President Donald Trump on Monday concluded his midterm push with a closing argument like no other: Look what I did with the Reflecting Pool.
The president spoke at the historic pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, about six months after he began rushed renovations that quickly went awry. The longtime real estate developer has insisted the project shows how he can fix Washington — and one of its signature monuments.
“They’re brand-new pipes put in, and the pipes are being very important in terms of the algae and other things,” Trump said as he held up photos of past damage to the pool and discussed caulking, painting and other work in detail. “It’s a complete job, and we’re very proud of it.”
The event capped a month-long sprint that has taken Trump across the country ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, holding rallies in about 20 states, many of them reliably red. The president has fought to stave off Republican losses by asking voters to pretend that he is on the ballot.
For Democrats, the speech is a last-minute political gift — a high-profile reminder of Trump’s focus on remaking the White House and Washington, which has polled poorly and become a focus of the party’s campaign ads. Democrats have portrayed the projects as a distraction from voters’ economic concerns and said Sunday they welcomed Trump’s decision to make one the backdrop for his closing remarks.
“After promising to drain the swamp, Donald Trump’s swamp of corruption is a mile deep and mega-wide — a fitting backdrop for his speech today,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees money for federal parks.
The Reflecting Pool itself has not always gone to plan. After Trump’s rushed renovations in the spring, the pool quickly turned green with algae and needed to be drained again. The episode also sparked a public clash between Trump and Jeanine Pirro, whom he appointed U.S. attorney in D.C., after the president wrongly blamed vandals for damaging the site.
Trump has been unapologetic about his focus on construction.
“They say, ‘Trump, oh, he spends too much time fixing the White House,’” the president said at a rally in Iowa on Sunday. “You know why he fixed the White House? Because it was in very bad shape, broken windows, broken moldings on the outside of the building. It looked terrible.”
The president’s speech comes as Republicans brace for losing one or both chambers of Congress, with polls showing that Tuesday’s midterms could be a rout. Democrats are heavily favored to retake the House, and the party’s candidates also lead in a number of swing-state Senate races. Democrats have vowed to use their potential congressional powers to investigate Trump’s actions — including how he has raised money and picked contractors for his renovations.
For Trump, little has been more important in his second term than his construction projects, including the planned White House ballroom rising where the mansion’s East Wing used to stand; a 250-foot-tall triumphal arch that he envisions near Arlington National Cemetery; and his administration’s work to fix up dozens of parks and fountains across Washington.
The president has said he is making long-overdue improvements to the nation’s capital, casting himself as a generational builder. He has previously used the city’s iconic imagery as a backdrop for major events, such as his decision to accept the GOP’s 2020 presidential nomination at the White House and this year’s celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Some of the president’s projects, such as restoring park fountains, have been welcomed by Washingtonians. Many others have been widely opposed. D.C. officials on Saturday sued to block Trump’s planned triumphal arch, and litigation is ongoing around his plans to remake a local golf course, overhaul the Kennedy Center and pursue other changes.
About two-thirds of Americans in July had a negative view of Trump’s ballroom, Reflecting Pool and triumphal arch projects, according to a Washington Post/Ipsos poll.
The White House defended Trump’s projects as part of his broader effort to improve the capital.
“Democrats allowed America’s cities to be trashed and destroyed. President Trump put a stop to it, beginning with making our nation’s capital safer and more beautiful,” spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement Sunday night. “The President will unveil a spectacularly renovated monument of importance to Washington, D.C. while also highlighting the progress he has delivered for the entire country.”
The pool has been emblematic of Trump’s broader approach to his Washington projects: moving fast, and sometimes breaking things. Trump initially estimated the project would cost less than $2 million and take less than two weeks; it has instead cost more than $14 million and taken about six months.
For visitors who disapprove of the projects, the pool’s problems have become a metaphor for what Trump’s interventions can achieve.
Trump in April said that the administration would redo the pool’s basin to plug leaks and change its color to “American flag blue,” vowing to finish the job in time for July Fourth celebrations on the National Mall. He and his aides cast the project, launched with a multimillion-dollar no-bid contract and without the normal review process, as a demonstration of how quickly the longtime real estate magnate could transform Washington.
Trump’s changes instead lasted a few days. The basin’s coating began to visibly peel, with chunks of Trump’s new pool liner littering the surface and algal blooms clouding the water. The pool was drained again for repairs, which were completed last month.
The problems became a running political joke. HomemadeHalloweencostumesof the algae-filled, flakingpoolwent viral throughout the weekend. One was featured on “The View.”
The administration initially blamed the pool’s problems on vandals, and several people, including former Olympian David Hearn, were arrested and charged. The Justice Department later cited a “botched” installation as the cause of the pool’s problems and dropped the case against Hearn in July. Last month, a judge said federal prosecutors cannot refile charges against him.
Some of Trump’s high-profile construction and renovation projects have been completed in recent weeks. His new White House helipad was finished in late September, and Trump has begun routinely using it — and showing it off to visitors.
After complaints that Trump had sealed off the White House campus from the public, Secret Service officials in early October removed fences that had blocked off the Ellipse, and some of Lafayette Square has also been reopened.
Tour groups have also returned to the White House.
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