Donald Trump delivered his final midterm campaign speech on Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, addressing an audience of about 60 people. During the event, he joked about rebranding the iconic landmark as the “Trump Reflecting Pool,” stating he was giving the idea “serious thought” before revealing he was kidding.
The president spoke for nearly 30 minutes about renovation projects in Washington, D.C., highlighting work done on the Reflecting Pool itself. He called it a "massive piece of pool," claiming it to be the largest in the world. The $14 million project, which faced delays and cost concerns, was awarded a no-bid contract to a Virginia company that had previously worked on a pool at one of Trump’s golf clubs.
Trump attributed a peeling surface on the pool to vandalism, and a former U.S. Olympian has been indicted for alleged damage. Critics, however, have pointed to the quality of the repair work itself.
This was not the first time Trump has pursued renaming landmarks. In May, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center, after Trump had ordered it renamed. His administration had previously ordered Lake Ontario renamed “Lake America” and the Gulf of Mexico renamed the “Gulf of America.” He also floated the idea of renaming the Strait of Hormuz “Trump Strait.”
The speech took place the day before voters were set to decide control of the House and Senate. Trump's decision to hold his final campaign event in Washington, rather than a battleground state, puzzled some Republicans given the projections of potential losses in both chambers of Congress. Polls at the time indicated that Republican incumbents were at risk of losing control of both the House and the Senate.