President Donald Trump turned his last scheduled in-person rally before Election Day into an extended showcase of Washington renovation projects. He devoted over 20 minutes to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Only after that did he pivot to the midterm elections in the final stretch of the campaign.
How Donald Trump’s final scheduled speech before the midterms unfolded
Donald Trump stood before the newly reopened water feature on Monday afternoon and declared the project finished. “Today I’m thrilled to announce the official opening of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool,” he told the crowd, noting the site had sat behind fences for months while a troubled $14 million renovation dragged on.
He praised the outcome in familiar terms. “The pool is now better and more beautiful than it’s ever been before, and we’re very proud of it,” Trump said. He then revived his claim that vandals caused the damage and delays — an assertion his own administration undercut. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told a court on July 31 that a contractor’s faulty installation was to blame, and prosecutors later dropped their case against a former Olympic canoeist charged in the matter.
The renovation has faced public setbacks since June, when algae turned the water green, and the promised coating began peeling. Trump on Monday blamed Joe Biden and Barack Obama for overspending on earlier repairs. Anyhow, only around the 23-minute mark did Trump reach the midterms.
“As you know, this is the last day before the midterm elections, the most important midterm, I believe, in our lifetime,” he said. He branded the Democratic slate “the most extreme and dangerous” in American history, singled out Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed by name, and repeated his pledge that Republicans would send $5,000 to “everybody” if they hold Congress.
Trump also conceded the historical pattern working against him. “For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms. But we gave this a very strong shot,” he said. He closed out by revisiting the Reflecting Pool and floating further capital projects — a triumphal arch, a Potomac promenade, a “National Garden of American Heroes” with 250 to 500 statues, and repairs to a city golf course facing legal challenges.
