WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump delivered his closing midterm speech on Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, in an address the White House billed as his “closing argument” before Tuesday’s election, USA Today reported.
Trump opened with the pool itself. He announced its official reopening and spent more than 20 minutes at the start of his remarks on the renovation he ordered, according to The Associated Press.
Early in the speech he joked about giving the landmark a new name. “We’ll announce that some time tomorrow,” he said of renaming it the “Trump Reflecting Pool.” “I’m sure that Secretary Doug Burgum will have a lot of fun in announcing that. Now I’m only kidding. I’m only kidding. Please don’t report it.”
He showed before-and-after photographs of the pool and held up blown-up images of rusted pipes taken during the work. “And by the way, we resurfaced the granite. This granite was all resurfaced,” he said.
“The pool is now better and more beautiful than it’s ever been before,”
He described the blue paint at the bottom of the basin and the steps taken to deal with algae. “This is a massive piece of pool,” he said, thanking Burgum, the National Park Service and local police for their work on the renovation.
The pitch after the pool
Trump then turned to the election. He described Democrats as radicals and urged voters to support Republicans on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.
He pointed to what he described as foreign-policy achievements in Venezuela and Greenland and said crime was falling under his administration, particularly in Washington, D.C. He promised $5,000 checks to every American adult if Republicans keep control of Congress and said Americans were benefiting from tax legislation passed during his administration.
Tuesday’s vote will decide which party controls Congress for Trump’s final two years in office. In a podcast interview released Monday, he said he would become “Mr. Veto” if Democrats win Congress. He also said he would issue preemptive pardons to Elon Musk and other aides if he had to protect them from Democratic investigations.
A renovation that kept causing trouble
The pool, a long, narrow basin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, clogged with algae blooms this summer, and its “American-flag blue” liner began peeling and floating up in chunks.
Trump has blamed vandalism for the damage. The Associated Press reported that those claims are false and that Washington’s top federal prosecutor later said the problems came from a “botched installation.”
The Justice Department charged former Olympian David Hearn with intentionally damaging the Reflecting Pool, then dropped the case this summer after determining he was not responsible.
Signs on the platform where Trump spoke read “Restoring our Capitol,” and a display board showed the pool under the words “Back, and more beautiful than ever!”
Trump was also scheduled to take part in nine tele-rallies for Republicans on Monday, using brief remarks on mass phone calls to ask for voters’ support. Vice President JD Vance campaigned in New York and Ohio, including a stop in Rome, New York, for Republican House candidates Kailee Buller and Anthony Constantino.
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