t was a picture-perfect setting for the closing argument of a contentious campaign season. But when President Trump stepped up to a lectern in front of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool on Monday afternoon, he had another matter on his mind: rusty pipes.
“The pipes were very old and in bad shape,” Trump said, holding up photos of the aging infrastructure he replaced under the reflecting pool. “The pipes now are totally renovated. They’re brand new pipes.”
The president’s nearly hourlong speech, which some White House officials pitched as a capstone to a flurry of midterm election rallies, centered on the many construction projects and renovations Trump has overseen during his second term. He talked about cleaning up graffiti, fixing fountains and monuments, and resodding the National Mall.
“Like the human being, grass has a life also,” Trump said. “The grass in front of the White House was a very inferior grass for many, many years, and now it’s beautiful.”
The remarks frustrated Republicans, including some of his own White House advisers, who privately expressed exasperation that the president chose not to use a high-profile speech on the eve of the election to squarely focus on the economic issues that voters say they care most about.
The scene was the latest episode in an election filled with unusual moments. Trump, wearing a white USA ball cap, delivered a 53-minute meandering speech to an audience that consisted of a small group of National Park Service workers and members of the media.
Trump earlier this year ordered up a renovation of the historic pool, saying he would do it quicker and cheaper than others. But plans to open it in time for America’s 250th birthday celebration were derailed when green algae blooms appeared.
Trump also accused vandals of slashing the new liner—which he painted “American flag blue”—though charges were dropped and the contractor acknowledged it had made mistakes.
As the president touted the new coating he had installed on the bottom of the reflecting pool, he asked, “Does somebody have those pictures for me?” An aide came to the lectern with a stack of photos and Trump offered commentary as he held them up. “These are the pipes,” he said, adding, “That’s brand new grass that was vandalized.”
Closing Laugh
“We were laughed at all over the world for four years,” he concluded. “We were laughed at like we were stupid people. We were laughed at by every ruler, every president, every prime minister, every king, every queen. But they don’t laugh anymore.”
This is the President of the United States delivering his message to bring out Republican voters.
Until the election is over, it’s always possible to lose more votes.
Trump brags about the war in Iran this evening on Hannity
Trump calls his Iran war “amazing.” Amazing for whom?@Grok, who has made the most money from this war? Compare Big Oil, defense contractors, Russia, and other beneficiaries. Show the actual dollar gains and who paid the price. https://t.co/1BY0G8RQ93
You know, I’ve been really mad about Trump attacking Iran and stonewalling on the Epstein files, but when I remember the golden ballroom he’s building, I’m resolved to vote GOP across the board. (Do I need the sarc tag?)
davebarnes
11 hours ago
Fat Donnie unravels more and more every day.
Even the NYTimes has noticed.
Feral Finster
12 hours ago
Thing looks like a mud puddle or a swamp or something.
Odd that a real estate guy would use such an unaesthetic piece of real estate as a prop.
No. Napoleon expanded the civil rights of French Jews during his rule. German Jews lost their civil rights in 1935 under the Nuremberg Laws when Hitler was Germany’s leader.
German Jews also lacked civil rights in the pre-Napoleonic era. In Frankfurt, they were confined to live on the Judengasse (Jew street), and there was a city gate topped with a massive grotesque parody sculpture of the Judensau, a large pig (which in Judaism was an unclean animal). Due to Roman Catholic traditions and zero sum gamesmanship, Italians and Germans confined them largely to financial business, which turned in our times to advantage. Also they were itinerant salespeople of small goods, which evolved in the USA into things like Sears Roebuck (alongside Lehman Brothers, investment bankers helping to birth such businesses).
But Hitler took it so far over the top that we are all still suffering one way or another for it. Is there some way to turn a page on all that, and see a genuinely new day? I like to think so, still.
• Attila the Hun & Genghis Khan: Frequently invoked in European history as archetypes of ruthless destruction, brutal conquest, and barbarian terror.
• Napoleon Bonaparte: Viewed by Britain and his European rivals in the 19th century as a dangerous, imperialist threat and embodiment of overreaching ambition.
