Trump touts reflecting pool as US midterm battle reaches finale

United States President Donald Trump devoted his final public remarks before Tuesday’s midterm elections to touting renovations of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, even as Democrats sought to contain a rift in Michigan’s closely fought US Senate race. Polls show Democrats poised to seize the House of Representatives and within reach of the Senate in Tuesday’s vote — a shift that would impose tight political constraints on the president. The pool — an iconic landmark where botched repairs came to symbolise the 80-year-old’s chaotic presidency — is one of the US capital’s historic stages. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking the pool.

In his only public remarks scheduled for Monday, Trump, a former real-estate developer, spent more than 20 minutes discussing pipes, joints, caulking, granite resurfacing, algae and leaks at the belated reopening of the Washington reflecting pool. “Does somebody have those pictures for me? ” the president asked his aides before sharing illustrations of the “miles of joints” that had been replaced. “So we have a lot of great things planned for Washington, and I could get into the nation, but for that you don’t have enough time,” Trump said, also mentioning the grass at the White House, his new Marine One helipad, a golf course and a triumphal arch that faces a court challenge. A White House official earlier told AFP that the speech would highlight “this administration’s achievements to make the country safer and wealthier” while contrasting “the Republicans’ commonsense America First agenda” with “the Democrats’ radical, America Last agenda”. Trump said on Sunday he picked the site “just to show how beautiful it is”. But the roughly $15 million renovation…