertising partners.”

The release also noted that the change “expands the station’s musical focus and will have fewer interruptions and more music throughout the day” and did not address the layoffs, according to a report from the OC Register.

This is the second major blow to the Inland Empire’s broadcast community this summer. In June, the last local on-air hosts at Riverside-based KGGI-FM were laid off, in iHeartMedia’s latest round of national job cuts. In an internal memo, the media giant said the cuts were meant to restructure its radio programming to better “leverage” the company’s technology.

Steve “Razz” Brazill started working at KCAL FM in 1987, as the station’s resident concert photographer and radio personality. In a social media post, he called KCAL his “home” and reminisced about hosting live events at the now-closed Whiskey Creek restaurant in Redlands.

“KCAL has been a part of my identity. And I’m so happy to say I never really had coworkers, I had friends and family, and memories I’ll cherish forever,” wrote Brazill. “Being a part of KCAL ended for all of us today, but those relationships won’t. I’ll miss seeing you all at the studio, but I look forward to seeing you in real life.”