Trump touts reflecting pool as US midterm battle reaches finale

United States President Donald Trump devoted his final public remarks before Tuesday’s midterm elections to touting renovations of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, even as Democrats sought to contain a rift in Michigan’s closely fought US Senate race.

Polls show Democrats poised to seize the House of Representatives and within reach of the Senate in Tuesday’s vote — a shift that would impose tight political constraints on the president.

The pool — an iconic landmark where botched repairs came to symbolise the 80-year-old’s chaotic presidency — is one of the US capital’s historic stages. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking the pool.

In his only public remarks scheduled for Monday, Trump, a former real-estate developer, spent more than 20 minutes discussing pipes, joints, caulking, granite resurfacing, algae and leaks at the belated reopening of the Washington reflecting pool.

“Does somebody have those pictures for me?” the president asked his aides before sharing illustrations of the “miles of joints” that had been replaced.

“So 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, also mentioning the grass at the White House, his new Marine One helipad, a golf course and a triumphal arch that faces a court challenge.

A White House official earlier told AFP that the speech would highlight “this administration’s achievements to make the country safer and wealthier” while contrasting “the Republicans’ commonsense America First agenda” with “the Democrats’ radical, America Last agenda”.

Trump said on Sunday he picked the site “just to show how beautiful it is”. But the roughly $15 million renovation left the pool’s lining peeling and its water green with algae. He pointed at vandalism, but federal prosecutors blamed faulty work.

Under Trump, it has also become part of a sweeping drive to remake Washington, which has included tearing down part of the White House and threatening to demolish the city’s premier arts centre.

Trump has predicted victory in the midterms for his Republicans, but he acknowledged the alternative in an interview released on Monday by the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast.

“I think we’re going to do great — but if we didn’t win, I veto everything,” he said. “I’ll be vetoing, vetoing. And then they’ll come along and we’ll probably make some deals along the way.”

Winning just the House would give Democrats voting power over the federal budget and control of committees able to investigate alleged corruption under Trump, the Epstein files and other explosive issues.

A Democratic Senate could also block Trump’s lifetime appointments to the courts, including the Supreme Court.

‘Ransack, rape and plunder’

Trump warned Republican lawmakers in January that losing the midterms would lead to his impeachment.

The loss of total Republican control would push him toward lame-duck status, with high inflation at home and the war against Iran still weighing on his presidency.

Democrats, meanwhile, prepared final rallies in battleground states, including in Texas with James Talarico and in Kansas with Adam Hamilton — two star Senate candidates seeking major upsets. Kansas has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century.

But a decade into the Trump era, Democrats remain wary of predicting victory.

Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock told CNN that the mood was “nauseously optimistic”.

Republicans have run a scorched-earth campaign, painting Democrats as communists and branding Abdul El-Sayed, the Muslim Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, a terrorist.

Addressing a crowd in Iowa on Sunday, Trump said Democrats are “extreme and dangerous radicals” who will “steal your wealth” and let in migrants to “ransack, rape and plunder”.

Democrats have faced late divisions of their own, with left-wing candidates at times clashing with the party establishment.

On Sunday, Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens endorsed El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, in Michigan’s pivotal Senate race. Stevens lost a bruising primary to El-Sayed in August despite establishment backing.

Senate in play

While the House appears highly likely to turn Democratic, the battle for the Senate is far closer.

Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control. Only a third of the 100 seats are being contested, and few of those races initially looked favorable to the party.

To win, Democrats must flip seats in states that Trump carried by double digits two years ago.

Forecaster Decision Desk HQ has Democrats winning the Senate 52-48 and the House by a comfortable 241-194.

The final New York Times/Siena poll, released Sunday evening, showed Democrats leading in all seven of the most competitive Senate races, though five were within the margin of error.

Tuesday is election day, but a record 54 million people have already cast ballots.

The midterms have also drawn about $11bn in advertising, with large chunks coming from individual mega-donors.

Elon Musk, the Trump ally who led the so-called DOGE drive to slash the federal government, has given nearly half a billion dollars to help elect Republicans.