Donald Trump's closing argument before the midterm elections centered on a peculiar topic: the difficulty of removing algae from the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. At a press conference on Monday, less than 24 hours before polls opened, the president defended his $14m renovation of the Washington DC landmark and blamed his predecessors for the algae that had once bloomed in its water.
Holding up a photo of the pool covered in algae, Trump said: "This was in the Biden era … They just spend money after money after money. Look, it's not an easy thing. The algae is brutal. It forms easily … All you saw was dirt and filth and paper and everything else for years."
A Focus on Beautification
The event was notable for its timing, coming just before an election where polls showed Americans were not pleased with the president's focus on renovation projects. The reflecting pool project itself had been widely mocked earlier in the year when Trump's promise to turn the water "American flag blue" resulted in a green algae takeover.
The press briefing was another sign that Trump was struggling to read the room, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that he viewed "beautification of Washington" as one of his strongest legacies despite aides' advice to focus on other matters. Trump ignored that guidance, praising his legacy at the reflecting pool and claiming he had achieved more in two years than any other administration in history. "I've kept every single promise I made, except far more," he said, adding: "I've actually kept far more promises than I made."
Space Proclamations and Israel Aid
By election day, Trump's priorities shifted to other matters. He published an "American declaration of freedom in space" proclaiming "the solar system and all of outer space beyond Earth are the province of all humans" and declared the week "Anti-Communism Week" in honor of "the victims of socialism and communism". It was unclear how the White House would mark the occasion.
On Tuesday morning, Trump made a surprise announcement on Fox News that he would end military aid to Israel at the end of the year. "We were giving them $4bn (£2.96bn) … But it gets cut off at the end of the year," he said by phone. This position aligned with voter views, as a Quinnipiac poll in September found nearly half of Americans believed the US was too supportive of Israel.
Trump also criticized the messaging of Abdul El-Sayed, the Senate candidate in Michigan who has criticized military aid to Israel, saying "the left" had used the $4bn figure as a "signal of unfairness, and we can't allow that to happen". "Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like El-Sayed when they don't need it? It's a bad talking point," he said.
Rants and Results
As polls began to close on Tuesday evening, Trump turned his anger toward Fox News, the network he long considered an ally. "The FoxNews Poll, always the worst, is so insulting with the questions they ask," he posted on Truth Social at 6.36pm. "Every question is a hit job, and every answer is 'BULLSHIT!'"
Twenty minutes later, he posted again: "FoxNews Ratings are way down (27%!) because they're spending too much time covering the Trump Deranged Dumocrats! All of those people who used to watch Fox, and no longer do, get it. It's them, not me – My numbers are better than they have ever been."
Within an hour, results started pouring in with major wins for Democrats in Georgia, New Hampshire and North Carolina. As the bad news for Republicans continued, Trump issued a short statement deflecting blame. "I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" he wrote on Truth Social, adding, "Thank you for your attention to this matter."
