Will undecided voters in states such as Alaska and Michigan base their ballot decisions Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s fountain repairs in Washington, DC?
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voters → base → Washington
If so, Trump’s 47-minute appearance on Monday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool would make sense.
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appearance → make → sense
And the president’s use of his final scheduled appearance before the midterms to talk about pipe replacements looks like the bizarre self-indulgence of a guy utterly uninterested in the problems of regular Americans.
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use → talk → Americans
Wearing a white USA hat and looking tired, Trump brandished photographs intended to make the case that his widely derided effort to repair the Reflecting Pool was a great success.
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effort → wear → Pool
He said, not for the first time, that the algae that have plagued the pool through several presidential administrations is at last vanquished.
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that → say → administrations
And he again attempted to fault vandals for damage to the pool that both the Justice Department and the firm that he hired through a no-bid $15 million contract to do the job have said was caused by contractor error.
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he → attempt → error
Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum used a press conference with a smattering of attendees to celebrate what they tout as their transformation of Washington.
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they → use → Washington
Trump talked up various fountains that are working again, having financed their rehabilitation with money diverted from national parks elsewhere in the country.
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that → talk → country
The president also gave a shout-out to his “National Garden of American Heroes,” a collection of, until Monday, 250 statues of famous Americans he intends to install near the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.
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he → give → Memorial
But on Monday, Trump announced that the number of statues has grown to 500 and informed his audience that the work has “already started.”
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work → announce → audience
In federal court, where opponents of the statue garden are seeking a court order blocking the work—which Congress has not approved—Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson said in an October 29 motion that the administration has not completed decision-making on the garden, let alone begun work.
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administration → seek → work
“The National Park Service has not received direction to include the National Garden of American Heroes in West Potomac Park,” Gustafson wrote last Thursday.
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Gustafson → receive → Park
Trump also talked up his controversial plans to overhaul a golf course in East Potomac Park, and the 250-foot arch he plans to build in front of Arlington National Cemetery.
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he → talk → Cemetery
The “triumphant arch military complex,” as the president now calls it, “will have tremendous drone capability,” he said.
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he → call → capability
“I would say sniper or shooter capability.”
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I → say → capability
Trump recently began invoking a national security justification for the decorative arch in an evident ploy to try to get courts to grant deference to the plan.
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courts → begin → plan
“It will be the most beautiful arch in the world,” Trump added on Monday.
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Trump → add → Monday
Eventually, Trump shifted his attention to the election.
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Trump → shift → election
In a familiar refrain, he called Democrats communists and repeated a seemingly racist, though also incoherent, attack on Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan.
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he → call → Michigan
Trump said the Senate needed “a little bit of apple pie,” not “a jihadist.”
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Senate → say → pie
While gas and diesel prices remain high, Trump touted a recent dip in oil prices, attributing it in part to what he said was the seizure of Venezuela’s oil wealth following the US military takeover in January 2026.
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he → remain → January
While other US officials have tried to downplay US influence in that country and pushed back on accusations of colonialism, Trump on Monday pretty much went there.
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Trump → try → Monday
“When you add in our conquest of Venezuela,” he said, “we are taking in hundreds of billions of dollars of oil every single day.”
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we → add → oil
Trump defended his work in office, asserting that he has “kept far more promises than I made.”
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I → defend → promises
But Trump, as he delivered his remarks, appeared, in a phrase he once popularized, “low energy.”
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he → deliver → energy
He seemed ready for an electoral setback, acknowledging that the party of the president in power tends to lose seats in midterms.
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party → seem → midterms
He noted, with uncharacteristic realism, that things were not looking good for the GOP: “We gave this a very strong shot.”
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We → note → shot
The Aporia
