[Video] Trump Delivers Midterm Closing Argument at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Jokes About Renaming It the "Trump Reflecting Pool"
Washington — President Trump delivered remarks on the afternoon of November 2 at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, making his closing argument ahead of the November 3 midterm elections and formally opening the newly renovated pool. The White House billed the address as the President's closing argument before Election Day, and the official White House channel has released the full video of the remarks.
Trump opened with a joke about the pool's name. "Now we're giving serious thought to changing the name to the Trump Reflecting Pool. We'll announce that some time tomorrow," he said. "I'm sure that Secretary Doug Burgum will have a lot of fun in announcing that." He then added: "Now I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. Please don't report it."
For more than 15 minutes after that, Trump walked through the renovation in detail. He held up photos showing replaced pipes and grass he said had been vandalized, and pointed to before-and-after photos beside the podium. "And by the way, we resurfaced the granite. This granite was all resurfaced," he said. "The pool is now better and more beautiful than it's ever been before."
The podium stood at the edge of the pool below the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, flanked by signs reading "Restoring our Capitol" and a board with an aerial photo of the renovated pool and the words "Back, and more beautiful than ever!" National Park Service workers were among those seated in the front rows.
The Reflecting Pool stretches about 2,030 feet between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument and was built in the 1920s. Trump announced the renovation in April, painting the basin in what he called "American flag blue" and initially putting the cost at about $1.5 million over one to two weeks. The pool reopened on June 9, was drained again after the July 4 celebrations when its liner failed, and an inspection found the liner had failed in at least 85 places. The contractor announced in early October that warranty repairs were complete; the pool was refilled, fencing was removed, and it reopened again on October 29. According to the Associated Press, contracts awarded for the project total at least $14.8 million.
Previewing the speech to reporters in Iowa on November 1, Trump said: "It's been finished. It was vandalized badly. We have cameras all over the place now for the vandals." He also said the pool "hasn't worked since 1922. It's always leaked terribly, and it works really well now."
The speech capped more than a month of campaigning in which Trump held more than 25 rallies, including stops in Salina, Kansas, and Dubuque, Iowa, on November 1; he also took part in nine tele-rallies on November 2. The November 3 midterms will decide all 435 House seats and a share of Senate seats, and with them control of Congress; Republicans currently hold a narrow 218-to-214 House majority.
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图片：白宫官方视频画面（公共领域），2026年11月2日特朗普在林肯纪念堂倒影池畔发表讲话，画面为裁去底部横幅的视频帧 / Image: Frame from the official White House video (public domain), cropped to remove the lower banner; President Trump speaks at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on November 2, 2026
- 2026-11-02Trump to Deliver Closing Midterm Pitch at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Today, With Nine Tele-Rallies Also on His Schedule
- 2026-11-02[Video] Trump Delivers Midterm Closing Argument at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Jokes About Renaming It the "Trump Reflecting Pool"This story
