Trump makes an extraordinary offer of $5,000 payments, and other takeaways from RNC convention’s first night
CNN
By Eric Bradner, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump vowed to pay every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain their House and Senate majorities in November’s midterm elections – an extraordinary offer as he tries to keep his party in power.
But he offered no details on how he would pay for such a move, which he equated to companies paying shareholders dividends and the extra $1,776 checks his administration issued to members of the military last year.
“Here is my promise: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them,” Trump said, “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.”
Trump’s pledge came in a speech to Republicans who gathered in Dallas on Wednesday for the first night of an unusual midterm convention.
The president is seeking to overcome lagging approval ratings, economic headwinds and historic trends against the party in power in his bid to retain the GOP’s majorities – and stave off a slew of likely Democratic investigations and fierce opposition to his agenda – for his final two years in office.
In a speech at the conclusion of the first of the convention’s two nights, the president mocked Democrats, calling them “dumocrats.” He touted his border security efforts and bragged about the political potency of his opposition to transgender women participating in women’s sports. And as his political operation begins spending tens of millions of dollars, Trump vowed to campaign hard for the GOP through November 3.
“I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” he said. “I’m on the ballot. Just one more time.”
Here are takeaways from the first night of the convention dubbed by the president’s supporters as “Trump-a-palooza”:
Campaigning for, and mocking, Paxton
Trump told Republicans he would hit the campaign trail aggressively this fall, holding events with about 35 House and Senate candidates in competitive races as the GOP fights to keep its congressional majorities and Trump looks to buck the historic trend of poor performance by the sitting president’s party in midterm elections.
“We’re going to have rallies just like this. We’re going to have big arenas, loaded up with people,” Trump said.
He urged Texans to rally around Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general who ousted the more moderate Sen. John Cornyn in the primary. Trump’s endorsement played an important role in tipping the race in Paxton’s favor — but also set up a tough general election against the much better-funded Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
In a now-familiar riff, Trump mocked Paxton, even as he acknowledged that doing so was “so insulting.”
He said Texans “may not like the way he dresses. I don’t.” (He did compliment the suit Paxton wore Tuesday night.)
Trump also said voters “may not like the way he talks. I could see that, yeah.”
But, Trump said, Paxton is “maybe the top attorney general in the whole United States.”
“We have to elect Ken Paxton. We have to,” Trump said. “And if I have to, I’ll come back twice or three times.”
Fetterman makes a surprise virtual appearance
Several Republican senators in competitive races — including Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan — skipped the convention, seeking to showcase their independence from their party and president.
But a swing-state Democratic senator did make a virtual appearance.
Sen. John Fetterman recorded a video introducing his Pennsylvania colleague, Republican Sen. Dave McCormick. In the video, recorded outside a US Steel plant, Fetterman said he is a Democrat but rejects “the extremes of socialism” and “the anti-American way of life.”
Fetterman introduced McCormick as a “great American, great senator, and yes, he is in a different party, but I’m proud to count him as my great friend.”
The introduction highlighted one of the Senate’s odd couples — a friendship forged between two senators whose swing state seats are sure to be targets of the other party when they are next on the ballot: Fetterman’s seat in 2028; McCormick’s in 2030.
The Democrat’s introduction of the Republican received one of the biggest rounds of applause of the night. And Fetterman received a loud cheer again when McCormick asked the crowd: “How great is John Fetterman, right?”
Fetterman, in particular, has been the subject of speculation about a potential party switch in recent months. He’s been one of the most vocal critics of the progressive insurgency that has swept the party’s primaries this year.
He’s repeatedly rejected talk of a party switch – and addressed it again in a statement after the video aired.
“I’m a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelmingly with my party – and should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on,” the statement said.
Iran and gas prices
The war Trump launched with Iran has sent gas prices soaring. The price of oil hit $100 per barrel earlier in the day, for the first time since July.
Democrats have hammered GOP candidates on high costs. At the convention, Republicans did attempt to home in on a message of affordability, praising Trump’s 2025 tax law that included eliminating taxes on tips and overtime for eligible workers.
Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden, whose 3rd District seat is a Democratic target this fall, praised Trump’s tax cuts and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s rural health care funding.
“He is fighting to make quality health care a reality for everyday Americans,” he said.
Michael Whatley, the Republican Senate nominee in North Carolina who faces Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper in another key race, praised Trump for putting “thousands of dollars back into the hands of families and seniors.”
The most direct acknowledgement of the war in Iran and its impact on gas prices came from Trump himself, when he said prices would drop as soon as the United States wins the war. He then said the Strait of Hormuz should be renamed the “Trump Strait.”
Progressive insurgents become a top target
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, might have been the most frequently mentioned member of his party.
El-Sayed’s race against Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers is one of the most important Senate contests in November’s midterms — and perhaps the GOP’s best chance of flipping a Democratic-held seat. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win a Senate majority.
“He hates part of his own state. He’s not sure Israel should exist,” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said of El-Sayed in a fiery speech. El-Sayed is a critic of Israel’s war in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks and declined to answer whether he believes the state of Israel has a right to exist, describing the question as a distraction.
Republicans broadly sought to portray democratic socialists who have won a handful of House primaries and progressives like El-Sayed as anathema to American values — describing them as extremists, communists and terrorist sympathizers.
And they sought to tie the entire Democratic Party to progressive figures like El-Sayed, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. All three are Muslim.
“This election is very clear: it’s the mainstream vs. the extreme. Because there’s another political movement in our country right now that doesn’t believe that America is or ever was great,” said Texas Rep. Brandon Gill, who has previously said Muslims should be banned from immigrating to the US. “They sometimes call themselves socialists, some even call themselves communists. But most of them simply go by Democrats.”
Speakers focus on cultural issues
Republicans made clear that they see cultural issues — particularly Democrats’ positions around transgender Americans’ rights — as their strongest line of attack.
Republicans played a video mashup focusing on Trump’s push to bar “men from playing in women’s sports” that included podcaster Joe Rogan calling the move “common sense.”
They also highlighted Democrats’ past rhetoric about transgender people.
“James Talarico claims there are six genders. He believes God is non-binary. He thinks God needs special woke pronouns,” Scott, the NRSC chairman, said of the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas. Talarico on Wednesday told Fox News that he “missed the mark on some of (his) past statements,” including his comment on the number of genders.
Paxton, his rival, claimed Talarico “wants to transition your kids.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lambasted Democrats who he said are “relentless in their pursuit to remake America in the image of every socialist hellscape of the last century.”
Immigration enforcement on the agenda
Most Republicans didn’t directly advocate for Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations. But they portrayed Democrats as to blame for lax immigration enforcement under former President Joe Biden and for the crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, who is running against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, said Ossoff wouldn’t help him pass a bill named after Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant in 2024 — even though Ossoff voted for the measure, which was signed into law by Trump in 2025.
“He wouldn’t lift a finger to help me. He forgot her name until it was politically convenient,” Collins said.
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