Trump spends the day before midterm Election Day promoting his Reflecting Pool makeover

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Republicans and Democrats were making their final pitch to voters on the eve of Election Day, President Donald Trump opted to forgo the campaign trail and instead focused on his renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, drawing attention to an expensive, problem-plagued repair job in a place far away from most of the people his party wants to persuade.

It was an unusual closing argument for Republicans to keep control of Congress. But it conforms with the way the president has devoted considerable time, attention and money in his second term on beautifying his Washington surroundings.

Trump, wearing a white “USA” hat, even seemed to admit that he had spent much of his time focused on improving the capital city.

“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," Trump said.

Instead of focusing on issues voters have said they're worried about, Trump dedicated a large portion of his remarks to his D.C. makeover and the pool, announcing its official re-opening, joking that he wanted to name it after himself, and repeating his false claims that the repair work he ordered was vandalized.

After he finished his remarks on Monday, Trump’s stood silently while triumphant music played and he held up a poster with an image of the previously algae-clogged pool. It was his last public appearance before Election Day.

Democrats, for their part, were spending the last 24 hours before Election Day making their case in areas where Republicans have long dominated, while trying to contain the fallout from a messy intraparty split in Michigan. Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was brushing aside concerns that his prospects could be hurt after his former primary opponent threw her support behind his Republican opponent Mike Rogers.

In addition to giving the speech on Monday afternoon, Trump also was scheduled to participate in nine telerallies for Republicans, where he uses brief remarks on a mass phone call to plead for voters' support.

Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, hit the campaign trail with more traditional stops in New York and Ohio, where Republicans were fighting for House and Senate seats.

The Reflecting Pool, a long, narrow basin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, is one of Washington’s most iconic sites. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously gave his “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the memorial in 1963, looking out over the pool.

But this summer it became a focus of Trump's attention, with the president frequently speaking about his plans for the shallow pool on social media, at the White House and beyond. He displayed posters about the project in the Oval Office and even had his motorcade drive him over the resurfaced pool before it was refilled.

The pool was soon clogged with algae blooms, and its “American-flag blue” liner began peeling and floating up in chunks. The Justice Department charged former Olympian David Hearn with intentionally damaging the Reflecting Pool but then dropped the case this summer after determining he was not responsible.

But the president continues to repeat false claims that vandalism — rather than shoddy workmanship — was to blame for a new blue surface peeling away.

On the platform where he spoke Monday, signs were hanging that said “Restoring Our Capitol” and “The Reflecting Pool." A poster perched on a display board showed the reflecting pool under the words, “Back, and more beautiful than ever!”

He waxed on about the particular color blue he selected to have the bottom of the pool painted, the kinds of grass and types of columns he had selected for repairs around Washington, and held up a series of blown-up images of rusted pipes taken during the renovation process.

He then started repeating some of his midterm elections pitch, defending his record and attacking Democratic nominees, before eventually turning back to the pool.

The president's message in the closing days of the midterm campaign was similarly detached from voters' concerns about the high cost of living. He's called affordability a “hoax” while boasting to audiences far from the nation's capital about his renovations of the reflecting pool and the White House, along with repeatedly praising the physiques of the GOP's nominees.

Vance stuck closer to the party message as he campaigned Monday in Rome, New York. As he campaigned for Republican House candidates Kailee Buller and Anthony Constantino, he touted Trump's moves to end taxes on tips and overtime and secure the border while branding Democrats as “lunatics" who have contempt for American voters.

Democratic candidates were working to capitalize on widespread disaffection over high prices, the fallout from Trump's war with Iran and historical trends that typically favor the party out of power in midterm elections.

In places like Iowa, where voters have not elected a Democratic governor in two decades, Democrat Rob Sand was asking canvassers knocking on doors to help break that streak.

“This is it," said Sand, who faces Republican Zach Lahn. "We have 30-whatever hours to change the direction of the state of Iowa.”

He was appearing with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, who cited his own races as proof that a Democrat can win over Trump-backed candidates in states like his own and Iowa.

Democrats in Michigan — a key state in their efforts to try to retake the Senate — were trying to keep their coalition together after a shock on Sunday when Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens announced she would back the GOP candidate instead of her party's nominee, appearing at a church service with Mike Rogers.

Stevens — who lost in the primary to Abdul El-Sayed — is a staunch supporter of Israel, while El-Sayed is a fierce critic of the U.S. ally. He has also been criticized for past remarks regarding a Michigan synagogue attack and for appearances with controversial streamer Hasan Piker.

