Trump pledges $5,000 for each US citizen if Republicans win midterms during rambling speech

Can’t a president catch a break? As if the opening night of the NFL – indecently early and in summer weather and featuring the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks – wasn’t sufficient prime-time television competition for the GOP midterm convention in Dallas, some Anthropic employee had unhelpfully issued a viral social media post claiming that there is a fair chance that AI superintelligence will have wiped out the planet by 2030. At least the White House ballroom – and the bunker beneath – should be finished by then. Somebody, somewhere, undoubtedly copped a lot of flak for timing the first night of the inaugural Republican midterm get-together on the opening night of football season, but nonetheless, Trump flew south to Dallas on Wednesday for a keynote address to try and rouse national enthusiasm amongst his voting base across key constituencies. The convention coincides with new personal polling lows for the president, mounting hostility towards the Iran war impasse and an unhelpful spike in oil prices, with the cost of a crude oil barrel edging past the $100 red letter mark. It also coincided with a decision made by several Republican politicians involved in definitive Senate and House election battles this autumn to distance themselves from the president by staying away from the jamboree. In an odd way, the convention, set against general Republican voting apathy and disillusionment at the failure to deliver on the economic promises of the 2024 election campaign, has been framed as a referendum on Trump’s ability to marshall votes. Three of the keynote speakers involved in November races – John Husted of Ohio; Mike Rogers, who is facing Abdul El-Sayed in a bitter Michigan Senate race; and Michael Whatley, the former RNC chairman struggling to keep pace with former governor Roy Cooper in North Carolina – are all so closely aligned with Trump that skipping the event would be foolish and pointless for them. READ MOREBut Susan Collins, whom the polls have locked in a dead-heat battle with Troy Jackson to keep the Senate seat she has held since 1997, spent the day campaigning in Maine. Also absent were Dan Sullivan, the party’s Senate candidate in Alaska; Ashley Hinson of Iowa; and John E. Sununu of New Hampshire. Against that, the evening featured a video message from John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democratic senator who is increasingly estranged from and at odds with both the traditional and progressive wings of his own party. Fetterman’s pledged to work with the Republicans to preserve the steel and manufacturing industries in his state. But his message was a coup for Trump.Neither party has held a formal midterm event since a disastrous attempt by the Democrats in the autumn of 1982. The wisdom of this event seems dubious, not least since it offered GOP supporters across the Red-state belts a subdued and reduced version of those surging rallies that propelled Trump towards a second term in office in the summer of 2024. But now, their idol is two years older and, however robust for 80, showing the inevitable fatigue deep into the second year of an administration that has been intent on upending the domestic and global order. “In 15 short months we’ve gone from autopen to overdrive; from a president who couldn’t stay awake to a president who refuses to sleep,” Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, told the crowd.“Across this country president Trump’s policies are reaching the very people they were designed to serve. He signed the largest tax cuts in history, rebalanced trade in favour of working families, reclaimed our position as the world’s energy superpower and where our predecessors created debt and dependency, this president is creating assets and expanding ownership through Trump accounts, the most transformative programme for young people since the GI Bill.”Attendees bow their heads during prayer on the first day of the Republican National Midterm Convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. Photograph: Kent NISHIMURA/AFP via Getty Images Even California’s Gavin Newsom praised the innovation of the Trump accounts, a saving scheme for newborn babies. For Newsom, Bessent offered a sharp example of California’s taxation system citing an unsourced statistic from Sparkle Beach in California from where, he claimed, “a taxpayer flees every two-and-a-half minutes. And I hear they are all coming to Texas.”It took a degree of chutzpah for Bessent to sell the idea of an anti-debt administration just weeks after the national debt topped $40 trillion, deepened by the cost of the Big Beautiful Bill, the mammoth piece of legislation containing both the tax cuts and radical slashing of public health aid. It was also a bold gambit for the organisers to leave placards for attendees to wave that read Prices We Can Afford. But Bessent’s appearance was significant in that he succeeded in delivering the Maga midterm message in a crisp and forceful style.“They are now the centre of gravity for a radical party,” he said of the Democrats.“If given power the first thing they will do is dismantle the gains we have made under president Trump. They’ll claim to tax the rich while raiding the pockets of the middle class. They’ll defund law enforcement, undermine election integrity, slice open our borders and let criminals roam free.” Whether the fearmongering will convince sufficient voters to turn out in frigid November to vote for senators and congressional candidates is one thing. But it was striking that Bessent’s delivery seemed something new and fresh against the meandering charisma and wicked asides which Trump believes will always enchant his people. Trump was, as ever, serenaded into the arena by Lee Greenwood singing God Bless the USA. Early in his speech, Trump mused on the historical difficulty administrations have had in midterm elections before vowing to break the trend.“Nobody quite knows why. There’s no reason for it. It’s something deep down and psychological. But we’re going to change it. So, I’m asking you to pretend I’m on the ballot. Just one more time. Because if we lose you are going to lose your border, you are going to lose your tax cuts, you are going to lose your safety and security, you’re going to lose your health, our country will be going through hell – you will be going through hell just like we did two years ago. The pundits. The fake news media. The radical left communists will say anything to try and try and stop us. But in this election, all that matters is that we are elected, we are together and what we say counts.” It was a rehash of the essential message – and threat – of the Trump era: of an America poised between a new golden age if the electorate sticks with him and a handcart to hell if they don’t. So he promised to visit all the battleground House and Senate districts and states. He promised arenas, and showtime. “I’m going to go to every one of them – about 35. In some cases, I’ll go twice. And I’ll be coming back to Texas because we have to elect Ken Paxton. If I have to, I’ll come twice.”After months, then, of appearing indifferent and uninterested in the midterms, Trump reframed the November elections as another act of the super id reigning supreme, in which he will don the Clark Kent cape of Magaism and save the day, effectively winning all 35 key races by himself. President Donald Trump walks on stage to speak on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images In a speech that tipped past 90 minutes, he once again proclaimed his love for the word tariffs. He said that the Democrats spout “bullshit”. He promised a dividend of $5,000 for every American citizen if the Republicans win the House and Senate in November. “Call it the Trump dividend,” he said. “We’ll call it the Trump dividend.” He said that the Democrats were intent on filling US school libraries with the books on Lenin and Stalin. He invoked the memory of Charlie Kirk. He vowed to have the Save America Act passed before November 3rd, making mandatory photo ID and proof of citizenship a staple of every single election in every single state. He once again begged the voters to fantasise that he was on their ballot papers rather than the rubes and mortals they were stuck with.“This is one of the most important elections of your lives,” he told them.And he finished with the familiar chorus of “Together, we will make America powerful again, we will make America healthy again”.. all leading to the everlasting Maga refrain.In the bleachers, Speaker Johnson, and Robert Kennedy, and vice-president Vance and the other guests applauded and smiled. The crowd broke into a chant of USA! USA! In the auditorium, it sounded like old times but its unclear how many were watching.Still, those Maga supporters distracted by the opening night of the NFL need not worry. The closing address, on Thursday night, will be delivered by Donald John Trump. By the time Trump finished up and danced a little to YMCA, it was almost 11 o’clock at night in Washington while across the country, in the big football match, it was 10-10 late in the fourth quarter.