‘A massive piece of pool’: Trump talks algae and grass in final midterm push

{"text":[[{"start":8.415,"text":"After weeks on the campaign trail, with American voters convulsed by high energy prices and the fallout from his Iran war, Donald Trump had a message to rally the nation ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections."}],[{"start":20.448,"text":"“Despite all that we went through, the Reflecting Pool right now looks better than it ever looked,” he said on the National Mall on Monday."}],[{"start":27.652,"text":"The still, rectangular body of water — which Trump touted as “a massive piece of pool” — was his backdrop. Washington’s skies were grey. A horse seemed to be cantering in the distant background."}],[{"start":39.623,"text":"“This project should be a project that unites all Americans. It should be something we’re very proud of,” the president added."}],[{"start":46.217,"text":"Down in the polls, with his Republican congressional majorities at risk of being swept away by a Democratic “blue wave”, Trump had other foes in mind: the “algae”, the “bad aroma”, the “vandalism” and the “filth” that had sullied the basin near the Lincoln Memorial."}],[{"start":62.532,"text":"Wearing a white hat and looking a little tired after a 2am return to Washington from a trip to Kansas and Iowa, Trump held up posters and photos of a renovation plan that has been dogged by mishaps and presented the plan as an accomplishment."}],[{"start":76.789,"text":"The water was a “soft, dark blue” with “great reflectivity”, he said. There were “brand new pipes” and the “granite was all resurfaced”, the president added. “It’s a work of art in many ways.”"}],[{"start":86.88,"text":"Trump also provided an extensive update on his administration’s work to replace the grass at the White House and other Washington parks."}],[{"start":96.2,"text":"“Like the human being, grass has a life also. You have to replace grass,” the president said."}],[{"start":101.148,"text":"Coming at a climactic moment for Trump’s presidency, the event had some of the energy of Rudy Giuliani’s Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference in Philadelphia in 2020. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech — one of the history-making events at the Reflecting Pool — it was not."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":119.88,"text":"But for Trump it cemented a fixation on remaking the US capital in his image — a central concern of his second term in office, from the construction of a new White House ballroom and Triumphal Arch near Arlington Cemetery to the new helipad outside the Oval Office that he said was “desperately needed” to stop choppers from landing in “the mud”."}],[{"start":140.61,"text":"“We’re treating our capital city with the love and the honour that it deserves,” Trump proclaimed."}],[{"start":145.897,"text":"What about the looming vote? The 80-year-old president said the election was “the most important midterm I believe in our lifetime” and railed at the Democratic Party’s “most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history”."}],[{"start":158.814,"text":"Voters have soured badly on Trump’s handling of the US economy, according to polls, saying his unpopular trade wars and Iran conflict have pushed up costs."}],[{"start":167.855,"text":"But Trump said the “whole country is booming” thanks to his tariffs and a manufacturing plant construction boom. The US was “easily winning” the Iran war and had secured the “conquest of Venezuela” within the space of “one day” — a reference to the capture of former strongman leader Nicolás Maduro in January."}],[{"start":184.68,"text":"“We’ve achieved more in less than two years than any administration in American history, and I’ve kept every single promise I made, except far more,” Trump said."}],[{"start":194.073,"text":"“I’ve actually kept far more promises than I made,” he said, even though he had pledged in 2024 to immediately lower prices and not launch new foreign wars."}],[{"start":203.966,"text":"Trump conceded the midterm elections may not go his way, pointing to the historical trend of voters punishing US presidents. “For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms, but we gave this a very strong shot,” he said."}],[{"start":216.908,"text":"His party’s fate in Congress may be dim, he seemed to suggest, but the glory of his newly refurbished Reflecting Pool would live on."}],[{"start":225.552,"text":"“We’re giving serious thought to changing the name to the Trump Reflecting Pool,” he said."}],[{"start":233.2,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793668843_6766.mp3"}