El-Sayed, who campaigned on Monday with fellow Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, told supporters worried that Stevens' endorsement could hurt him that “If we’re nervous about where we’re going to go from here, go vote."

Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Ankeny, Iowa, Mike Householder in Ypsilanti, Michigan and Mike Catalini and Moriah Balingit in Washington contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump speaks in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, surrounded by his running mate Dave Muhlbauer, left, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, right, speaks to reporters during a canvass launch, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Ankeny, Iowa. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Vice President JD Vance speaks during for a campaign rally at Griffiss International Airport, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 in Rome, N.Y. (Tom Brenner/Pool Photo via AP)

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a campaign rally at Eastern Michigan University, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Ypsilanti, Mich. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The podium is seen where President Donald Trump will speak in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump's administration appealed to the Supreme Court on Monday in its push to sideline thousands of disputed California mail ballots the day before the pivotal midterm elections. The emergency appeal came after an appeals court rejected the request to set aside some 20,000 ballots from people the federal government suspects may not be U.S. citizens.

Trumpclosed out the final weekend before Election Day with rallies in two states he had handily won in the past.

At the same time, Democrats began to fracture in Michigan, risking their effort to retake the Senate. Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s former opponent in the U.S. Senate primary, Haley Stevens, stunned party officials Sunday by endorsing Republican Mike Rogers as Democratic tensions boiled over days before the election.

Trump made his closing pitch of the midterms Monday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, pushing his slow, expensive and problem-plagued efforts to repair it back into the spotlight on the eve of Election Day.

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The president talked about his plans for building a triumphal arch and renovations for a public golf course, but also floated the idea of a “promenade” that would let people walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River.

“It’s a great architectural concept, simple and beautiful and white stone,” Trump said. He added that it hearkened back to the idea that the river would be the original entrance to the memorial, but the area had gotten “cluttered” with roadways and other projects.

Trump said he is also looking at lists of names for statues of historic figures that would be in a garden of heroes.

“We have a lot of great things planned for Washington,” Trump said, adding that he didn’t have the time to discuss all his plans for the country.

After 20 minutes devoted to his D.C. construction projects, Trump said Tuesday’s elections could be the most important midterms “in our lifetime.”

The president tried to portray his political rivals as extremists, claiming that Democrats had “nominated the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history.”

The Democrats have seen their chances of winning control of the House and Senate improve because of public frustration over Trump’s inability to bring down inflation and his decision to launch the Iran war.

But Trump cautioned that sitting presidents usually struggle in the midterm elections as he said the U.S. has its most secure borders and largest income tax cuts in the nation’s history.

“For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms,” Trump said. “But we gave this a very strong shot.”

The president brought some visual aids to his speech on the Reflecting Pool, holding up photos to show what he deemed to be neglect of the iconic Washington site.

Trump held up pictures of “rusted” pipes and algae as he persisted in claiming that vandalism to his repairs had also been documented, a claim that was undermined in court filings by the president’s own administration.

“It was a work of art that never worked, but now it will work,” Trump said.

About 1,100 customers lost power earlier Monday after the city’s fire department said it was responding to reports of smoke coming from maintenance holes in the downtown Washington area.

Pepco, the electricity provider in Washington, is still investigating what caused the outage, according to spokesperson Jessica Babb.

Power has been restored to all customers, she added.

In a speech to mark the reopening of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after repairs, President Donald Trump joked that he would rename it after himself.

The president is speaking about the troubled repairs to the pool, which he said was damaged by vandals despite an admission in court that shoddy renovations commissioned by Trump caused its shuttering.

The president has chosen this site to address voters on the final day before the Tuesday midterm elections, which will determine control of the House and Senate.

Shannon Taylor, the prosecutor seeking to oust longtime Republican Rep. Rob Wittman in Virginia’s 1st Congressional District and help Democrats flip control of the U.S. House, says voters are fired up and demanding change in this year’s midterm election.

Taylor held a news conference Monday in suburban Richmond, where she said voter enthusiasm and early voting trends leave her confident she’s headed to victory Tuesday.

“People are mad, and people want to see change,” said Taylor, who has run on an anti-corruption platform and focused on the cost of living.

Wittman, who has been in Congress for nearly two decades and touted his experience during this race, was scheduled to campaign later Monday with House Speaker Mike Johnson. Taylor said Johnson’s visit to a district that’s long leaned red highlights the struggles Republicans face this year.

Flooding in the Southwest has forced a Colorado tourist town to alter its Election Day voting plans.

