President Donald Trump arrived at a Republican midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday to make his pitch to voters as fighting escalated in the Middle East and oil prices surged anew, putting fresh pressure on his party’s prospects.
Hours before taking the stage at the event, which he ordered up to defend his record, Trump appeared to acknowledge for the first time that the war — and the high gas prices it has fueled — could persist through the November elections.
“The war will end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer, they’re desperate to try and affect the election,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One. “Shortly, but right after the election, because they’d like to have it that way — but right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward.”
Trump’s accusation of election interference is the latest version of a charge he has leveled against prosecutors, media organizations, social media companies, pollsters, China, Ukraine, mail ballots and voting machines.
Trump said when he launched the war on Feb. 28 that it would last four to six weeks, and administration officials have said they hoped to return gas prices to prewar levels by Labor Day.
The global crude oil benchmark price topped $100 a barrel in Wednesday trading as the U.S. sank Iranian tankers and Iran fired missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan.
Trump said it was “very easy to explain” to Americans why oil prices had jumped again. “All you have to do is say, ‘Will you let Iran have a nuclear weapon?’” he said on the tarmac. He urged Republicans to “just keep fighting and just keep explaining how well we’re doing as a country.”
Most Americans don’t see things that way. Almost two-thirds say the country is on the wrong track and disapprove of Trump’s job performance as president, according to the latest Reuters-Ipsos national surveys. Almost half ranked the cost of living as their top priority in the August poll, and 35 percent said Democrats had a better plan to address it, compared with 26 percent for Republicans and 28 percent who said they didn’t know.
“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 said at a news conference with fellow Democrats on Wednesday. “Donald Trump is hoping that a flashy prime-time event will make you forget that well his trade war is killing costs for families at the grocery store.”
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) said the convention could improve GOP enthusiasm.
“Phase one, it’s going to rebuild morale among the Republicans, and it helps remind people that this is a team election,” he said. “If this is a team election, we win. If it’s a series of individual races, we could lose.”
As the convention kicked off, Trump’s political operation dramatically expanded its advertising support for Republican Senate candidates by booking $47.8 million in ads, according to the tracking company AdImpact. The reservations were made through a new super PAC, No Going Back PAC, which was formed on Sept. 1. A person involved in the effort said the group was connected to Trump’s flagship super PAC, MAGA Inc. A spokesman declined to comment.
The new group bought almost $15 million in airtime for the Michigan Senate race, $11.1 million in Ohio, $9.7 million in New Hampshire, $7.1 million in Alaska, $2 million in North Carolina and $1.4 million in Georgia, according to AdImpact. The PAC also spent almost $1 million in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, where Trump ally Rep. Scott Perry is in a toss-up race against Democrat Janelle Stelson.
The PAC also reported spending on text messages supporting former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley in his North Carolina Senate race against former governor Roy Cooper (D), as well as mailers supporting Mike Beltran against Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Florida), Army veteran Michael Bouchard against Democratic prosecutor Christina Hines in Michigan’s 10th Congressional District, freshman Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Michigan) against left-wing activist Will Lawrence, businessman John Braun against Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Washington), and Rep. Nicholas Begich III (R-Alaska) against Democrat-backed independent Bill Hill.
Other mailers attack Montana congressional candidate Sam Forstag and Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek, according to disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Trump lashed out at a reporter who asked why some Republicans in competitive races weren’t attending the convention. “Everybody wants to come,” he said. “Every politician that we’ve wanted to be there is there.”
Temperatures neared 100 degrees outside the American Airlines Center in Dallas as attendees lined up to get inside hours before the scheduled start, many wearing red, white and blue clothing and the flashy, bedazzled jackets and hats typically seen at Trump rallies. The setup inside echoed the 2024 Republican National Convention, with special viewing seats set up within the crowd for Trump, his family and other notable guests. As the programming kicked off in the late afternoon, more than half the arena remained empty.
Large posters of Trump filled the hallways and public areas of the arena. Hats reading “Make America Great Again” and “Trump Was Right About Everything” were on sale for $47. A purchase of $100 in branded merchandise came with a free copy of Eric Trump’s latest book.
Carolyn Atkinson, 66, said she traveled to Dallas from her home state of “New America” — adopting the term Trump recently began using for New Mexico as he floated changing its name, something the president does not have the authority to do. Trump has faced criticism from some Republicans after announcing last month that the U.S. government would begin calling Lake Ontario “Lake America,” an initiative critics say is a distraction from addressing voters’ top concerns ahead of the midterms.
Atkinson said she doesn’t actually care to see the name of her state changed, saying Trump’s proposal was only a “joke.” And she dismissed concerns about whether the party can appeal to independent and swing voters this fall, insisting — as GOP leaders also have — that Republicans simply need to focus on turning out their own.
“We have registered people that don’t vote, and that’s what will hurt the Republicans the most,” she said. “I don’t think the independents matter to us as much.”
Wednesday’s lineup included Attorney General Todd Blanche, who would become the first sitting Justice Department leader in modern history to address a political convention. For decades, department guidelines under administrations of both parties have instructed top political appointees to steer clear of explicitly political events, to avoid the perception that partisanship could influence law enforcement. Blanche’s predecessor, Pam Bondi, quietly revised those guidelines this year.
The Justice Department said Wednesday that Blanche’s participation in the midterm convention had been cleared by the department’s internal ethics advisers and that he spoke only in his personal capacity. He was listed on the event’s official program as “The Honorable Todd Blanche.”
Wednesday’s schedule also included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Medicare administrator Mehmet Oz. Several Cabinet secretaries spoke in their personal capacities at the Democratic convention in 2024.
Allison reported from Dallas. Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this report.
The post Oil price spike from Iran attacks intrudes on GOP’s midterm convention appeared first on Washington Post.
