Trump blasts media over Reflecting Pool speech, insists it was not his final midterms speech

President Donald Trump pushed back against media coverage of his remarks at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the eve of election day, insisting the appearance was not his closing message for the midterms. He also criticised reporters and Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu over their interpretation of his joke about renaming the pool after himself.

“It wasn’t a ‘Final Midterms Speech’ that only had 60 people, it was a NEWS CONFERENCE, nobody was invited, it was closed to the Public — Just Reporters,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday morning. However, Trump did not take questions from reporters during the appearance. “My Final Midterms Speech was the day before in lowa and Kansas,” Trump added, referring to his campaign rallies in the two states on Sunday.

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Republican operatives had expected Trump to spend the day before the midterms campaigning in several battleground states. Instead, he appeared at the Reflecting Pool, where more than half of his remarks focused on renovation projects in Washington, DC., that have been unpopular with voters. As Americans headed to the polls, Trump appeared particularly concerned about the reaction to his joke suggesting that the Reflecting Pool could be renamed after him.

“The Daily Mail wrongly took my joke at a Presidential News Conference where the beautiful Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was opened yesterday, and pretended it wasn’t a joke when I said, I’m going to name it, ‘TRUMP,’” the president wrote. Trump also directed similar criticism at Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California.

During Monday's remarks, Trump had said, “We’re giving serious thought to changing the name to the ‘Trump Reflecting Pool,’” before quickly adding, “I’m only kidding — please don’t report it, they’ll cut it off and they’ll say he’s changing the name.”