--- title: How Trump Is Spending Election Day and Night description: Ahead of Election Day, Trump packed his schedule with back-to-back tele-rallies for Republican candidates and gave a speech at the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/what-is-trump-planning-to-do-on-election-day-midterm/ author: Philip Wang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-11-03T12:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-11-03T05:07:08.219Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Trump Is Spending Election Day and Night og:description: Ahead of Election Day, Trump packed his schedule with back-to-back tele-rallies for Republican candidates and gave a speech at the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/what-is-trump-planning-to-do-on-election-day-midterm/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bbeed4e1f1f19de/6ae8e705807db172d2e37b45/GettyImages-2302752708.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: GettyImages-2302752708.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Trump Is Spending Election Day and Night twitter:description: Ahead of Election Day, Trump packed his schedule with back-to-back tele-rallies for Republican candidates and gave a speech at the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bbeed4e1f1f19de/6ae8e705807db172d2e37b45/GettyImages-2302752708.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Trump Is Spending Election Day > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2c04435e-3fc6-4edb-b00d-fa84545104f5&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Philip Wang](https://time.com/author/philip-wang/)  ## Philip Wang Nov 3, 2026 12:00 PM UTC  President Donald Trump delivers a speech marking the end of the midterm election campaign on Nov. 2, 2026, at the Lincoln Reflecting Pool, in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump delivers a speech marking the end of the midterm election campaign on Nov. 2, 2026, at the Lincoln Reflecting Pool, in Washington, DC. Mandel Ngan–AFP via Getty Images  by [Philip Wang](https://time.com/author/philip-wang/)  ## Philip Wang Nov 3, 2026 12:00 PM UTC Listen 00:001.0x02:41 Narrated by TIME AI. After weeks of [rallies](https://time.com/article/2026/11/02/haley-stevens-abdul-el-sayed-mike-rogers-endorsement-trump-republicans-democrats/) across the country, President Trump is set to spend Election Day at the White House, as polls suggest his party may be in for a [tough night](https://time.com/article/2026/11/02/south-carolina-senate-midterm-elections-lindsey-graham-darline-annie-andrews/). Trump gave a final speech ahead of Election Day on Monday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the source of a recent [troubled renovation,](https://time.com/article/2026/06/22/lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-vandalism-algae-paint-trump-admin/) in which his Administration’s achievements while calling Democrats “extreme and dangerous.” “For whatever reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms, and we gave this a very strong shot,” he said. The President’s schedule on Monday also had him attending at least nine virtual tele-rallies to stump for Republican candidates across the country. It was the capstone to weeks of campaigning by Trump. Just in October, he attended and spoke at 27 campaign rallies. On Tuesday, the President is set to remain at the White House into the evenign as states from coast to coast tabulate the election results, according to a White House official. Election night is expected to to stretch into the early hours, with the first polls closing at 6 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday and the last in Alaska at 1 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday. The president, along with First Lady Melania Trump, [cast their ballots](https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-speaks-to-reporters-after-voting-early/686943) early in person in West Palm Beach, Florida, two weeks ago, before Trump spoke at a rally in Georgia that same day. Trump said he voted for all Republicans. # Republicans Hope to Defy the Polls The President has been [encouraging](https://www.thestate.com/news/article317681907.html) his supporters to vote as if his name is on the ballot, as Republicans fear a lower turnout from their supporters than those of Democrats. The latest New York _Times_/Siena poll on Monday [showed](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/01/us/politics/times-siena-poll-senate.html) Democrats leading in key Senate battlegrounds including Michigan, Texas, Ohio, and Kansas. **_Read more:_** [_The Key Congressional Races to Watch on Election Night_](https://time.com/article/2026/10/30/the-key-congressional-races-to-watch-on-election-night/) “Democrats are showing up, they're energized. They hate, hate, hate Donald Trump,” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said Friday on his [podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiFTI2%5FCGoc). “If the election were over today, if just the early votes that have been cast so far were counted, Republicans would lose massively,” Cruz warned. Key election results could be delayed by the Trump administration’s ongoing investigations into how states administer elections. The Department of Justice on Sunday [asked](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/75009254/81/united-states-v-state-of-alaska/) a federal appeals Court to overturn a ruling that dismissed the department’s bid to potentiallyblock certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate election over the candidacy of Daniel J Sullivan, who is appearing on the same ballot as incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan. **_Read more:_** [_How Trump Could Interfere With the Midterms on Election Day, and the Days After_](https://time.com/article/2026/10/28/Trump-voting-election-interference-ballots-DOJ-fraud-investigation/) The Department has also asked the Supreme Court on Monday to set aside 20,000 mail-in ballots that the administration claims have been provided to noncitizens. Federal judges in the lower courts have all rejected the DOJ’s request to do so. For months, Trump has appeared to lay the groundwork to claim that voter fraud took place if Republicans perform poorly in the midterms, despite the fact that instances of [voter fraud](https://time.com/article/2026/03/20/mail-voting-absentee-voter-fraud-trump-claims-research/) are exceedingly rare. Last week, he claimed in a [Truth Social post](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117509280703799414) that the federal government is closely watching for any sign of voter fraud in Minnesota, and that the only way that the Republican candidate for the Senate will lose is through “playing games with the \[B\]allots.” Asked if he will respect the midterm election results, Trump told reporters last Tuesday that he will “if they are honest elections.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/what-is-trump-planning-to-do-on-election-day-midterm/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/what-is-trump-planning-to-do-on-election-day-midterm/"},"headline":"How Trump Is Spending Election Day","datePublished":"2026-11-03T12:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-11-03T05:07:08.219Z","description":"Ahead of Election Day, Trump packed his schedule with back-to-back tele-rallies for Republican candidates.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/what-is-trump-planning-to-do-on-election-day-midterm/","keywords":["Election","Trump Administration","White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bbeed4e1f1f19de/6ae8e705807db172d2e37b45/GettyImages-2302752708.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Wang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/philip-wang/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bbeed4e1f1f19de/6ae8e705807db172d2e37b45/GettyImages-2302752708.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-2302752708.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Mandel Ngan–AFP via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/election/","name":"Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/what-is-trump-planning-to-do-on-election-day-midterm/","name":"How Trump Is Spending Election Day"}}]}] ```