Trump Takes His Closing Midterm Pitch to the Reflecting Pool

President Donald Trump will close out the midterm campaign on Monday afternoon with a speech at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, choosing a Washington landmark he ordered rebuilt this year over one more rally in a battleground state. The speech is expected at 2 p.m. Eastern time and is his final scheduled address before voters decide control of Congress on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. He is also set to take part in nine tele-rallies during the day.

Trump signaled the plan on Sunday as he stepped off Air Force One on his way to a rally in Iowa. Speaking at the pool, he told reporters, would "show how beautiful it is." "We might hold it tomorrow or something," he said. Hours later, the White House formally announced that he would give a speech at the site on Monday afternoon, the Associated Press reported.

A final weekend that changed twice

The Washington speech caps a final campaign weekend that changed direction twice. On Thursday, Trump cancelled his weekend rallies, and the Republican National Committee said tele-rallies would let him speak to voters in nearly 20 states in a "72-hour sprint." He then reversed course and rallied in person on Sunday in Iowa and in Salina, Kansas, two Republican-leaning states, closing a run of more than 25 rallies in a month. "We are going to win," he told supporters on Sunday, Agence France-Presse reported.

Democrats are holding their own final events on Monday. In Texas, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is set to host a concert style rally in downtown Austin on Monday night, his final pitch to voters in a race that polls rate as one of the closest in the country.

The pool that followed him

The venue carries its own record. In April, Trump said he wanted to change the color of the pool and would use contractors he knew to fix the monument in mere days, for about $1.5 million, before Independence Day. The work instead wrapped up nearly three months behind schedule, and the cost rose to more than 10 times his early estimate, the Associated Press reported. Trump declared the renovation complete in June, but algae blooms and problems with the pool liner followed, and the pool was drained again in mid-July for more repairs. The administration has since repainted the basin and begun refilling it, the Journal reported. By speaking there on the last day of the campaign, Trump puts that record in front of the cameras whether he mentions it or not.

What is at stake on Tuesday

Voters on Tuesday decide all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 seats in the Senate. Republicans hold a 218 to 214 majority in the House and a 53 to 47 majority in the Senate, and Democrats need a net gain of four seats in each chamber to take control, Reuters reported. Control of Congress will decide how much of Trump's agenda can move in his final two years and whether Democrats gain the power to investigate his administration. Final New York Times and Siena University polls released on Sunday showed Democrats leading in all seven contested Senate races, with most of the leads inside the margin of error.