By Nandita Bose, Steve Holland and Nathan Layne
DALLAS, Sept 10 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump capped the first day of his Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention by proposing to pay every U.S. adult a $5,000 “Trump dividend” if his party wins November’s congressional elections.
Trump delivered the extraordinary overture during a primetime speech that lasted nearly two hours and firmly placed him at the center of the midterm campaign at a time when his sagging approval ratings could weigh on Republicans’ chances.
Vice President JD Vance will give the keynote address on Thursday night, though Trump is scheduled to make closing remarks to bring the made-for-television two-day event in Dallas to an end.
With Trump constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, Vance’s speech could serve as an early audition for the 2028 presidential election and offer clues about how he would lead a party reshaped by Trump.
It was not immediately clear how the $5,000 payments would work or whether they would be legal. The proposal would likely cost more than $1 trillion, with approximately 270 million U.S. adults, and could require the approval of Congress.
The convention’s focus on Trump – some Republicans have dubbed it “Trumpapalooza” – amounts to a risky bet that he can mobilize the voters who carried him to the presidency two years ago, despite opinion polls showing his popularity is at an all-time low.
But it remains to be seen whether his campaign-style speech will appeal to the critical swing voters who have drifted away from Trump’s party amid growing dissatisfaction with the cost of living and the war on Iran.
‘PRETEND THAT I’M ON THE BALLOT’
“I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” Trump said, a line that may have pleased Democratic campaign strategists just as much as MAGA voters.
Republican efforts got a boost from an unlikely source on Wednesday, when Democratic U.S. Senator John Fetterman appeared in a pretaped video segment introducing his “great friend,” fellow Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican.
Fetterman said he would always “reject the extremes in socialism,” a comment that is likely to bolster Republican attacks on Democrats as too left-wing. Fetterman, who has increasingly broken with his fellow Democrats, has nevertheless rejected speculation that he might leave the party.
Some vulnerable Republicans in tough races, perhaps mindful of tying themselves too closely to the unpopular Trump, elected to skip the affair, including Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
DEMOCRATS PORTRAYED AS ‘SOCIALISTS’ AND ‘COMMUNISTS’
While Republican officials had described the convention as an opportunity to tout Trump’s policies, most speakers focused on attacking Democrats as extreme on topics such as transgender women in sports and border security – political red meat for core Trump supporters.
Alabama state Representative Ernie Yarbrough, a convention attendee, said Trump needs to give voters a clearer sense of how long the war in Iran could last.
“People want to feel like we’re not getting stuck in an endless cycle,” he said.
Trump defended his decision to attack Iran, saying he acted to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. He also promised that oil prices would drop “as soon as we win the war with Iran,” which he vowed would happen soon.
But the conflict shows little sign of ending more than six months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, and analysts have said Iran’s nuclear program has not been eliminated. Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon.
Before Trump took the stage, a parade of speakers called Democrats “socialists” and “communists,” echoing one of Trump’s favorite attack lines. Democrats are “dangerous, radical and weird,” said Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chairman of the party’s Senate campaign arm.
The stakes are high for both parties. With the elections less than two months away, Republicans face the prospect of losing control of at least one chamber of Congress, with public polling showing Democrats more motivated to vote and Trump’s approval ratings deeply underwater.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Steve Holland and Nathan Layne; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Howard Goller)
