Trump's war on algae swamps US midterms message

Trump's war on algae swamps US midterms message Estelle.Bronkhorst Tue, 11/03/2026 - 06:00

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump talked about algae and he talked about pipes. It was only after 25 minutes that he started talking about the US midterm elections.

The 80-year-old Republican gave a bizarre closing argument for Tuesday's vote that focused on renovations to the troubled Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The botched work on the iconic pool has for many Americans come to symbolise Trump's chaotic second presidency, and his obsession with monuments instead of issues like the economy and the Iran war.

But not for Trump.

"It's not an easy thing. The algae is brutal," he told a small audience of officials and reporters on Monday in front of the reflecting pool, the scene of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963.

It was a far cry from the masses who came to hear MLK -- or from the cheering crowds at Trump's own midterms rallies across the country, reflecting how Trump's focus on sprucing up Washington has left most voters unmoved.

Nearby, a couple of dozen protesters blasted music and chanted slogans as Trump spoke, an AFP reporter saw.

One demonstrator dressed in a pink frog costume held up a sign saying "Team Algae" while others brandished placards about Iran, immigration and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

- 'Complete job' -

AFP | Jose Luis Magana

With the Washington Monument reflected in the pool behind him, Trump was in a reflective mood -- but only about the renovations.

Wearing a white "USA" baseball cap, Trump held up a series of pictures brought to him by an aide that showed what he said was ageing reflecting pool equipment.

"You have that picture with the algae?" Trump asked.

As with inflation and immigration, Trump blamed his predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama for the problems with the pool, before boasting that his administration had fixed them.

"They're brand new pipes put in, and the pipes are very important in terms of the algae and other things," the former construction tycoon added. "It's a complete job, and we're very proud of it."

Trump began work on the pool in April as part of a grand plan to stamp his mark on the US capital. Like the Iran war he launched weeks earlier, the $15 million project quickly went wrong.

The new "American Flag Blue" surface, painted on by an associate in a bidless contract, quickly started peeling. Trump blamed it without evidence on vandalism -- while critics pointed out that his motorcade had driven across the freshly painted surface earlier this year.

After it was filled, the pool turned bright green within days of reopening thanks to rampant algae blooms. By late June, Trump ordered the pool drained and repaired, again.

All this, Trump declared on Monday, had now been solved. He then said he was giving "serious thought" to renaming it the Trump Reflecting Pool -- before adding that he was joking.

- Elections of a 'lifetime' -

The midterm elections in which Republicans could lose control of Congress on Tuesday appeared to register as an afterthought.

AFP | MANDEL NGAN

"This project should be a project that unites all Americans," Trump said, calling the elections "the most important midterm I believe in our lifetime."

Trump made bold claims about how the Iran war had been "won" and how the price of oil would soon plummet.

"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.

Then he was back to talking about how crime has dropped in Washington and his controversial plan to overhaul a popular public golf course.

After his speech, Trump's SUV slowly drove along the side of the Reflecting Pool so he could admire his handiwork.

While the world frets about what the volatile Trump will do in his last two years in power if Republicans lose, his speech showed he may be more interested in matching the physical legacy of presidents past.

Talking about his plans to build a huge triumphal arch dubbed the "Arc de Trump," he boasted that it would "compare to that" -- pointing to the Lincoln Memorial -- "and that" -- gesturing with a thumb at the Washington Monument behind him.

• by Danny Kemp and Ulysse Bellier (AFP)