President Donald Trump began his final scheduled in-person speech before Tuesday’s Election Day with a lengthy disquisition about his efforts to renovate the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool and other sites in Washington.
“Today I’m thrilled to announce the official opening of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool,” Trump said Monday afternoon in front of the water feature, which was fenced off for months amid a problem-plagued renovation the president had ordered.
The speech, which lasted nearly an hour, was expected to serve as Trump’s “closing argument” on the midterms before millions of voters head to the polls to determine which party will control the House and Senate in the next Congress.
But Trump kicked off his remarks with more than 20 minutes of commentary that focused largely on the pool, along with his administration’s work on refurbishing other Washington-area monuments and cracking down on crime in the nation’s capital.
“The pool is now better and more beautiful than it’s ever been before, and we’re very proud of it,” Trump said, before repeating unfounded claims that vandals were responsible for damaging the pool and delaying repairs.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told a court July 31 that the damage was caused by a contractor’s botched installation. Trump lashed out at Pirro over the admission and has continued to claim vandals were to blame.
Trump’s first explicit reference to the midterms came around the 23-minute mark.
“As you know, this is the last day before the midterm elections, the most important midterm, I believe, in our lifetime,” Trump said.
“The Democrat Party has nominated the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history,” he said.
He touted his administration’s record and lashed out at some Democratic candidates by name, including Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed. He also repeated his controversial claim that if Republicans win, “everybody is going to get $5,000.”
“We have to keep our Congress strong, free,” Trump said. “America is ready to go. They’re ready to vote. I hope they’re ready to do the right thing.”
But Trump, as he has done in other recent remarks, seemed to acknowledge that Democrats had an advantage — at least when looking to historical trends that show the president’s party tends to underperform in midterm elections.
“For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms. But we gave this a very strong shot,” he said.
Later in the speech, Trump continued discussing the pool, as well as his push to erect a massive triumphal arch in Washington and his plans to build a promenade along the Potomac River.
He also said the government planned to build a “National Garden of American Heroes,” comprising “250 to 500 great American heroes in statue form.” And he talked about ongoing efforts to renovate a public golf course in Washington that is subject to legal challenges.