Trump presented Washington renovations as Republicans sought to retain Congress
The Justice Department has acknowledged in court that a rushed repair caused the new blue liner President Donald Trump installed at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington to peel and detach. Trump again accused vandals of damaging the project, a claim that conflicts with the Justice Department’s acknowledgment. At the Nov. 2 event, Trump stood silently while triumphant music played, then held up a poster showing the algae-clogged pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. He wore a white “USA” hat and stood before a pool he had renovated twice that year.
The appearance was the final moment of Trump’s last big speech before Election Day, away from the campaign trail where Republicans were trying to make their case to voters to hang onto control of Congress. Trump spent the day before the pivotal midterms showing Washington renovations rather than barnstorming around the country. The Associated Press said he appeared more focused on cosmetic upgrades in the nation’s capital than on other achievements in his second term or voter concerns such as high prices.
Republican strategist Doug Heye, a former communications director at the Republican National Committee, said: “It starts just with the setting being bizarre and being very self-focused.” Heye continued: “And then you had the pictures and the posters on the easels and all of that — none of which help a single undecided voter in the last day of the elections move to the Republican Party.” He called the Reflecting Pool speech the “last thing” Republican candidates needed and added, “Maybe it doesn’t register, but it sure doesn’t help.”
Jennifer Mercieca, a communications professor at Texas A&M University who watched clips of the speech, said it seemed focused less on influencing voters in Tuesday’s midterm contest than on cementing, “somewhat literally,” his legacy long-term. She said in an email: “I doubt that the parents who felt like they couldn’t afford to buy Halloween candy this year will be impressed with Trump’s DC renovation projects, but perhaps Trump is speaking to history more than he is to the current moment.”
Trump’s campaign schedule also changed over the weekend. The campaign canceled plans for rallies in Kansas and Iowa, then reversed course and rescheduled both for Sunday. The Associated Press said the cancellations suggested he did not need to go in person to shore up candidates and could instead promote GOP contenders in brief telerallies. Trump was scheduled Monday for nine telerallies, during which he would speak for about 10 minutes on mass phone calls to supporters.
Trump said: “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.” He did not explain why his public appearance centered on renovations. The expensive repair was followed by algae blooms clogging the pool and chunks of the new blue liner peeling up and detaching. Trump spent more than 20 minutes on construction before pivoting to the election.
During the renovation display, Trump held up about half a dozen pictures, images of rusted pipes from the pool’s plumbing system and the construction process. One poster beside him showed the pool from above and read, “Back, and more beautiful than ever!” He detailed the work on the site and his efforts to beautify the rest of Washington. He explained why “American flag blue” was the right shade for “great reflectivity.”
Trump mentioned the word grass about 20 times, referring to Bermuda grass, new grass, old grass, beautiful grass, “inferior grass,” grass he said was vandalized and grass growing in the cracks of his recently replaced helipad. He said grass was “like a human being” and “has a life,” described grass donated and installed “with love” near the White House and said some things that looked like grass were not grass. “That’s not grass, that’s algae,” Trump said while holding a photograph of the reflecting pool after its water turned green.
The Reflecting Pool is a long, narrow basin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and one of Washington’s most iconic sites. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech from the memorial’s steps in 1963 while looking out over the pool. Trump made the site a focus during the summer, speaking frequently about his plans on social media, at the White House and elsewhere. He displayed posters about the project in the Oval Office and had his motorcade drive him over the resurfaced pool before it was refilled.
After the initial renovations, the pool soon clogged with algae blooms, and chunks of its “American-flag blue” liner peeled up and floated. The Justice Department charged former Olympian David Hearn with intentionally damaging the Reflecting Pool, then dropped the case that summer after determining he was not responsible.
Trump said he was not stopping at the pool. He described plans for a massive triumphal arch that he had started calling a “military complex,” compared it with the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and said his version would have “tremendous drone capability” and “sniper or shooter capability.” He also discussed renovations to a public golf course in Washington and a “National Garden of American Heroes” that was supposed to include sculptures of 250 prominent Americans. Trump said he was reviewing possible names for statues of historic figures who would appear and suggested the garden could double in size and feature 500 statues.
After more than 20 minutes focused on his construction projects, Trump pivoted to the elections and said they could be the most important midterms “in our lifetime.” He described his political rivals as extremists, saying Democrats had “nominated the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history.”
The Associated Press reported that Democrats’ chances of winning control of the House and Senate had improved because of public frustration over Trump’s inability to bring down inflation and his decision to launch the Iran war, which he defended in his Monday remarks. Trump said oil prices were going down and told voters: “I hope people realize that when they go into the voting booth, because we had to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon.”
Trump also said his administration had given the country its most secure borders and the largest income tax cuts in the nation’s history. He cautioned that sitting presidents usually struggle in midterm elections: “For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms,” Trump said. “But we gave this a very strong shot.”