• Ivan the Terrible & Vlad the Impaler: Associated in Eastern and Central Europe with extreme sadism, cruel punishments, and tyrannical violence.
• Biblical Figures: In heavily religious Western societies prior to the 20th century, figures like Judas Iscariot, Herod the Great, or the Pharaoh from the Exodus story were the standard rhetorical embodiments of betrayal or malice.
• King Henry VIII: Often used in Anglo-American or Protestant polemics as a symbol of arbitrary tyranny and religious persecution.
From what I have read, he seems to have been thought of as a pretty smart man in his own day. Things went to pieces a bit after he died, but recovered again under his daughter Elizabeth (also daughter of Anne Boleyn, whom he beheaded). Then they went to pieces again and stayed in pieces for quite a while.
I keep wondering when he constantly badgers ex presidents by saying stuff like, “this didn’t work during sleepy Joe’s term” or “This wasn’t addressed under Barack HUSSEIN Obama”, and blames all the former Presidents for all the ills that he is currently addressing, does he not realize that he also is a former President? If all these things were so F’ed up previously, and so bad, why didn’t he, himself, address them in his first term?
They have been awful quiet for the most part. He does have the files. The next U.S. presidential election to choose a successor to President Donald Trump is scheduled for Tuesday, November 7, 2028. Maybe he is planning to release them in September or October of 2028 to shake things up giving himself a pardon on the way out.
He will not go quietly, whatever the circumstances are. The will lay waste to whatever he can, in the name of his psychotic ego, not least the valuable resource that is our attention. Who knows where his lunacy might go when a true perception of the end appears.
Him and his simps have 0 accountability for anything, it’s always “THEY DID IT!” Not unlike the character “Ida no” in those old Family Circus cartoons.
They’re giant, tantrum throwing toddlers, and their idol is still in diapers. I bet the order was written in purple crayon.
MelvinRich
14 hours ago
It’s Hitler ranting about the capitol of the world, Germania, while the Russians close in on Berlin. Some say Hitler escaped to South America; will Trump flee the country? Will he take Melania? The similarities are striking.
I love it when a Mish reader adds a comment that calls out a solution to a problem, rather than just complaining about a problem
Mike
16 hours ago
Talked about some accomplishments instead of Iran war or not releasing the Epstein files. Expect the pipes were old and rusty. Should have done more prosecutions and raged at the judicial overreach hampering his efforts trying to correct things. At lease he wasn’t reading from a teleprompter. Now a few years of gridlock and impeachment efforts. Will they shut down the war or rubber stamp it? Maybe now they will release the Epstein files but only Massey was really running on that. Now he can rage away like a bull in a china shop but will he?
Last edited 16 hours ago by Mike
Pedro
18 hours ago
The man is an ignorant moron, same as always. As usual, there’s really not much to discuss about what came out of his pie hole since its all ignorant BS. I just hope he takes his sycophants down with him. Its getting so tiresome watching them destroy the USA with their simple mindded worldview
Well, considering Lincoln was a stupid President and that Trump easily could have ended the Civil War in a week, maybe it would unite the divided houses of this country if the entire memorial were to be named after him. I mean, it would stop the laughing. And the drownings.
Webej
22 hours ago
Trump is right.
The whole world is laughing.
Those who aren’t laughing, it’s because they feel sorry for Americans.
On the Jimmy Dore show, Mike McRae does great impressions of Kash Patel.
Creamer
23 hours ago
And the strikes are back on in Iran!
My Lord I don’t think I could do worse than this if I had control of Trump’s body somehow. This is insane. Where is the 25th Amendment? Is there a single braincell floating around between the entire GOP?
There is the matter of a demented person contemplating nuclear strikes on an elective aggressive war. Use every tool in the tool kit to try to stop it. Or dont apply for the job.
…
D voters accuse me of being too negative (various subjective insults) about not wanting to waste votes on D’s and then they defend the D’s defeatist policies.
Last edited 14 hours ago by most of you voted for the uniparty all your lives
If ever I see enough people stop voting for uniparty candidates, I would vote again to add to the numbers and help the snowball roll. Until then, I won’t.
