USAupdated 56m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 7 May 2026Trump Delivers Lincoln Memorial Closing Message as Supreme Court Rejects California Ballot Request
19 Western Mainstream4 Other2 Latin AmericanPhoto: The White House / US federal government, Public domain · Cropped for layout
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Trump delivered closing midterm message at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Supreme Court rejected Trump's bid to suppress disputed California ballots.
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25 outlets told this the same way.
Closing arguments and polls
President Donald Trump campaigned for the midterms with a closing message at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool while acknowledging that historically, the president’s party “doesn’t win the midterms.” Trump told supporters, “For whatever reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms, and we gave this a very strong shot,” as he framed the election as a test of whether Republicans can hold power with two years of his presidency remaining.
The Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s effort to target alleged noncitizen voters by rejecting a request that California separate out up to 20,000 mail-in ballots. The Justice Department planned to send a record number of election monitors to polling places in all 50 states, and Harmeet Dhillon said monitors would seek to ensure citizens were voting and their votes weren’t canceled out by someone who “shouldn’t be voting.”
War, tariffs, and voting
Voters focused on the cost of living as Americans headed to the polls, with the BBC describing food and fuel prices that “have soared” in part due to the president’s aggressive tariffs and unpopular war with Iran. The BBC reported that the price of a gallon of diesel “hit a record high of $6.52 in September,” and it quoted a voter in Iowa saying, “I literally just had my son drive across the country, and he called me in every state and told me the price of gas.”
The U.S. military carried out limited strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island on the eve of the midterm elections, and two U.S. officials said the attacks were self-defense and in response to Iran’s ongoing efforts to target maritime shipping and U.S. assets. Trump also pushed a message that he wanted supporters to treat the election as if he were on the ballot, and the BBC quoted his plea: “In this election, I'm asking you to pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot.”
What control could change
Republicans faced the possibility of losing control of Congress, and the BBC said the midterm elections would “decide control of Congress” at a difficult moment for the president’s party. NBC News said the Supreme Court shut down Trump’s effort to force California to sideline potentially thousands of ballots, rejecting the administration’s emergency request hours after it was filed.
The stakes for Democrats included the ability to block presidential nominations and expand executive oversight if they won Senate control, and the BBC quoted Stephen Hawkins saying, “Places where President Trump won by 10, 12, 15 points just two years ago” are now states where Democrats have “a very viable chance of taking a Senate seat.” The Justice Department’s monitoring plan, which NBC News said would include roughly 1,000 monitors nationwide, also reflected the administration’s focus on election integrity as Harmeet Dhillon said monitors would ensure citizens were voting and their votes weren’t canceled out by someone who “shouldn’t be voting.”
