WASHINGTON — In his final midterm election appeal, President Trump touted his administration’s record and targeted Democratic Senate contenders in Alaska and Michigan. Yet much of his speech before the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool centered on planned construction and renovation projects in the nation’s capital.
Trump highlighted falling oil prices, low unemployment, reduced crime and limited illegal immigration. He also revived his promise to send voters $5,000 each if Republicans keep control of Congress, framing the potential payout as a celebration of what he described as America’s “golden age.”
“The Democrats want to blow all of this up by electing communists and jihadists,” Trump said during the afternoon address. “We can’t let that happen. We have to keep our Congress strong, free. A little bit of apple pie.”
The president urged voters to do “the right thing,” while conceding that historical precedent does not favor the party occupying the White House in a midterm year.
“For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms, but we gave this a very strong shot,” Trump said, pointing to the 29 rallies he held across the country during the campaign.
His closing argument largely emphasized his national record, with specific attacks reserved for just two Senate races.
Trump portrayed the Democratic ticket as the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in U.S. history.
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“There’s never been anything like what we’re seeing: jihadists and Muslim Brotherhood members and people that nobody can even believe what we’re looking at,” he said, accusing them of pursuing an agenda that includes open borders, trillions of dollars in tax increases, gun restrictions, gender-affirming care bans, the elimination of oil and natural gas, sharply higher energy costs and the admission of millions of migrants.
The only Democratic candidate Trump singled out by name was Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Senate hopeful who, if elected, would become the nation’s first Muslim senator.
Trump alleged that El-Sayed secured a place on the ballot by campaigning for signatures at mosques he described as radical. He claimed those sites had referred to the United States as “the House of Satan,” adding, “We don’t want people that call the United States the House of Satan.”
He also accused Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola of helping recruit a person with the same name as Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan to enter the race.
“In Alaska, the Democrats conspired to get a fake Dan Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters and run against the real Dan Sullivan,” Trump said.
Trump did not turn to the election until roughly 24 minutes into a speech devoted largely to proposals for renovating or constructing prominent Washington landmarks.
“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,” he told the crowd.