President Donald Trump delivered his final scheduled public remarks Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as Democrats emphasized the economy ahead of U.S. midterm voting on Tuesday.
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President Donald Trump used his final scheduled public remarks before polls opened Tuesday to focus on renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, while Democrats worked to keep their closing message centered on the economy after a divisive intraparty fight in the Midwest.
Speaking Monday afternoon at the Reflecting Pool at the National Mall, Trump said the project had been “sabotaged by vandals,” despite court acknowledgements from the Justice Department that a blue liner he installed on the pool surface peeled and detached because of a rushed repair job.
Trump spent much of his remarks reflecting on the Reflecting Pool renovation, including efforts to remove algae and install new grass. He also promoted nearby Washington-area construction projects, including a golf course and a “promenade” that would allow people to walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River.
In his address, Trump also briefly portrayed his political rivals as extremists, saying Democrats had “nominated the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history.”
Elsewhere on Monday, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s request to sideline thousands of disputed California mail ballots. The president also raised the prospect of voter fraud in Alaska.
Voting activity was already high ahead of Election Day. As of Monday, more than 57 million ballots had been cast in 47 states and D.C., compared with a little under 44.5 million in 49 states and D.C. in 2022.
In the Midwest, Democrats sought to contain fallout from a messy intraparty dispute triggered the day before after Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed Republican candidate Mike Rogers in place of her party’s Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed.
El-Sayed did not mention the controversy at an event Monday at Eastern Michigan University, instead emphasizing that the campaign was about voters. When asked what he would tell supporters worried about the effect of Stevens’ endorsement, El-Sayed said: “Go vote.”
Trump acknowledged during Monday remarks that the midterm election may not go well for him or his party, and said midterms have not historically favored sitting presidents, adding, “For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms, but we gave this a very strong shot.”
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