Photo: Ali Khan, via Wikimedia Commons (freely licensed). File photo of the Reflecting Pool, not a photo of Monday's speech.
President Donald Trump delivered his final pitch to voters on Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, calling Tuesday's midterm elections "the most important midterm, I believe, in our lifetime." Speaking at the reopening of the reflecting pool, he urged Americans to keep Republicans in control of Congress — while conceding that history is against him.
"Usually, whoever the sitting president is, Republican or Democrat, good or bad, good president, great president. For some reason, the sitting president doesn't win the midterms. But we gave this a very strong shot," Trump said, according to the Associated Press.
Millions of Americans vote on Tuesday, November 3, in elections that will decide control of Congress for the final two years of Trump's second term. All 435 House seats, about a third of Senate seats and governorships in 36 states are on the ballot. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in both chambers to overturn the Republicans' narrow 218-214 House and 53-47 Senate majorities. They are widely expected to reclaim the House; the Senate fight remains highly competitive.
A closing argument built on money, and on Washington itself
Trump renewed his pledge to give every adult American 5,000 dollars if Republicans retain Congress, a promise he first rolled out at a September midterm convention in Dallas. "If we win the election, everybody is going to get $5,000. Every adult is going to get $5,000," he said on Monday, the New York Post reported. He warned in a social media video that if Democrats win, voters "will have an economic depression."
He also celebrated Monday's steep drop in oil prices, low unemployment, falling crime and scant illegal immigration, presenting them as evidence of what he called the country's "golden age." The oil slide followed signals that the United States and Iran could be moving toward a diplomatic settlement of their eight-month war, which has driven up gasoline prices and become a major issue in the campaign.
But much of the speech was devoted not to the election but to Washington itself. Trump spent a large portion of his remarks on building projects in the capital, including the troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which he has consistently blamed on vandals — a claim not supported by his own administration, the AP noted. He joked that "serious thought" was being given to renaming the monument after himself, and outlined plans for a triumphal arch he said would be "more beautiful" than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a project that has already drawn legal challenges.
Attacks on Democrats — and one name in particular
Trump branded his opponents extremists, saying: "The Democrat Party has nominated the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history." He attacked Democratic Senate candidates in Alaska and Michigan by name, including Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed, who would be the country's first Muslim senator, the New York Post reported.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer responded on X, calling Trump's closing message "pathetic" as "his illegal war rages, his corruption mounts, and the inflation he caused persists."
Trump also said he would not hesitate to pardon people around him if Democrats take control of at least one chamber of Congress and launch investigations. "I would if I needed to, sure. I would not even think about — I'd do it," he told a New York Post podcast, pointing to the pardons granted by former president Joe Biden to family members, administration officials and politicians.
Iran, and the day's other election news
Asked by reporters on Monday whether he would resume attacks on Iran after the midterm elections, Trump gave a one-word answer: "No." He said he believed Iran wanted to make a deal and that an agreement "could happen," while insisting Iran must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon. Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that there had been "a number of good conversations with the Iranians" and that he and Trump felt "pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement."
The speech came on a day of fast-moving election news. Hours earlier, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's last-minute bid to force California to set aside mail ballots cast by about 20,000 registered voters the federal government alleges may not be US citizens — a ruling already covered on this blog — leaving California's existing ballot procedures in place for Tuesday's vote. The Justice Department also plans to deploy about 1,000 monitors nationwide on Election Day, roughly triple the number used in the last midterms, according to Reuters.
The outcome on Tuesday will shape more than the next two years. It will serve as the first nationwide verdict on Trump's presidency, determine whether Democrats gain the power to block his legislation and investigate his administration, and set the terms of the debate inside both parties ahead of the 2028 presidential election. Trump closed his speech with a simple appeal: he hoped voters would do "the right thing." By Wednesday morning, Americans will know whether they did.
Sources: Associated Press, November 2, 2026 (via The Standard); New York Post, November 2, 2026; Reuters, November 2, 2026. Quotations are as reported by the cited outlets; the $5,000 pledge is a campaign promise, not an enacted payment.