Donald Trump pledged to pay every adult citizen in the US $5,000 if Republicans retain the House and Senate in the midterm elections, during a marathon speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas in which the president assailed Democrats as “radical” and defended his unpopular war in Iran.
The outlandish proposal, which would cost over $1tn, immediately raised ethical concerns. But it laid bare the extent of the Republicans’ concern about their prospects in the pivotal November elections.
“If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000,” Trump told a roaring crowd, during a nearly two-hour long speech in which he also urged voters to “pretend that I’m on the ballot” – despite his historic unpopularity causing many vulnerable Republican politicians to avoid the event.
Surrounded by supporters waving American flag placards, Trump claimed, without evidence, that his second term had been “the most successful two years, financially and every other way, in the history of the presidency”, but devoted much of his speech to fearmongering about what would happen should Democrats win the House or the Senate for the final two years of his presidency.
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“There is a crazy little sick cloud over our country,” Trump said. “We will defeat communism in America.”
The president and Republicans are gambling that throwing a midterm convention – the first the GOP has ever held – can buoy the party, which is predicted to lose control of the House. Yet, Trump’s deep unpopularity among Americans – his approval rating is hovering at about 38% – meant many Republican candidates running in competitive races skipped the two-day confab entirely.
Even so, Trump’s speech made it clear he thinks he will be the deciding factor in November. Noting that the party which holds the White House traditionally struggles in the midterm elections, Trump said: “We’ve got to change that, because we have something going that’s so good.
“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. Our country is going through hell – we will be going through hell, just like we did, just two years ago,” he said.
The buildup to the midterm convention had somewhat of a chaotic air. Trump was initially scheduled to speak on the second night, before the Republican National Committee announced that he would deliver the keynote on Wednesday, and instead give closing remarks on Thursday after his vice-president JD Vance speaks.
Trump made several references to the war in Iran, warning Tehran “not to get cute” or the US “will have to hit them very hard”. But he also appeared to acknowledge the economic pain caused by the soaring price of oil. Trump re-enacted the way he told his economic advisors that the US needed to start the conflict because Iran was “two, maybe three weeks away from having a nuclear weapon”. “I hate to do this to you,” he said he told them, noting the economy had been doing well.
At the convention center, there were signs of middling enthusiasm among the rank and file.
Compared with the four-day traditional convention in Milwaukee two years ago, the first day felt muted. There were no long queues to enter, no eternal waits for food or bathrooms. Swathes of empty seats were visible throughout Trump’s speech.
Visible, except to Trump, who claimed, wrongly, that the arena was full.
“Not only is this packed but you have an equal number of people standing outside,” Trump declared. This was not observed by Guardian reporters.
The RNC had announced in mid-August that Americans could apply for tickets to attend the event, suggesting that applicants would enter a lottery and only a lucky few would be granted access. Yet on Wednesday, with the convention underway, applications for tickets were instantly being granted on an RNC sign-up page.
Trump himself, however, appeared energized in his call to action on the first night, cracking jokes, including at the expense of Ken Paxton, his handpicked candidate for Senate in Texas who won a primary against the incumbent John Cornyn earlier this year.
“He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen,” Trump said of Paxton. “But you know what he is? He’s the greatest attorney general in America.”
Trump spent several minutes attacking Democrats, including Paxton’s opponent, James Talarico, who Trump mocked as a “weird looking dude” as well as the former Republican governor Roy Cooper in North Carolina, who is now running for Senate, and Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan.
In a statement, Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, accused Republicans of holding a “bizarre dog-and-pony show” to placate the president’s “fragile ego”.
“Tonight only confirmed that the president is a lame duck failure who is dragging his party toward defeat,” Martin said.
The Republicans’ unusual midterm convention featurs 12 hours of programming across two nights. On Wednesday, the speaker lineup featured Trump loyalists and candidates, but showmanship remained at the center of the agenda.
Byron Donalds, a rising star in the party who is running for governor of Florida, and Mehmet Oz and Scott Bessent, two of Trump’s cabinet secretaries, were among those to take the stage, yet the president, a UFC fan, decided he would be introduced by two fighters, the middleweight Bo Nickal and Justin “The Highlight” Gaethje, a lightweight.
Most speakers only got five minutes. Nickal and Gaethje, who both fought at the UFC 250 event on the White House Lawn in June, got 10.
Gaethje told the crowd he had earned his “Highlight” nickname when he knocked out his first opponent very quickly in 2016, before linking himself to the 80-year-old Trump.
“One mistake I’ve made in my career was becoming complacent while I was on a winning streak and forgetting how unforgiving my sport would be,” Gaethje said. “If we are not just as passionate about voting and winning in these midterms as we were in the last presidential election, then we risk being knocked out and losing all the momentum we have been fighting for.”
Earlier, Republicans said the focus would be on “lowering costs, securing our border, making our communities safer, and putting American workers and families first”. Yet speaker after speaker instead attacked Democrats on alleged support for transgender rights, in particular, suggesting the Republican party intends to put culture wars towards the front as November approaches.
Trump will speak again on Thursday, but said his address would be much briefer.
“I gave you a lot of material,” he said, capping his remarks on Wednesday, before pleading one more time with voters to “please pretend that I’m running”.
