On the Eve of the Midterms Trump’s Closing Argument Is About Algae: Will undecided voters in states such as Alaska and Michigan base their ballot decisions Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s fountain repairs in Washington, DC?
If so, Trump’s 47-minute appearance on Monday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool would make sense. But polls sh0w voters are worried about high prices, corruption, and Trump’s war with Iran, not DC algae blooms. And the president’s use of his final scheduled appearance before the midterms to talk about pipe replacements looks like the bizarre self-indulgence of a guy utterly uninterested in the problems of regular Americans.
Wearing a white USA hat and looking tired, Trump brandished photographs intended to make the case that his widely derided effort to repair the Reflecting Pool was a great success. He said, not for the first time, that the algae that have plagued the pool through several presidential administrations are at last vanquished. And he again attempted to fault vandals for damage to the pool that both the Justice Department and the firm that he hired through a no-bid $15 million contract to do the job have said was caused by contractor error.
Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum used a press conference with a smattering of attendees to celebrate what they tout as their transformation of Washington. Trump talked up various fountains that are working again, having financed their rehabilitation with money diverted from national parks elsewhere in the country.
The president also gave a shout-out to his “National Garden of American Heroes,” a collection of, until Monday, 250 statues of famous Americans he intends to install near the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. But on Monday, Trump announced that the number of statues has grown to 500 and informed his audience that the work has “already started.”
That may be news to the Justice Department. In federal court, where opponents of the statue garden are seeking a court order blocking the work—which Congress has not… https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/11/on-the-eve-of-the-midterms-trumps-closing-argument-is-about-algae/ #Midterms2026 #Trump