CNN anchor Kasie Hunt on Monday offered a critical and amused take on former President Donald Trump's closing message ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, employing a line from the film "Notting Hill" to summarize his remarks.
Trump delivered a speech at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, dedicating a significant portion of his address to detailing his administration's work on renovations to the landmark. Hunt highlighted that the first 22 minutes of his speech concerned "a massive piece of pool and grass and pipes and columns."
After airing a clip where Trump expressed optimism that his voters would secure a "landslide" victory and acknowledged the historical difficulty for a sitting president's party in midterms, Hunt deadpanned, "Well, there’s the closing message, ‘We gave it a shot.’"
Hunt also pointed out that Trump's speech was delivered to a relatively small audience and not in a key battleground state or alongside a Senate candidate. "Instead, it was just a man, he’s in there somewhere, standing in front of a pool, asking you to love it," Hunt concluded, echoing Julia Roberts' character in "Notting Hill."
Social media users also expressed bewilderment at Trump's focus. Critics called the speech "sickening," "bizarre," and likened his focus on the pool renovations to a homeowner complaining about property maintenance. Some noted the surreal nature of the speech, particularly Trump's claims about the pool being vandalized.