On the political compass, my score lands me in the bottom-left quadrant.
Last edited 11 hours ago by most of you voted for the uniparty all your lives
I appreciate your integrity. You can be out standing in your field. An army of one. Game theory wise, I think that is just defaulting to someone who can be readily identified: whichever facet of your uniparty that benefits.
That would, for example, be to the benefit of Woodrow Wilson or Bil Clinton, in their times.
That’s the likely outcome. I don’t think there’s any point in the house trying to impeach him without the Senate turning that into something real.
If this election is a lopsided as people expect, the Republicans that are up for election in 2028 might rethink protecting a senile lame duck.
I know Kamala Harris has advocated for not impeaching him because it would be a waste of time and resources. I disagree. I think he needs to be impeached but if you’re worried about the fallout, do it in January 2028. I want him to have something historic that nobody can ever take away from him, the first president to be removed from office.
He’s going to have his feelings hurt and be and out for revenge on Americans. Hopefully this’ll peel off some of his butt buddies, out of self preservation.
I doubt it. They are still recovering from the earful they got this time.
Michigan is a learning experience – their corporate shill, Fedderwoman, got removed in the primary. People will pay a lot more attention to the primaries when the incumbent is turning into a carpet bagger.
What earful? In 2006, Team D was swept in on a wave of antiwar sentiment. Before the election, Nancy Pelosi promised to start impeachment in 100 days.
Needless to say, once elected, Team D forgot all about that and went back to griping about process, while giving the wars all the money that the Bush administration asked for.
We have front row seats. We and our name are taped to the tip of whatever spear this demented moron hauls out. This could mean oblivion for a few Iranians, and derisive rueful laughter for most of the rest of the world.
Funny, rather not funny, Israel was involved in the Suez crisis too. Recall what happened strategically-historically to their partners. the UK and France? It was a path to Palookaville.
You know, I’ve been really mad about Trump attacking Iran and stonewalling on the Epstein files, but when I remember the golden ballroom he’s building, I’m resolved to vote GOP across the board. (Do I need the sarc tag?)
Fat Donnie unravels more and more every day.
Even the NYTimes has noticed.
Thing looks like a mud puddle or a swamp or something.
Odd that a real estate guy would use such an unaesthetic piece of real estate as a prop.
What a wild guy.
Who was “Hitler” before Hitler?
Napoleon?
Top on my list is Emperor Chin.
No. Napoleon expanded the civil rights of French Jews during his rule. German Jews lost their civil rights in 1935 under the Nuremberg Laws when Hitler was Germany’s leader.
German Jews also lacked civil rights in the pre-Napoleonic era. In Frankfurt, they were confined to live on the Judengasse (Jew street), and there was a city gate topped with a massive grotesque parody sculpture of the Judensau, a large pig (which in Judaism was an unclean animal). Due to Roman Catholic traditions and zero sum gamesmanship, Italians and Germans confined them largely to financial business, which turned in our times to advantage. Also they were itinerant salespeople of small goods, which evolved in the USA into things like Sears Roebuck (alongside Lehman Brothers, investment bankers helping to birth such businesses).
But Hitler took it so far over the top that we are all still suffering one way or another for it. Is there some way to turn a page on all that, and see a genuinely new day? I like to think so, still.
• Attila the Hun & Genghis Khan: Frequently invoked in European history as archetypes of ruthless destruction, brutal conquest, and barbarian terror.
• Napoleon Bonaparte: Viewed by Britain and his European rivals in the 19th century as a dangerous, imperialist threat and embodiment of overreaching ambition.
• Ivan the Terrible & Vlad the Impaler: Associated in Eastern and Central Europe with extreme sadism, cruel punishments, and tyrannical violence.
• Biblical Figures: In heavily religious Western societies prior to the 20th century, figures like Judas Iscariot, Herod the Great, or the Pharaoh from the Exodus story were the standard rhetorical embodiments of betrayal or malice.
• King Henry VIII: Often used in Anglo-American or Protestant polemics as a symbol of arbitrary tyranny and religious persecution.
