Rolling Stone reports:

Donald Trump on Monday delivered his closing argument ahead of the midterm elections. He wasn’t in one of the critical swing states Republicans need no win in order to keep their majorities, or even one of the red states at risk of slipping into Democrats’ control. He chose a location that embodied his own self of self-obsession, corruption, and federal mismanagement: the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He might even rename it after himself.

“This is a massive piece of pool,” Trump said while delivering his closing message, one that focused on his vanity projects over the election. “It was treated with a lot of love. And then it was treated with a lot of hate, and we’ve got to stop the hate,” the president said. “I mean, they’ve had years here where you couldn’t see any water. It was just algae. And it had a bad aroma, to put it mildly. A lot of bad things happened.”

GOP candidates and lawmakers across the country are bracing for a schlacking that will very likely strip them of their majority in the House, and could cost them the Senate. Of top concern for voters is the cost of living strains that can be linked directly to Trump’s policies. High gas prices caused by the continued global disruption of Trump’s war against Iran. Economic downturns in border and industrial communities as a result of his tariff regime. Murders, beatings, and civil rights violations by ICE agents conducting mass arrests of migrants. Add to that the blatant self-enrichment of Trump, his family, and his allies.

The “renovations” the president has made to the White House and buildings in Washington, D.C., have become the physical representation of the corruption and narcissism of the administration. As Americans struggle to afford a home, groceries, and gas, the president is spending millions of taxpayer dollars building a ballroom for the White House, gilding everything he can get his hands on in gold leaf, and butchering the restorations and repairs of monuments like the Reflecting Pool and the Kennedy Center.

It’s no surprise that many Republican candidates have chosen to distance themselves from Trump this election cycle. Even so, the president has refused to get out of his own party’s way, insisting that voters frame the midterm elections as a direct referendum on his first two years back in office. Trump canceled planned rallies in Kansas in Iowa over the weekend, and instead retreated back to the capital, claiming he will do “tele-rallies” instead. On Monday, in the last best opportunity to address reluctant voters, the president spent almost 30 minutes rambling about the Reflecting Pool. [Continue reading…]