Donald Trump spent 47 minutes on Monday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool talking about algae, fountains, and Washington projects instead of the midterms. On Jimmy Kimmel Live, the contrast would have played as the joke; in Washington, DC, it was his final scheduled appearance before voting.
Trump said the algae that had plagued the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool through several presidential administrations was at last vanquished. He wore a white USA hat and looked tired during the appearance, which turned a closing campaign event into a tour of decorative work and maintenance claims.
Reflecting Pool and $15 million
The pool work sits inside a broader effort that Trump and Doug Burgum were selling as a transformation of Washington. They held a press conference with a smattering of attendees and pointed to fountains that are working again after rehabilitation financed with money diverted from national parks elsewhere in the country.
The repair fight has not been tidy. The Justice Department and the firm hired through a no-bid $15 million contract said the damage was caused by contractor error, while Trump again tried to fault vandals for it. That split matters because the pool was one of the few pieces of his closing message that could be measured against a bill, a contractor, and a repair claim.
National Garden of American Heroes
Trump also said the National Garden of American Heroes had grown from 250 statues to 500 statues and that work had already started. On October 29, Adam Gustafson wrote that the administration had not completed decision-making on the National Garden of American Heroes and that the National Park Service had not received direction to include it in West Potomac Park.
That gap leaves the statue garden in a familiar place: announced loudly, but not squared with the paperwork. Trump’s own words put the project inside his election message, while Gustafson’s filing put the brakes on the idea of a finished plan.
Arlington National Cemetery arch
Trump also talked up plans to overhaul a golf course in East Potomac Park and said he planned to build a 250-foot arch in front of Arlington National Cemetery. He called it a triumphant arch military complex, said it will have tremendous drone capability, and added, “I would say sniper or shooter capability.”
He went further, saying, “It will be the most beautiful arch in the world” and “It will be more beautiful than the Arc de Triomphe.” Then he folded the project into his election pitch, calling Democrats communists and attacking Abdul El-Sayed with the line that the Senate needed “a little bit of apple pie,” not “a jihadist.” For voters in Alaska and Michigan, the closing message was not about prices or corruption; it was about fountains, statues, and an arch that still reads more like a declaration than a delivered project.
