Donald Trump will deliver his closing pitch of the 2026 midterm elections at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington on Monday afternoon, November 2, one day before voters go to the polls on Tuesday, November 3.
White House officials formally announced the speech hours after Trump hinted at it himself on Sunday, telling reporters as he stepped off Air Force One for a rally in Iowa that speaking at the site would “show how beautiful it is”. “We might hold it tomorrow or something,” he added at the time, without giving details.
Why the choice of venue matters is straightforward: rather than spending the final full day of the campaign travelling to battleground states, Trump has chosen a Washington renovation project that has become a symbol of his second-term drive to reshape the capital in his own image. The Reflecting Pool, a landmark at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, is also a project whose repair ran late, ran over budget and then ran into trouble after it was declared finished.
That record is exactly why the event has drawn attention. The Associated Press, reporting on the announcement, described the pool as a slow, expensive and problem-plagued effort, and noted that the speech marks a departure from a month-long run of more than 25 rallies in largely conservative areas. Trump had written on his social media platform that his Sunday evening rally in Kansas, which followed his visit to Iowa, was “my last stop” — before the Washington speech was announced.
Democrats, meanwhile, are holding their own final get-out-the-vote rallies on Monday, according to Agence France-Presse. Star Senate candidates James Talarico in Texas and Adam Hamilton in Kansas are among those campaigning on the last day.
Polls point to a difficult night for Republicans. Surveys suggest Democrats are near certain to take a majority in the House of Representatives and have a real shot at winning the Republican-held Senate, AFP reported. An NBC News poll released on Sunday showed 60 per cent of Americans disapproving of Trump’s performance, with high prices weighing heavily.
The Reflecting Pool renovation saga
Trump said the Reflecting Pool fix would be fast and inexpensive. His involvement began in April, when he said he wanted to change the pool’s colour and would use contractors he knew to repair it within days, for about 1.5 million dollars, before Independence Day.
Instead, the repairs finished nearly three months behind schedule, and the budget ballooned to more than 10 times his early estimate, assuming no further work is needed, the Associated Press reported. Trump initially declared the work complete in June, but the pool was soon choked with algae blooms, and sections of its “American-flag blue” liner began peeling off. The pool was drained again for repairs in mid-July.
Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for the damage, and said on Sunday that the pool “was vandalized badly” and that security cameras have since been added. The office of the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host and longtime Trump ally, said instead that the problems were caused by shoddy workmanship.
One episode underlined the dispute. The Justice Department charged former Olympian David Hearn with intentionally damaging the Reflecting Pool, then abruptly dropped the case this summer after determining he was not responsible. A judge later dismissed it permanently. Trump fumed that Pirro “choked” and said he was “disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed. She folded like an umbrella” — though he stopped short of firing her.
Trump has bristled at criticism from former President Barack Obama and other Democrats that he has spent too much time on construction projects, insisting that renovations relax him.
Closing argument on the eve of Election Day
Trump’s closing message has been consistent through the final weekend. At his Sunday rally in Dubuque, Iowa, he told supporters, “We are going to elect America First Republicans everywhere,” and urged them to turn out and vote. In Kansas later on Sunday, he intensified his attacks on Democrats over tax policy, voter identification and border security, accusing them of opposing tax relief including exemptions on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits for senior citizens.
He also used the Iowa stage to praise Democrat Haley Stevens, who stunned her party by endorsing Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race, and to attack the Democratic nominee in that race, Abdul El-Sayed. Stevens lost a bruising primary to El-Sayed in August despite being backed by the Democratic establishment, and struggled to explain her decision in a television interview, saying only: “It’s just where I was at the end of the night and earlier this morning.”
Republican leaders have dismissed the polls. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who joined Trump at the Iowa rally, told the crowd: “It’s not over. The corrupt media is using fake polls. We decide this on Monday.” That confidence sits uneasily with the final round of New York Times/Siena polling, released on Sunday, which put Democrats ahead in all seven Senate races viewed as most competitive, although five of those leads remained within the margin of error.
What remains confirmed is the shape of the final day: Trump in Washington, at a monument he fought to restore, making his last argument before the votes are counted. Early voting has already set a record, with 54 million ballots cast before Election Day, according to AFP.
What remains unconfirmed is whether that argument will be enough. All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are on the ballot on Tuesday, November 3, and the counts, not the closing speeches, will decide whether Trump faces a Democratic Congress for the rest of his term.
