Trump's Closing Argument Was a Reflecting Pool: the President Spent Election Eve Touting a Renovation
President Donald Trump skipped the campaign trail on the eve of the midterms and delivered his closing argument in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — spending its first 15 minutes on piping, granite and algae before turning to the election.
On the last day before the midterm elections, the president's closing argument was a reflecting pool. President Donald Trump forwent the campaign trail on Monday and spoke instead from the National Mall in Washington, with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument behind him, in a lengthy speech the White House billed as his closing argument before a midterm election dominated by concerns about the economy and the cost of living, the Associated Press reported.
The renovation came first, and it was not brief. Trump spent more than 15 minutes opening on the pool itself, USA TODAY reported — the resurfaced granite, the before-and-after photographs, the algae. "We've now fixed all the piping, it's in great shape," he said. "Tremendous algae problem." He announced the pool's official reopening, joked that he would rename it the "Trump Reflecting Pool" — "We'll announce that some time tomorrow," he said, naming Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, before adding, "I'm only kidding. Please don't report it" — and repeated his claims that the repair work he ordered had been vandalized, claims the AP has reported as false; the pool's blue liner had in fact peeled and floated up in chunks after algae blooms. Wearing a white "USA" hat, he closed by standing silently as music played, holding up a poster of the previously algae-clogged pool. It was his last public appearance before Election Day, with nine telerallies for Republican candidates also scheduled Monday.
The election arrived about 22 minutes in. Trump slammed Democrats as "communist jihadists" who want to stop the progress of his administration. "We can't let that happen," he said. "We have to keep our Congress strong, free." He seemed to concede the speech's own detour: "We have a lot of great things planned for Washington, and I could get into the nation, but for that, you don't have enough time." The AP noted the contrast the speech embodied — a closing message focused on a Washington makeover while voters, by every survey of the cycle, are focused on the high cost of living, an issue the president has called a "hoax."
For New Yorkers, the speech lands hours before their own verdict. Tuesday's elections will determine who controls Congress for Trump's final two years in office, and the city's polls open at 6 a.m. While the president talked about the pool, his vice president was doing the conventional version of the same day — Vice President JD Vance campaigned Monday morning in Rome, New York, stumping for a Republican House candidate in a district the opposition has started to contest. Both halves of the ticket were, in their different ways, making the same ask: keep Congress. By Tuesday night, the country answers.
