Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President Trump’s deep unpopularity is dragging down Republicans around the country. His personal intervention in Texas’s primary has made the GOP’s Senate majority significantly more difficult to defend. Some wonder if he even cares about Republicans winning the midterm elections at all.
The president didn’t exactly allay those concerns on Monday, a day before polls close. As his X account rolled out pro forma endorsements of various Republicans, the real Trump was laser-focused on the one thing that really animates him right now: Washington renovations. During a roughly 20-minute address in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Trump took a rhetorical victory lap for restoring the beleaguered body of water, even though his administration first bungled the job in extremely high-profile fashion over the last few months. Holding up oversize posters and backed by visual aids, the president went into granular detail about the landmark, which is no longer glaringly empty.
He tackled algae:
He marveled at the new water’s hue:
He uttered the word “recaulked.”
And of course, he mulled adding his name to the finished product:
The New York Times’ Shawn McCreesh compiled a list of some of the topics Trump touched on:
Though deadlines prevent a full fact-check, it seems unlikely that any of these place highly on lists of Americans’ leading concerns at the moment. Nor do Trump’s other projects around town, like the gigantic White House ballroom or the club-ified Rose Garden. Still, Trump was intent on keeping the focus local. “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, according to the Associated Press.
To be fair, Trump did touch on weightier topics like the Iran war he started (not actually a war, per Trump). But the star of his “weave” was the pool, which since the beginning of Trump’s second term has starred in a very Trumpian saga featuring cut-rate contractors and the unjust prosecution of a blameless ex-Olympian.
Oh, right, there’s an election coming up! Trump did get into all that, more than 20 minutes into his appearance. He went typically dark, remarking that “the Democrat Party has nominated the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history.” He called the election the “the most important midterm I believe in our lifetime.” But strangely, he also struck a tone of resignation.
The desultory nature of Trump’s comments was no surprise, and neither was his lack of enthusiasm for an election that polls project will be a drubbing. Trump has been holding rallies around the country, though at a lower rate than he has in the past. (He was scheduled for nine telerallies on Monday, but zero in-person events.) And while he has extolled the virtues of Republican lawmakers, and the ass of one in particular, he has mostly framed the proceedings around himself, urging Americans to vote as if he were on the ballot. Given his current poll numbers, Republicans would probably rather they not.
Still, the GOP can take comfort that by putting water back in the reflecting pool, Trump may have at least pleased some middle-schoolers on field trips, a key demographic for the midterms (of 2034).
