Trump makes last-ditch US midterm pitch at troubled Reflecting Pool

US President Donald Trump on Monday chose the backdrop of Washington's Reflecting Pool – a landmark whose botched renovation symbolised the 80-year-old's chaotic second term – to try and rally Republicans against a predicted Democratic win in the midterms.

"This is the last day before the midterm elections, the most important midterm I believe in our lifetime," Trump said 26 minutes into a rambling speech which focused on his project to renovate monuments in the US capital, rather than inflation, the Iran war and other issues driving voters.

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 waxing lyrical on the grass at the White House, his new Marine One helipad, a golf course and a ⁠triumphal arch that faces a court challenge.

Watch more US midterm elections: North Carolina farmers hit hard by inflation

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 the first real political constraints on the president since he took office nearly two years ago.

Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with the economy, while Trump's own approval rating has hit a record low.

But a tired-sounding Trump repeatedly veered in the speech to his passion for renovating the Reflecting Pool and other Washington landmarks.

"This project should be a project that unites all Americans," Trump said.

The pool is one of the US capital's historic stages, most famous as the setting for Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 from the steps of the adjacent Lincoln Memorial.

Trump said Sunday he picked the site "just to show how beautiful it is". But his roughly $15 million renovation ran into repeated and embarrassing setbacks that he has blamed – without evidence – on saboteurs. Democratic James Talarico is competing in a closely watched Texas race for a US senate seat

Trump has predicted victory in the midterms for his Republicans, but acknowledged that he could face a new reality in an interview released Monday by the New York Post's Pod Force One podcast.

"I think we're going to do great – but if we didn't win, I veto everything," he said. "I'll be vetoing, vetoing. And then they'll come along and we'll probably make some deals along the way."

Winning just the House would give Democrats voting power over the federal budget and control of committees able to investigate alleged corruption under Trump, the Epstein files and other explosive issues.

A Democratic Senate could also block Trump's lifetime appointments to the courts, including the Supreme Court.

Scorched earth

Democrats geared up for final rallies in battleground states, including in Texas with James Talarico and in Kansas with Adam Hamilton – two star Senate candidates seeking major upsets. Kansas has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century and Texas is a deep Republican stronghold.

Even so, Democrats remain wary of predicting victory. Democratic US Senate candidates, such as Troy Jackson in the northeastern state of Maine, are seeking to win back control of the upper chamber of Congress from the rival Republican Party

Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock told CNN that the mood was "nauseously optimistic".

The Trump administration has sought to intervene in election disputes in Alaska and California. A federal judge on Sunday dismissed a US Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification of election results in Alaska if Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses.

Trump filed an emergency request with the ‌US Supreme Court on Monday to temporarily block California from counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters who federal officials allege are likely non-US citizens.

California said the lawsuit could disenfranchise 20,000 voters based on vague accusations and that the administration's process for identifying non-citizens was flawed and prone to error.

Republicans have run a scorched-earth campaign, painting Democrats as communists and baselessly branding Abdul El-Sayed, the Muslim Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, a terrorist.

Democrats have faced late divisions of their own, with left-wing candidates at times clashing with the party establishment.

On Sunday, Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens endorsed El-Sayed's Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, in Michigan's pivotal Senate race. Stevens lost a bruising primary to El-Sayed in August despite establishment backing.

Senate in play

While the House appears highly likely to turn Democratic, the battle for the Senate is far closer. Democratic Senate candidate for Michigan Abdul El-Sayed, speaks to the audience at the Northend Church of God in Detroit, Michigan

Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control. To win, Democrats must flip seats in states that Trump carried by double digits two years ago.

Forecaster Decision Desk HQ has Democrats winning the Senate 52-48 and the House by a comfortable 241-194.

The final New York Times/Siena poll, released Sunday evening, showed Democrats leading in all seven of the most competitive Senate races, though five were within the margin of error. Protesters line the route as US President Donald Trump's motorcade drives to the Flags Centre in Dubuque, Iowa

Tuesday is election day, but a record 54 million people have already cast ballots.

The midterms have also drawn about $11 billion in advertising, with large chunks coming from individual mega-donors.

Republicans held a cash advantage of several hundred million dollars heading into the final weeks of the campaign across their national party committees and major allied super Political Action Committee (PACs), according to committee filings and Federal Election Commission data.

Trump spent more than $277 million, mostly through his MAGA Inc. super PAC, on a late TV and direct-mail blitz to aid struggling Republican candidates, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump ally who led the so-called DOGE drive to slash the federal government, has given nearly half a billion dollars to help elect Republicans.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)