Trump Reflecting Pool Speech Closes the Midterm Campaign: 54 Minutes on Pipes, Paint and a $16 Million Pool
The White House billed it as the president's closing argument. On the eve of elections that could cost his party Congress, Donald Trump talked bubblers, algae, new sod and a paint job - and joked about renaming the pool for himself.
The closing argument of the 2026 midterm campaign was delivered, on Monday, at a reflecting pool. President Donald Trump spent his last major speech before Tuesday's elections talking about pipes and paint, Reuters reported - ruminated, for 54 minutes, on his Washington renovations: new sod, the White House helipad, a grand new arch and the recently reopened Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, in remarks the White House billed as part of his closing argument to voters.
The pool itself was the subject in chief. The opening of the president's more-than-$16 million renovation of the 2,000-foot pool was delayed by peeling paint and algae growth that turned its crystal-blue waters green, and on Monday he held up pictures of the landmark as he walked through its new bubblers and pipework and its new paint job. 'I decided to get involved in this, especially over the last few months, and we've done, I think, a really great job,' he said. Facing the towering marble statue of Abraham Lincoln, he joked that he would soon rename the pool in his own honor rather than after the 16th president, and he spoke - without providing evidence, Reuters noted - about vandals' attempts to damage the pool.
The campaign was in the speech, but briefly. Trump attacked Democrats as unfit to serve and said the United States had won the war with Iran, and he conceded the history his party is running against: 'For some reason, the sitting president doesn't win the midterms,' he said. 'But we gave this a very strong shot.' The tour behind that shot was real enough - 28 rallies in 19 states since October 1, where lengthy asides on other topics have been a feature - and the stakes are undiluted: Tuesday's elections determine whether Republicans keep control of Congress, with the president's approval at 32 percent in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, near a career low. He closed on the next projects - a proposed triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and an overhaul of Washington's East Potomac Golf Links. Escambia County votes at 7 a.m.; the argument it just heard was, in large part, about a pool.
