DALLAS (AP) — Republicans at their midterm convention know that history is not on their side this election season, but they are counting on President Donald Trump and his two-day extravaganza in Dallas to rally voters to protect their House and Senate majorities.
They spent the first night denouncing Democrats as extremists before Trump capped Wednesday with a speech saying the choice this election is “very, very simple” and making the outlandish promise of $5,000 to each American adult, if his party wins.
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A video featuring Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., plays at the Republican convention Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump gestures as he finishes his speech at the Republican convention Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
People listen as President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Vice President JD Vance greets the crowd during the Republican National Midterm Convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. (Eric Lee/Pool photo via AP)
President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Such a proposal could cost more than $1 trillion at a time when the nation faces a record $40 trillion debt and even some Republicans balked at the idea of tying direct payments to election results. Joe Londsdale, a prominent donor and activist who supports much of what Trump has done in office, said on X that he is “strongly against bread and circus bribes.”
Thursday's lineup is expected to feature many of the same themes and includes a keynote from Vice President JD Vance and closing remarks from Trump.
Republicans are trying to overcome voters' concerns about the economy and the war with Iran, and many still see solidarity with Trump as their best shot at winning in November despite the president's low approval ratings.
“The midterms are not supposed to be won by the sitting president,” Trump acknowledged during a lengthy primetime speech.
But he predicted this one will be “something very special,” and encouraged voters to cast their ballots as if they were voting for him.
“Pretend I’m on the ballot,” he said.
A roster of Republican lawmakers, some of them the most electorally endangered in the country, took their turns Wednesday echoing warnings that tax cuts and immigration enforcement are all at risk if Democrats win. Many others skipped the confab altogether, and the party is competing for attention with another American institution, the National Football League, which started its season this week.
Democrats, holding their own events around the city, portrayed the Republicans as out of touch with voters' concerns about high prices and the ethics of the Trump administration.
“We want to ensure that people can actually live their lives, be able to work, have access to healthcare,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, “and the president’s more interested in sending bizarre, deranged social media posts and having his party in Dallas.”
The second night of the convention is expected to delve deeply into what House Speaker Mike Johnson calls the “Contrast for America," as Republicans showcase what they call their “Big Beautiful Bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts, and warn of a future if Democrats take control.
The campaign slogan is a throwback to an earlier era, when another Republican leader, Newt Gingrich, offered a Contract with America. This time, rather than presenting a detailed list of priorities, Republicans are drawing a contrast with the Democrats, who they contend are too far left and would focus on investigating the Trump administration.
“This is what we're talking about when we say common sense versus crazy communists,” said Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., warning of impeachments ahead if Republicans stay home.
“Are you going to let that happen?” he asked.
Many in the crowd, filled with MAGA gear and cowboy hats, roared back, “No!”
Trump did mention a proposal to cut credit card swipe fees at the end of his speech, which neared the two-hour mark, but he offered few other details.
Republicans have been quick to portray all Democrats as in line with their most liberal candidates, particularly a new generation, some backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Still, one Democrat, outlier Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, joined by video address, saying he would always reject extremes.
Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the House GOP Whip, roused the crowd by angrily name-checking incumbent Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from Minneapolis and Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, along with New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani, three of the nation’s most prominent Muslim politicians.
“If you're not happy here, then get the hell out,” he said.
With the Republican majorities in the House and Senate both at risk this fall, the president’s agenda for his final two years in office is also at stake. The margins in Congress are expected to be narrow, with a few seats in a shrunken map of competitive races determining the outcome.
Presidents past have acknowledged their midterm losses — Barack Obama called his 2010 setbacks a “shellacking,” George W. Bush labeled his a “thumping.”
But Trump often refuses to accept defeat, including his false claims that he, rather than Joe Biden, won the 2020 election. One of the many people he pardoned for their actions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, former Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, appeared at the convention.
Trump on Wednesday said that in this election, “all that matters is that we are united."
He predicted that “the great American majority is going to stand up and continue to Make America Great Again. And we will make our voices heard, perhaps like never before.”
Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Thomas Beaumont and Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Will Weissert, Steven Sloan, and Aamer Madhani in Washington, JJ Cooper in Phoenix, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, and Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.
A video featuring Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., plays at the Republican convention Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump gestures as he finishes his speech at the Republican convention Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
People listen as President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Vice President JD Vance greets the crowd during the Republican National Midterm Convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. (Eric Lee/Pool photo via AP)
President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump has pledged to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections. The dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation.
Trump also said Wednesday that oil prices that have surged because of the Iran war likely won’t come down until after U.S. midterm elections. The comments were a striking acknowledgment from Trump about the conflict as his Republican administration faces mounting pressure to address high gas prices as the war in Iran grinds on with no conclusion in sight.
