President Donald Trump and prominent Democrats focused on very different issues on Monday in the final full day of campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s crunch midterm elections. Trump delivered a high-profile speech in front of the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., during which he spent much of his time discussing the work that had taken place there and other projects in the nation’s capital. Meanwhile, key Democratic candidates focused on the cost-of-living, a major theme for the party during midterm campaigning, and the war Trump launched against Iran with Israeli support in February.
The focus on Trump’s remarks show the extent to which he has been the Republicans' dominant figure during midterm election campaigning, in contrast to the Democrats who have no central leader who can command anything like the same level of attention for good or ill. During his address on Monday, Trump spent more than 20 minutes discussing the newly reopened Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, showing pictures of rusted pipes uncovered during the work and saying it had been resurfaced with an “American-flag blue” liner. The president also jokingly said he was thinking about “changing the name to the Trump Reflecting Pool” and described it as “a work of art that never worked, but now it will work.” Trump also repeated controversial claims that damage to the pool following its renovation had been caused by vandalism, which he described as “unprecedented.” The Department of Justice admitted in court that the pool’s new blue liner started peeling away because of rushed work, rather than vandalism, and charges against former Olympian David Hearn over alleged damage to the pool were dropped.
The president promoted other Washington, D.C. area construction projects during his speech, including a new golf course and a proposed “promenade” linking the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River. Trump also used his speech to tout the strength of the American economy and argued this would be endangered by Democrats gaining power in Congress. He said: “This is a golden age of America we’ve never done anything like it.
When you hear 25 trillion dollars of wealth created in a short period of time it’s not even two years…there’s never been a time like this. We’ve fought for 250 years to make it great we’re not going to be torn down by a bunch of people that have failed everywhere they’ve been. There has never been anything like it in World History, nor has there been anything close.” Trump didn’t provide a source for his claim of $25 trillion in economic growth.
According to figures compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the U.S. economy grew from $29.93 trillion in December 2024, one month before Trump returned to the White House, to $32.56 trillion in June 2026. The president also said: “Oil prices are DROPPING like a ROCK” because “people feel that there will not be a War with Iran,” adding: “Iran wants a settlement, as soon as possible.” As of November 3, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading at around $98 per barrel, up from $60 per barrel in January 2026 before the Iran war.
On Monday, the U.S. military carried out what it described as defensive strikes against Iranian targets on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump also spoke about illegal immigration, one of the focuses of his 2024 presidential election campaign, saying: “We’ve gone 17 months, think of it, with zero people coming into our country illegally.” This claim was contradicted by a White House press release on Monday which said: “In FY 2026, Border Patrol recorded just 98,708 southwest border apprehensions—a 95 percent drop from the more than 1.8 million per year under Biden.” Department of Homeland Security data for the 2025 fiscal year showed illegal crossings of the southern border were at their lowest level since 1970 following Trump’s return to the White House. Prominent Democrats focused on issues such as the economy, where Trump only has a 28 percent approval rating according to a recent Financial Times and Focaldata poll, on the final full day of campaigning.
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