In Pagosa Springs, town residents impacted by the floods who haven’t voted yet can “visit any voter center across the state to request and receive a replacement ballot,” the Secretary of State’s office said in a news release.

People who cast in-person ballots outside their home county can vote only for statewide races, the office said. But if they have access to their mail ballot, they can return it to any drop box or voter center in the state by 7 p.m. on Election Day, and it will be sent to their county clerk for signature verification and tabulation, the office said.

Voting centers will still be open in La Plata County, but some county offices, including the clerk’s office, will have special hours on Tuesday.

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The president’s closing argument for the midterms will have a backdrop of a cleaned-out reflecting pool and the Washington Monument in the distance.

He will stand on a platform decorated with signs that say “Restoring Our Capitol” and “The Reflecting Pool.” Behind him on the lectern is a sign with an aerial image of the pool that reads: “Back, and more beautiful than ever!”

It doesn’t appear that the event, occurring on a cool, clear autumn day, will be open to the public.

There are two short, reserved rows for administration officials and guests, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

The rest of the space is dedicated to the press.

Vice President JD Vance campaigned in rural upstate New York, disparaging Democrats as “lunatics” and warning that failing to elect Republicans could lead to a leftward swing for the country.

Speaking in an airport hangar in the town of Rome, Vance also touted Trump’s achievements, pointing to legislation he signed to end taxes on tips and overtime, even as the president’s approval ratings on the economy slipped to 25% last month.

He stumped for two Republicans running for Congress but did not talk about Bruce Blakeman, the Republican competing to unseat Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Vance said voters could send a message to Democrats “that here in the New York 21st Congressional District, we are fighting for people who love the United States of America, not those who hate it.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was holding talks with Foreign Minister Oliver Blanco at the State Department on Monday, just two weeks after Venezuelan authorities and opposition figures agreed on a blueprint to reform the country’s electoral process so that free and fair elections can take place at some point in 2027. Neither man spoke as they posed for photographs ahead of their meeting.

Rubio said last week that the Trump administration, which ousted former President Nicolas Maduro in a January military operation, would be watching events closely and urged all sides to comply with the new process. He said the goal is a sustainable election architecture that will give all parties confidence in the vote.

“If we’re nervous about where we’re going to go from here, go vote,” Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said Monday at a campaign event in Ypsilanti.

El-Sayed spent the final day before the election campaigning alongside fellow Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Much of his speech focused on getting corporate money out of politics and establishing universal Medicare.

Haley Stevens, whom El-Sayed defeated in the August Democratic primary, endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers on Sunday, exacerbating tensions among Democrats on the eve of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

A spokesperson for Pepco, the electric utility provider in Washington, says the company is working to restore power to about 1,100 customers after an outage this morning in the city’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

Jessica Babb says they’re investigating what caused the outage.

The city’s fire department said on its X account that it was responding to multiple reports of smoke coming from maintenance holes in the area. Photos of the area shortly after showed the smoke had cleared.

The power outages appeared to cover at least a five- or six-block radius between 21st and 17th Streets and from Virginia Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue.

That area includes the State Department. The agency’s headquarters had brief and limited power interruptions, but several off-site annexes, including the Washington Passport Agency, lost power and closed to the public.

The World Bank building was also without power, as were numerous businesses in the vicinity.

The Trump administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday in its push to sideline thousands of disputed California mail ballots the day before the pivotal midterm elections.

The emergency appeal came after an appeals court rejected the request to set aside some 20,000 ballots from people the federal government suspects may not be citizens. The Republican Trump administration has prioritized identifying noncitizen voters this year, despite them being rare.

The federal government says those ballots should not be counted until the voters’ status can be verified. California officials say the list is highly unreliable and likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens.

A district court judge forcefully denied the Justice Department’s request and warned that the demand could disenfranchise citizens in the Nov. 3 midterm elections to determine control of Congress.

On a rainy Monday ahead of Election Day, Democrat Rob Sand asked canvassers in the suburbs north of Des Moines, Iowa, to keep knocking doors during the final stretch.

“We have had some of the closest races in the country right here every single election cycle,” said Sand, a candidate for governor. “This is it. We have thirty-whatever hours to change the direction of the state of Iowa.”

Sand passed the microphone to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who cited his own races as proof that a Democrat can win over Trump-backed candidates in states like his own and Iowa. He, too, reminded the volunteers in the room that even those were by tight margins.

Most Iowans want to vote for a person, not a party, Sand told reporters after. Up and down the ballot this year in Iowa, he said, “there’s a lot of situations where that person might happen, this time around, to be a Democrat.”