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Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who’s attending the GOP midterm convention as he seeks his second term, is among the Republicans embracing Trump’s proposed payout to American adults.
“Comment how you will spend your $5,000 Trump Dividend when Republicans win in November,” he posted on X, eliciting mostly positive responses from his online followers.
Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since the 1932 wave election in the Great Depression. But Marshall faces a surprisingly energetic challenge for reelection from Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton, pastor of the nation’s largest United Methodist congregation.
Marshall did not expound on the cost of Trump’s idea or how it should be carried out legally. The president doesn’t have appropriations power under the Constitution. That power rests with Congress.
The price of U.S. crude oil rose above $100 for the first time Thursday since May with no end in sight in the U.S.-Iran war.
The price for Brent crude, the international standard, rose above $105 a barrel. U.S. stock futures fell, with the S&P 500 down 0.5% and the Nasdaq off by 1.1%.
A report showed that inflation in the U.S. remains stubbornly high on the wholesale level.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank raised its key interest rate by one-quarter point to try to tame inflation in the European Union. Stock indexes in Europe fell, with Germany’s DAX down 0.7%.
Market in Asia closed lower with the exception of Japan.
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The theoretical $5,000 payments Trump pitched would mean money going directly in Americans’ wallets. But Americans’ also are on the hook for an indirect outlay that’s almost as much: interest payments on the U.S. debt.
The national debt recently crossed the $40 trillion mark. Each year, the federal government pays interest to the investors who’ve financed that debt.
According to Treasury Department data, that interest expense for fiscal year 2026 will come to about $1.27 trillion. Using the Census Bureau’s 2026 population estimate of 340.3 million people, that comes to a per capita share of $3,732 or almost three-quarters of the payout Trump pitched.
Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank in Washington, said Trump has no authority to send money to Americans without approval from Congress.
Goldwein added that dividends are something companies pay when there’s a surplus, but the U.S. is running $2 trillion annual deficits and has $40 trillion in debt.
“The idea that we’ve had fiscal success is backwards and bordering on laughable,” he said. “We don’t have surpluses to give away.”
A federal judge has allowed Missouri’s top court to proceed with a contempt hearing Thursday for Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in a tense and twisting legal battle over whether new congressional districts supported by President Trump can be used in the November election.
Missouri’s top court previously ordered Hoskins not to use a Trump-backed map in the general election. But U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark on Tuesday barred Hoskins from using anything other than the new map Trump supports.
The state Supreme Court then ordered Hoskins to appear for a contempt hearing Thursday for not following its orders.
State attorneys representing Hoskins had asked Clark to halt the contempt hearing. But Clark declined to do so.
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Joe Londsdale, a prominent Republican donor and activist, is among the Trump allies panning the president’s latest promise to send money directly to Americans.
“I am hugely in favor of winning the midterms, and love much about this (administration),” he wrote on X, “but am strongly against bread and circus bribes.”
It’s not just Republicans descending on Dallas for the midterm convention — Democrats are there too as they try to convince voters that the reality of Donald Trump’s second presidency doesn’t match the spectacle of his made-for-TV event.
“This bizarre Republican midterm convention here can’t paper over the fact that Republicans have done nothing to earn your vote,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender, said Wednesday morning.
Besides Pritzker, several leading House Democrats were traveling to Dallas for events, as well. And Texas Democrats hope the spotlight on the state ends up benefiting their candidates.
James Talarico, a Texas state lawmaker who's running against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a closely watched Senate race, held a food drive Wednesday at Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas. He compared volunteers’ work with Republicans’ festivities.
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Trump said Wednesday that oil prices that have surged because of the Iran war likely won’t come down until after U.S. midterm elections.
Oil prices on Wednesday jumped more than 3%, pushing international Brent crude past the $100 threshold for the first time since July as salvos between the U.S. and Iran escalated.
“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” Trump said. “I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterm.”
The comments were a striking acknowledgment from Trump about the conflict as his Republican administration faces mounting pressure to address high gas prices as the war in Iran grinds on with no conclusion in sight.
Trump, in an exchange with reporters before traveling to Dallas for the midterm Republican convention, added that he believes Iran will finally relent after the pivotal elections are held in the U.S.
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President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, an extraordinary gambit to reverse his party’s sagging fortunes in November.
The dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation.
“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump said during the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.”
He likened the payments to a corporation’s distributions to shareholders, citing “our tremendous strength and success economically.”
Within an hour, Vice President JD Vance appeared to try to walk back Trump’s proposal — at least in part — by suggesting the dividend payments would not go to the wealthy. Vance suggested it could be paid for by U.S. tariff revenues, though the suggested payment dwarfs what the U.S. has taken in through the protectionist measures.
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President Donald Trump leaves the RNC Midterm Convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump attends the RNC Midterm Convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. (Eric Lee/Pool photo via AP)
President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
