DALLAS — President Trump headlined the Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention Wednesday night, boasting about his record and offering every American $5,000 if Republicans hold control of Congress in the Nov. 3 election.
Trump implored listeners to “pretend that I’m on the ballot” so he can “finish the job” — before offering them a major financial incentive to do so.
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“If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our tremendous economic success… I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” Trump said.
The concept was “very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders,” he said.
It’s unclear if the idea would pass muster with fiscal conservatives. In 2020, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked Trump’s request for $2,000 COVID-19 stimulus checks and made the sum $600 due to fear of inflation.
President Joe Biden later approved the additional $1,400 — with critics saying it fueled an inflation crisis, which peaked at an annual rate of 9.1% in June 2022.
Other Trump-proposed direct payments haven’t been implemented, including plans last year for a DOGE dividend distributing cost savings from slashing the federal bureaucracy.
Trump rolled out a slate of other new policy ideas for his final two years in office, including legislation to end surprise medical billing, slash fees that credit card companies charge on purchases, end state-level cashless bail policies and apply the death penalty for large-scale drug dealers.
He said he would continue to push for stalled national voter ID rules, continue to boost domestic energy production, make permanent his new tax cuts on tips, overtime and Social Security payments and pass legislation barring future presidents from returning to more lax Biden-era border policies.
“Your vote will decide whether our country stumbles at the starting gate of the next 250 years or surges forward and never ever looks back,” Trump told thousands of attendees inside the American Airlines Center, home to the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
He also toyed with renaming New Mexico “New America” and renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself.
“Vote Republican and we will leave the world in our dust for generations to come,” Trump said.
“We hand America’s future to the radical left Democrats, and our nation will spend the next decade just getting back on its feet,” he warned.
“I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot — just one more time, because if we lose, you’re going to lose your border, you’re going to lose your tax cuts, you’re going to lose your safety and security, you’re going to lose your wealth.”
Trump urged voters to consider that the Iran war is dragging on because the Islamic Republic is “hoping that we lose so they can deal with dumb, weak Democrats and they can have their nuclear bomb.”
He predicted the conflict would end shortly after the Nov. 3 vote, causing oil prices to plummet.
‘Sick cloud over our country’
Trump said he plans to campaign at least once in all states with competitive House and Senate races to defend his agenda — and dispel the “sick cloud” of “communism,” especially in the 35 most hotly contested races.
Trump spoke after Republicans cheered on five hours of warm-up acts, including up-and-coming congressional candidates and cabinet secretaries — competing with the opening night of the NFL season as the New England Patriots faced the Seattle Seahawks in a Super Bowl rematch.
“There is a crazy little sick cloud over our country,” Trump said, leaning into the event’s effort to link Democrats writ large with self-declared socialists who won a number of upsets in primary races this year.
“I really believe it’s not going anywhere, but we have to make sure because we will defeat communism in America and vote for American freedom.”
He spoke as Republicans court moderate voters and Hispanics, a voting bloc that polls show is drifting after surging support to Trump’s 2024 campaign, which pressed hard on an anti-socialist message and promises to tame inflation and illegal border crossings.
The hastily planned “Trump-a-palooza” made good on hints of surprises.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) appeared in a video denouncing “the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life” and praising Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), as speculation mounts that he will switch parties.
Jumbo-screens also shockingly showed a half-naked selfie of anti-Israel commentator Hasan Piker — a close ally of Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed. The radical streamer’s tight blue underwear was blurred to obscure the still-visible anatomical contours underneath.
Justin Gaethje, the UFC fighter who won the headline match at the cage match on the White House lawn in June, appeared minutes ahead of Trump, saying the president “took the world by storm, similar to my chances on June 14” and praised the “leader who treats every day like I treated my fight that night.”
“Your next fight is the only one that matters,” he said. “We have to get out and vote… We risk getting knocked out.”
The 21,000-person arena swelled with guests ahead of Trump’s speech, though hundreds of nosebleed seats remained available.
Trump announced the convention just over two months ago as a gamble to prevent an electoral bloodbath that would imperil his final two years in office. Republicans lost 41 House seats during the midterm election in his first term.
Democrats have vowed to block Trump’s agenda and investigate and possibly impeach him if they retake control in Congress.
The event had the feel of a traditional presidential-year convention — complete with state markers on the floor, zany costumes including many sequin jackets and enthusiastic dancing by party reps on camera to dated hits such as 1984’s “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins.
Republican leaders who spoke before Trump highlighted major elements of his agenda, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent receiving rousing applause before touting private-sector job gains and “Trump accounts” for newborns.
Medicare and Medicaid chief Dr. Mehmet Oz spoke about Trump’s efforts to lower prescription drug prices, saying “so many of you look like gazelles” due to expanded coverage for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
The event significantly served to raise the profiles of rising Republican stars.
The first speakers after an opening prayer were a pair of Mexican-American siblings running for House seats in Texas, Rep. Monica De La Cruz, whose district stretches south from San Antonio, and her brother, Carlos De La Cruz, who would rep a neighboring district.
Former Arizona Cardinals NFL player Jay Feely, who is running for the House in Arizona, and military veteran Mike Bouchard Jr., who is running in Michigan, were given prime slots.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told attendees the election was “between common sense and communism, between America-loving patriots and hate-America extremists.”
“The Communist Party, oh excuse me, the Democrats have no leader,” Emmer jabbed. “The only thing they can agree on is their disgusting hatred of America.”
