The big picture: Trump's deep focus on remaking the nation's capital has taken center stage as the clock ticks down to midterm elections.

Driving the news: "The pool is now better and more beautiful than it's ever been before, and we're very proud of it," Trump said in Monday's speech, adding, "We went through a lot with vandalism."

But Trump's own Justice Department dropped the vandalism case against former Olympian David Hearn. A judge later killed the case after prosecutors acknowledged that faulty installation caused the damage to the Pool.

Trump added the administration was "giving serious thought" to renaming the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to the "Trump Reflecting Pool," before later saying he was kidding.

Throughout the speech, he held up printed images he identified as pipes, joints and other Pool materials.…