Not sure specifically Protestants use Henry VIII as a symbol of tyranny, as he broke with the Catholic Church.
But, yeah, he was a tyrant, basically an overgrown toddler with the authority to have your head cut off.
From what I have read, he seems to have been thought of as a pretty smart man in his own day. Things went to pieces a bit after he died, but recovered again under his daughter Elizabeth (also daughter of Anne Boleyn, whom he beheaded). Then they went to pieces again and stayed in pieces for quite a while.
That’s a pretty good list, though it does seem like at least one of the Roman emperors would qualify
Jefferson Davis
I keep wondering when he constantly badgers ex presidents by saying stuff like, “this didn’t work during sleepy Joe’s term” or “This wasn’t addressed under Barack HUSSEIN Obama”, and blames all the former Presidents for all the ills that he is currently addressing, does he not realize that he also is a former President? If all these things were so F’ed up previously, and so bad, why didn’t he, himself, address them in his first term?
I hear ya. But I know you know him well enough to answer the question. It would just be “biden broke it,I fixed it again”.
He always has a comeback. Doesnt matter how much we hate this lying sack of shit. He always poops a few words out the fecal hole in his head.
O capitan my capitan.
They have been awful quiet for the most part. He does have the files. The next U.S. presidential election to choose a successor to President Donald Trump is scheduled for Tuesday, November 7, 2028. Maybe he is planning to release them in September or October of 2028 to shake things up giving himself a pardon on the way out.
He will not go quietly, whatever the circumstances are. The will lay waste to whatever he can, in the name of his psychotic ego, not least the valuable resource that is our attention. Who knows where his lunacy might go when a true perception of the end appears.
Him and his simps have 0 accountability for anything, it’s always “THEY DID IT!” Not unlike the character “Ida no” in those old Family Circus cartoons.
They’re giant, tantrum throwing toddlers, and their idol is still in diapers. I bet the order was written in purple crayon.
It’s Hitler ranting about the capitol of the world, Germania, while the Russians close in on Berlin. Some say Hitler escaped to South America; will Trump flee the country? Will he take Melania? The similarities are striking.
Donald Hitler and Melania Brown. It even rhymes with history.
Don’t forget Hitler killed Feglin and an entire Goebbels family committed suicide before Hitler fled. It’s not a good time to be Trump staffer.
Yes, let’s see what trajectory the rats take when jumping the ship. Fortunately for them we are (maybe) less inhumane than they.
Fegelein tried to run (with a girlfriend, not the wife who was Eva Braun’s sister). Goebbels went down with the ship, his wife and six kids.
Doubt it. Melania’s old….
He’ll take the young blonde.
Old and rusty? He’s projecting again. Time to put this guy in a home.
I love it when a Mish reader adds a comment that calls out a solution to a problem, rather than just complaining about a problem
Talked about some accomplishments instead of Iran war or not releasing the Epstein files. Expect the pipes were old and rusty. Should have done more prosecutions and raged at the judicial overreach hampering his efforts trying to correct things. At lease he wasn’t reading from a teleprompter. Now a few years of gridlock and impeachment efforts. Will they shut down the war or rubber stamp it? Maybe now they will release the Epstein files but only Massey was really running on that. Now he can rage away like a bull in a china shop but will he?
The man is an ignorant moron, same as always. As usual, there’s really not much to discuss about what came out of his pie hole since its all ignorant BS. I just hope he takes his sycophants down with him. Its getting so tiresome watching them destroy the USA with their simple mindded worldview
I see people wear your campaign merch, everywhere. But when I ask, none of them can really explain your platform.
It’s a little like MAGA.
Apparently people didnt appreciate my riffing on “Vote for Pedro” shirts and then mocking MAGA. Tough crowd!
It’s all in the delivery!
Nice try though 😀
I didn’t get the reference at first.
This isn’t the crowd for ethnic humor.
Well, considering Lincoln was a stupid President and that Trump easily could have ended the Civil War in a week, maybe it would unite the divided houses of this country if the entire memorial were to be named after him. I mean, it would stop the laughing. And the drownings.
