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By James Bickerton
News Reporter
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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.
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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.
Trump Remarks
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.
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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.
“We’ve achieved more in less than two years than two years and I’ve kept every single promise I made except for more, I’ve actually kept far more promises than I made—we’ve done much more than I promised.”
On Monday, Trump used his Truth Social website to post endorsements of scores of individual Republican candidates as well as to repeat his argument that the American economy was thriving, commenting: “This is the Golden Age of America with 25 Trillion Dollars of Growth and Wealth being created just since my Election—A very short period of time. 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.
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Democrat Messaging
Prominent Democrats focused on issues such as the economy, where Trump only has a 33 percent approval rating according to a recent Financial Times and Focaldata poll, on the final full day of campaigning.
Speaking at a concert venue in Austin, James Talarico, who is hoping to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate by Texas since 1988, said “a new corrupt war in the Middle East” and “corrupt tariffs” were behind rising prices on key goods. He also hit out at billionaire Republican donors, such as Elon Musk, and argued that by contrast his campaign revolved around “people power.”
During a campaign event, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed commented: “My name and my faith are not the reason you can’t afford your gas. They’re not the reason you can’t afford your groceries, not the reason you can’t see a doctor.”
El-Sayed’s campaign received a blow just 48 hours before the midterm elections when Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat who lost her party’s primary to El-Sayed, endorsed his Republican opponent Mike Rogers. El-Sayed, unlike Stevens, has been sharply critical of Israeli state policy and has caused controversy over his relationship with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker.
In Kansas, Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton focused on the cost of living and healthcare, according to CBS News, commenting: “We've got a lot of people who've lost their freaking minds. They are no longer asking questions like, 'Is this right? Is it decent? Is this good? Is it moral?'”
Is Trump Damaging Republican Campaigns?
Speaking to Newsweek, Mark Shanahan, an American politics expert at the University of Surrey in the U.K., argued the focus on Trump is damaging Republican midterm candidates.
He said: “The Democrats can thank their lucky stars that they've had no single leader through this midterm campaign, while Republicans wish they didn't.
“The Democrats have been able to focus on local issues as well as sharpening their talons to rip into Trump for a war-induced high cost of living across the nation.
“Trump's final remarks in front of the Reflecting Pool were just plain odd. While he's not on the ballot, he has made this election a referendum on Trump 2.0, yet seems wholly out of touch with the realities Americans are facing across all 50 states. No one in Kansas, Texas or Iowa gives a fig about algae, triumphant arches or a beautified golf course. They want to know when gas prices will come down. Trump has ridiculed 'affordability' when it is most people's number one concern.”
Dafydd Townley, who chairs the U.K. based academic American Politics Group and teaches at the University of Portsmouth, told Newsweek Democrats are focusing on cost-of-living while Republicans raise culture war issues.
He said: “For several months now, Democrats have been focusing on the increased cost of living as part of their campaign to retake the House and the Senate, pointing to the Trump administration's disastrous management of the conflict in Iran, and this has not changed over the last 48 hours. Republicans have intensified rallies and while some have sought to distance themselves from the administration, others have welcomed Trump at various events, where the president has defended his economic record while warning the Democrats are dangerous radicals and promoting culture-war issues.
“It's unlikely to be enough for the Republicans to retain control of the House but this, and the divisions within the Democratic Party as illustrated by the fiasco in Michigan, might just stop the blue wave that Republicans fear.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Emma Lee-Sang
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