Politics

Trump makes his final midterm pitch at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

Washington • November 2, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Editorial illustration: a speaker at a podium seen from behind, addressing a crowd beside a long reflecting pool with a columned monument in the background on an autumn afternoon

Editorial illustration — Press Pass USA

President Donald Trump closed his midterm campaign on Monday with a speech at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — but spent more than 20 minutes talking about his Washington construction projects before turning to the election itself, a day before voters decide control of Congress.

Standing on the National Mall with the pool and the Washington Monument behind him, Trump walked through his administration's work on the Reflecting Pool, holding up photos for emphasis, and touted other capital projects: a helipad on the South Lawn, spruced-up Lafayette Park and Columbus Circle, re-grassed lawns in front of the White House, and his planned 250-foot Triumphal Arch. A sign beside the pool read: "Back, and more beautiful than ever!"

"We've now fixed all the piping, it's in great shape," Trump said, also displaying a photo of what he called the pool's "tremendous algae problem." "And by the way, we resurfaced the granite. This granite was all resurfaced."

When he did turn to the midterms, Trump warned that the Democratic Party had nominated "the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history," and said Democrats wanted to "blow all of this up by electing communists and jihadists." He also renewed his promise of a $5,000 "Trump Dividend" check to every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans keep control of both the House and the Senate, celebrating what he called the country's "golden age" — citing Monday's steep drop in oil prices, low unemployment, falling crime and scant illegal immigration.

"For some reason, the sitting president doesn't win the midterms, but we gave this a very strong shot," Trump acknowledged, urging voters to do "the right thing." He singled out only two Democratic candidates by name: Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who would be the country's first Muslim senator, and Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola, whom he accused of a role in recruiting a same-name candidate to confuse voters against incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.

The choice of closing message was striking given the political backdrop. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates 222 House districts as favoring Democratic candidates — more than the 218 needed for a majority — and 14 of the 18 "toss-up" districts are currently held by Republicans. On the Senate side, final New York Times/Siena polls put Democrats ahead in six of the seven contested states that will decide control, and tied in the seventh; six of those seven seats are currently held by Republicans. Trump's approval sits at 37% in an Emerson College poll, a new low ahead of the midterms, and USA TODAY's live coverage cited the New York Times poll tracker at 36% approval against 61% disapproval — the lowest for any president heading into a midterm election in 80 years.

The Reflecting Pool itself has been a saga. Trump first announced the project on April 23, describing the pool as a "filthy, dirty" place that was "leaking like a sieve," and estimated it would cost $1.5 million and last decades. But USA TODAY's analysis of federal contract data found that a company named Atlantic Industrial Coatings had already been contracted for nearly $6.9 million for the project on April 3, and Green Water Solutions, an Ohio-based company, had received a no-bid contract for more than $1.7 million. After the pool was refilled in the week of June 8, algae blooms turned the water green and pieces of the new blue paint began peeling. Trump blamed vandals, saying someone had put fertilizer in the water and cut a "350-foot slit" in the pool — and on Monday he repeated the claim: "The vandals went to work, but we also went to work on the vandals."

Trump framed the construction push as the message itself: he is literally and metaphorically fixing Washington. "We fought for 250 years to make it great. We're not going let it be torn down by a bunch of people that have failed everywhere they've been," he said. "So we'll defend our country, our culture and our heritage for generations to come."

Whether that message resonates in a midterm cycle dominated by voter concern over the cost of living will be decided Tuesday, Nov. 3, when polls close — at 7:30 p.m. in Ohio — and the first results come in.

Sources: USA TODAY (Nov. 2, 2026, full article verified); New York Post (Nov. 2, 2026, full article verified).