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Trump implores voters to ‘pretend that I’m on the ballot’ ahead of November midterms
The president implored attendees and voters throughout the country to “pretend that I’m on the ballot” as they cast their votes in this year’s midterms.
“I’m on the ballot, just one more time,” he added. “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. Our country is going through hell. You will be going through hell just like you did just two years ago.”
Key events
Trump repeated that there are about “35 races” which are competitive this midterm cycle. However, a number of vulnerable Republicans have to be careful about yolking themselves to the administration – particularly in districts and states who disapprove of the president’s policies.
Trump added that he’ll spend time over the next two months campaigning on behalf of the candidates in key battlegrounds.
“I’m going to go to every one of those states for congressmen and for senators. I’m going to do that, and we’re going to have rallies,” the president said. “
Trump implores voters to ‘pretend that I’m on the ballot’ ahead of November midterms
The president implored attendees and voters throughout the country to “pretend that I’m on the ballot” as they cast their votes in this year’s midterms.
“I’m on the ballot, just one more time,” he added. “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. Our country is going through hell. You will be going through hell just like you did just two years ago.”
Trump congratulated himself within the first few minutes of speaking. “I want you to remember me in four or five years when this country is rocketing. Remember, I’m the one that got it started,” he said. Cheers erupted and calls for him to “run in 2028” could be heard.
Running for a third term is something the president frequently floats, even thought the constitution limits him to two non-consectutive terms in office.
Trump: ‘Vote Republican and we will leave the world in our dust for generations to come’
The president made his case clear in his opening remarks to attendees.
“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,” he said. “Hand America’s future to the radical left Democrats, and our nation will spend the next decade just getting back on its feet. It will be a tragedy. Vote Republican and we will leave the world in our dust for generations to come. There’ll be nothing like it.”
Trump acknowledged that the convention was thrown together in eight weeks, and insisted that the arena is “packed”. However, as my colleagues Adam Gabbatt and David Smith report from Dallas, there are several parts of the American Airlines Center with empty seats.
Trump speaks at GOP midterm convention in Dallas
Donald Trump walked on stage at the American Airlines Center in Dallas with a live performance from Lee Greenwood singing God Bless the USA – Trump’s mainstay anthem that plays at all of his campaign and presidential events.
“Welcome to the first ever midterm convention of any party,” the president said. “Took a little imagination to think of it, but we thought of it.”
We’re seeing backlash trickle in from Democrats over Senator John Fetterman’s video message that played at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas.
“A year ago I labeled John Fetterman ‘Trump’s favorite Democrat’. Tonight, he yet again proves why,” said Congressman Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat.
Meanwhile Sarah McBride, the sole US representative for Delaware and the first openly transgender member of Congress, said that “being a Democratic politician who decides to speak at Trump’s midterm convention is like boarding the Titanic after it hit the iceberg”.
Ahead of Donald Trump’s speech in Dallas, Justin Gaethje – an MMA fighter who took part in the UFC match at the White House in June – took the stage.
“This is about supporting President Trump and sending him Republican allies in Congress to continue moving forward with his agenda for the economy, national security, and the country. So let’s get behind him,” Gaethje said. “We have seen what will happen if we give away the midterms to complacency, we cannot do that again.”
Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, addressed attendees at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas, where he slammed former president Joe Biden.
He accused Biden and Democrats of bringing the US “to the brink of ruin”.
“They opened our borders and shuttered our factories. They imposed one set of rules on American workers, while allowing our competitors to play by another, inflation soared to a 40-year high,” Bessent said. This, despite the fact that current prices are actually higher than when Biden left office in 2025, according to the latest inflation date.
“This summer, we celebrated what our founders began. This fall, we will decide faithfully how we preserve it,” Bessent added. “We’ve come a long way under President Trump. Now it falls on us to show up when it matters the most to continue this fight.”
Here are a few more pictures from the GOP midterm convention
New York congressman defends attending convention as some Republicans in swing districts steer clear
Adam Gabbatt
Reporting from Dallas
Mike Lawler, the vulnerable Republican congressman running for reelection in New York, has defended his decision to attend the midterm convention.
As we reported earlier, numerous Republicans running in swing districts have stayed away from the event, wary of being associated with Trump, but Lawler is among those due to speak here on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters outside the convention hall, Lawler was why he decided to appear at the Trump-heavy event, when others have stayed away. “Well, he’s the president of the United States, and whether people want to say yay or nay, the fact is he’s the president. Two, this is an opportunity to talk about what we’ve actually done, and my speech is going to focus on what I’ve delivered for my district, and in fact, standing up to the president to do it,” Lawler said.
Lawler represents New York’s 17th district, which Kamala Harris won, narrowly, in 2024, and the Cook report rates the race as a “toss up” between Lawler and Cait Conley, his Democratic opponent. He claimed he has “loudly and vocally pushed back” against Trump on issues including funding to Ukraine, adding: “I have the ability to deal with the president, just screaming and yelling and saying ‘I hate Donald Trump’ gets you there. What does that deliver for your constituents? Nothing.”