In a new interview released Monday, the president indicated he’d have no qualms about issuing pardons to those surrounding him to protect them from potential criminal liability.

The comments come as Democrats could take control of at least one chamber of Congress, giving them investigative powers such as subpoena authority.

“I would if I needed to, sure,” Trump told the New York Post’s Miranda Devine on her “Pod Force One” podcast. “I would not even think about — I’d do it.”

He pointed to preemptive pardons former President Joe Biden issued to family members, administration officials and key lawmakers, such as those who worked on a special committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.

The stakes in Tuesday’s midterm elections are so high that Shane Dunn voted for the first time in his life, at age 65.

After a career as a cook up and down the East Coast, Dunn moved to the Philadelphia suburbs and voted last week in Levittown. “I was always a busy man,” he said outside his polling place. But now, “I’m learning what’s going on within our country, and this is actually what brought me out.”

Voters across the United States are getting their word in, too, as they determine which party controls the Senate and the House and takes charge of governors’ offices, legislatures and state leadership posts in the final two years of Republican Donald Trump’s presidency.

In dozens of Associated Press interviews with people who cast ballots at advance polling places or drop boxes across the country, the angst was palpable, most sharply from those who oppose Trump but also from many who support him.

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For President Donald Trump, this week’s elections are about him. For his fellow Republicans, the risk is voters will agree.

Midterms almost always serve as a referendum on the president’s party, and losses typically ensue. But Trump’s decisions to impose tariffs, start a war and oversee extravagant Washington renovations — largely without congressional consultation — have made it harder for Republicans to navigate those historical headwinds.

There is a direct connection between his actions and higher gas prices, costlier groceries and persistently high inflation.

Republicans cannot blame the fallout from those decisions on past administrations when Trump has owned them so fulsomely. They also cannot easily distance themselves from an unpopular president who demands loyalty and routinely tells voters the economy is just fine.

At virtually every juncture before Election Day on Tuesday, Trump has complicated the task of protecting Republican majorities in Congress.

The Iran war is “making it exponentially harder for Republicans to keep the House and Senate,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, one of the most vulnerable House Republicans, said in a debate while noting his support for the effort.

The NAACP is asking a judge for an emergency order limiting which federal staffers can monitor the polls on Election Day.

The group wants law enforcement agents from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to be barred from the role because they could intimidate voters.

“DOJ’s decision to deploy federal law enforcement agents and personnel to election sites is unlawful and serves a plain purpose: to intimidate voters and election workers alike, and to have a chilling effect on in-person voting on Election Day,” the group wrote in its overnight filing.

The Justice Department has insisted its election monitors around the country on Election Day will be there to observe and will not interfere with voting.

President Donald Trump’s administration has made $15 billion in promises to agricultural producers in the weeks before Tuesday’s midterm elections, initiatives intended to offset higher diesel and fertilizer costs that farmers have endured largely due to his tariffs and the Iran war.

Whether that will motivate more voters to turn out in agricultural states where traditionally Republican seats are now seen as competitive is unclear. It may explain Trump’s increased attention on rural areas, including visits Sunday to Iowa and Kansas.

Of the $15 billion, more than half will go toward a one-time payment plan for farmers impacted by soaring diesel prices. Beyond the $15 billion, the agency also plans $13.8 billion in payments to offset shortfalls during the 2025 crop year for farmers who grow key crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat and rice.

Increased fertilizer and fuel costs have made it difficult for farmers to turn a profit this year. Last year, tariffs drove up expenses for other equipment farmers use, and the trade war with China caused a near boycott of U.S. agricultural goods.

The Justice Department has defended the accuracy of a list that it says has more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens registered to vote in California and suggested that an immigrant rights group should face contempt charges over an analysis of the names.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg had allowed the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights access to data on people the Trump administration alleges are noncitizen voters. Boasberg ordered the plaintiffs not to disclose any names and to use the data only for arguments about why they have legal standing to challenge its use.

In a Saturday court filing, the group said more than 40% of the people on the list do not appear in the state’s voter file. The filing also identified 22 people who were likely naturalized U.S. citizens while saying that thousands more American citizens appeared to be on it.

The Justice Department argued Sunday that the group’s filing had nothing to do with its legal standing and therefore violated Boasberg’s order. The agency also suggested that Boasberg refer the matter for investigation into possible contempt of court.

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President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Salina Regional Airport, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Salina Kan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House after stepping off Marine One, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House after stepping off Marine One, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)