President Donald Trump’s newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool began showing signs of cracking and peeling hours after he celebrated its completion during a closing campaign speech on Monday, November 2, 2026.
President Donald Trump spent the final hours before the midterm elections standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to declare his $14m renovation a success. Shortly after his speech concluded, reports indicated there were already areas where the new coating appeared to be cracking or peeling.
A Department of the Interior spokesperson defended the work, crediting Trump with restoring the landmark and stating that the pool had never looked better. The spokesperson added that the pool is clear, clean, and leak-proof.
Contractor Installation Errors Caused Pool Damage and Flaking
The project faced earlier problems in June when an initial coating began flaking off shortly after refilling, and an algae bloom turned the water green. Trump repeatedly blamed vandals for the damage. The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, led by Jeanine Pirro, initially charged former Olympic canoeist David Hearn with destruction of property, but later dropped the case after determining the damage was caused by a contractor’s botched installation.
During his address on Monday, Trump acknowledged the difficult political climate for his party as voters prepared to cast ballots. For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms, but we gave this a very strong shot,
Trump said.
Campaign Speech Focus
Rather than focusing exclusively on competitive congressional races, Trump used much of his nearly hour-long speech to discuss Washington monuments, plumbing, pipes, and his plans to build a triumphal arch. He also repeated his claim that if Republicans win, everybody is going to get $5,000.
Nonpartisan analysts generally favor Democrats’ chances of winning a majority in the House of Representatives, while Senate contests remain competitive. As you know, this is the last day before the midterm elections, the most important midterm, I believe, in our lifetime,
Trump said.
Trump spoke for 54 minutes at the National Mall landmark. Instead of visiting Michigan as originally planned to provide an in-person push for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, Trump delivered his remarks at the Reflecting Pool and hosted nine tele-rallies. During his address, he bashed El-Sayed by name, calling him a jihadist
running against apple pie.
A senior White House official told The Post that the entire calendar was done in pencil, explaining that the schedule moved around to include tele-rallies because the president could cover much more ground. A source close to the president claimed Trump had become bored with ordinary speeches after 29 visits to boost fellow Republicans, prompting him to devise a more creative and head-turning conclusion to the cycle.
Fox News Digital was told by Alex Bruesewitz—a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign who traveled with him on approximately 10 to 15 journeys lately—that setting up events for an active president brings difficulties entirely unlike standard campaign logistics.
Bruesewitz recalled a demanding trip that left him sleeping aboard Air Force One at 4 a.m., with a photograph of him resting ending up in a group chat of congressional first spouses and drawing surprised messages from lawmakers’ wives.
During his remarks, Trump highlighted numerous other construction projects he launched, including a White House ballroom, a new White House helipad, new sod on the lawn, and a refresh of Lafayette Park.
He also detailed his administration’s work cleaning hundreds of sites of graffiti, fixing more than 2,300 lighting fixtures in Washington, D.C., and cleaning and renovating over 83 statues, fountains, and monuments. Additionally, Trump plugged his plans for a National Garden of American Heroes,
stating that the collection of statues he intends to install has grown to 500.
The president addressed the legal fallout surrounding the pool’s previous damage. In late July, the U.S. Attorney’s office dropped the case against David Hearn, citing information that undermined the evidentiary basis for the indictment.
Following that, a judge decreed that federal authorities were barred from bringing new charges against Hearn; meanwhile, his legal representatives asserted that the dismissal failed to undo the abuse of state authority involved in detaining and accusing an innocent, patriotic American.
As the election approached, public polling indicated that Trump’s approval rating stood at 32 percent according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll. Voters expressed concern over the cost of living, as the prices of gas and groceries rose following the war with Iran.
Despite these economic headwinds and difficult historical midterm trends for sitting presidents, Trump maintained that the country was experiencing a golden age marked by strong economic data, low unemployment, new manufacturing plants, and increased national wealth attributed to tariffs.