Members of Congress reportedly had to pay $25,000 to attend the convention, but Lawler said he hadn’t stumped up that amount.
“I didn’t pay anything other than a plane ticket and a hotel room,” he said.
Congressman Mike Collins, the Georgia Republican who will face Senator Jon Ossoff in the state’s US Senate race in November, is now speaking at the GOP midterm convention.
Ahead of his appearance on stage, a video about Laken Riley, the University of Georgian nursing student who was murdered by an undocumented immigant in 2024, was played for the audience in Dallas.
Riley’s death became a flashpoint for the hard-right to eventually introduce, and pass, legislation that mandates the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, and allows state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they believe their states have been harmed by its failure to enforce immigration laws.
Several House and Senate Democrats, including Osoff, joined Republicans to advance the bill, which Trump signed into law last year.
“Every life taken by an illegal immigrant is preventable, but it can only be stopped when we have leaders that will prioritize Americans,” said Collins, who was one of the legislation’s authors. “I sat in Jon Ossoff’s office and demanded that he help America remember the name of our shared constituent, but no, he wouldn’t lift a finger to help me. He forgot her name until it was politically convenient.”
A reminder that Senator John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat, has been frequently dodging work, as well as his own constituents, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
The Journal reported that Fetterman has forgone many of the duties of his office to focus on supporting Israel and making the rounds in conservative media.
The Senator has also reportedly made a habit of denying or canceling meetings with constituents, including, in one case, bailing on a group of paralyzed veterans who’d arrived at his office.
Radio host Adam Carolla just joked with the crowd in Dallas, saying that Donald Trump is backstage.
“I just saw the man,” Carolla said. “Actually, I was lying. He’s not in the building yet.”
Fetterman says he is always going to reject ‘extremes and socialism’ in surprise video message praising Republican colleague at GOP convention
Senator John Fetterman’s video message, ahead of Senator Dave McCormick’s speech in Dallas, has just aired.
In the video, Fetterman is seen standing outside the Mon Valley Works – a processing plant operated by US Steel in Pittsburgh.
“Yes, I’m a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today? Because well, I’m a commonsense Democrat. I’m always going to stand with America,” the Pennsylvania lawmaker, who has increasingly broken with his party since he was elected in 2022, said in the pre-recorded message. “I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life. Dave McCormick is the kind of senator that gets the job done, and he’s going to fight for Pennsylvania.”
In the stunning display of support for a Republican colleague in the Senate, Fetterman called McCormick his “great friend”, and said that he will work with him and Donald Trump “to fight and defend the steel way of life”.
Ohio Senator John Husted, another Republican facing a tough race in November, spent time attacking his Democratic challenger, Sherrod Brown – a former senator who lost his seat in 2024.
“It’s also hard to explain why Joe Biden and Sherrod Brown raised our taxes to fund benefits for illegals and shift our jobs to China,” Husted said. “Sherrod Brown put Shanghai over Steubenville and Beijing over Brunswick, didn’t he, Ohio?”
One of the more vulnerable Republicans who IS at the GOP midterm convention is Representative Rob Bresnahan – a Pennsylvania Republican who flipped his seat red in 2024, but is facing a tough race this November. Bresnahan is hoping to fed off Paige Cognetti, the Democratic mayor of Scranton.
Bresnahan spent most of his speech focused on his battleground district’s industrial roots.
“When manufacturers can keep more of what they earn, they can buy equipment, hire workers, and train apprentices,” the congressman told the crowd in Dallas. “I’m ready to keep fighting to preserve these tax cuts and stop Democrats from repealing them.”
Bresnahan barely mentioned Trump by name, and avoided talking about social issues. “Our future depends on making what America needs right here at home, with American workers not relying on other countries to do it for us, our future depends on ensuring the next generation can earn a good living in the communities that built this country from the ground up,” he said.
Ken Paxton, Texas’ attorney general and the Republican nominee for US Senate in the state, is now delivering a speech that is supposed to be focused on affordability.
But Paxton spent time issuing several digs at his Democratic rival, James Talarico. “I will fight to preserve the American dream. James Talarico is running to destroy it,” Paxton said. “This guy is really obsessed with transitions. He wants to transition your kids. He wants to transition Texas off of oil and gas. How about we transition him and his crazy ideas right out of Texas?”
Before he left the stage, Paxton said that if he loses the Texas Senate seat “we lose the commonsense revolution”. The scandal-plagued Republican received Trump’s endorsement, that allowed him to defeat the incumbent John Cornyn in the GOP primary earlier this year. But Paxton’s campaign has also received a boost from Maga Inc – which has spent $10m on ads to attack Talarico.
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