Trump is right.
The whole world is laughing.
Those who aren’t laughing, it’s because they feel sorry for Americans.
All hail the Comic-in-chief!
Hmm…nah…at this point, I would vote for Shemp.
Unlike the Orangutan, Shemp was no one’s stooge.
Recall Mark Rutte calling Trump “daddy”.
I vividly recall cringing.
Mark Rutte looks like Haley Stevens.
Kash Patel: “We need America to wake up and put Israel first.”
His handler is thisclose.
On the Jimmy Dore show, Mike McRae does great impressions of Kash Patel.
And the strikes are back on in Iran!
My Lord I don’t think I could do worse than this if I had control of Trump’s body somehow. This is insane. Where is the 25th Amendment? Is there a single braincell floating around between the entire GOP?
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-trump-netanyahu-israel-war-b4519ef86bafe2672e0855d7a48ce309
If the D’s won’t impeach for crimes, why bother with 25a either?
You have to have 2/3rds votes in the Senate for impeachment. Republicans will stop it, just like last time.
There is the matter of a demented person contemplating nuclear strikes on an elective aggressive war. Use every tool in the tool kit to try to stop it. Or dont apply for the job.
…
D voters accuse me of being too negative (various subjective insults) about not wanting to waste votes on D’s and then they defend the D’s defeatist policies.
So who do you waste your votes on?
If ever I see enough people stop voting for uniparty candidates, I would vote again to add to the numbers and help the snowball roll. Until then, I won’t.
On the political compass, my score lands me in the bottom-left quadrant.
For the Hillary-Trump election, I thought about writing in “fuck you” but wrote in “assange”. In context, I meant it the same way.
I appreciate your integrity. You can be out standing in your field. An army of one. Game theory wise, I think that is just defaulting to someone who can be readily identified: whichever facet of your uniparty that benefits.
That would, for example, be to the benefit of Woodrow Wilson or Bil Clinton, in their times.
That’s the likely outcome. I don’t think there’s any point in the house trying to impeach him without the Senate turning that into something real.
If this election is a lopsided as people expect, the Republicans that are up for election in 2028 might rethink protecting a senile lame duck.
I know Kamala Harris has advocated for not impeaching him because it would be a waste of time and resources. I disagree. I think he needs to be impeached but if you’re worried about the fallout, do it in January 2028. I want him to have something historic that nobody can ever take away from him, the first president to be removed from office.
He’s going to have his feelings hurt and be and out for revenge on Americans. Hopefully this’ll peel off some of his butt buddies, out of self preservation.
Jan 2029
Yes. January 2029. That’s so long…
Team D won’t even try. Instead, they’ll do a reprise of 2006-2008.
I doubt it. They are still recovering from the earful they got this time.
Michigan is a learning experience – their corporate shill, Fedderwoman, got removed in the primary. People will pay a lot more attention to the primaries when the incumbent is turning into a carpet bagger.
What earful? In 2006, Team D was swept in on a wave of antiwar sentiment. Before the election, Nancy Pelosi promised to start impeachment in 100 days.
Needless to say, once elected, Team D forgot all about that and went back to griping about process, while giving the wars all the money that the Bush administration asked for.
“We are going to give them the hammer”
“The only reason I’m not finished with Iran is because I want to be nice”
Can you get any lower? Most probably yes.
Of course! Donald Trump is the original Ditch Witch
We have front row seats. We and our name are taped to the tip of whatever spear this demented moron hauls out. This could mean oblivion for a few Iranians, and derisive rueful laughter for most of the rest of the world.
Funny, rather not funny, Israel was involved in the Suez crisis too. Recall what happened strategically-historically to their partners. the UK and France? It was a path to Palookaville.
How will the data center vote go?
Right now I’d vote for any US manufacturer that makes a product that sells world wide, and brings that money back to the US.
Weapons?
Apparently, this is taco’s top priority on the day before mid-terms. He didn’t mind acknowledging the taxpayers paid for his pool.
The taxpayers don’t own anything… it’s all his because he’s president.