Donald J. Trump has long operated on the principle that there is no problem so big that it cannot be solved by more Donald J. Trump on TV. That apparently applies even when the problem, arguably, is Donald J. Trump.
With the midterms approaching, prices rising and the war in Iran dragging on, the president’s low approval ratings have worried the Republicans running to preserve his congressional majority. Mr. Trump’s answer: a “midterm convention,” a two-night extravaganza by, for and starring himself, live from Dallas.
As in many turbulent TV productions, there were differing impulses behind its creation. It was the pet project of the president, made on the theory that he has a hold on low-propensity voters who will go to the polls only for him. The counterargument is the president’s ratings among other voters, who might go to the polls against candidates who embrace him.
Thus we got Schrödinger’s Convention, made in the paradoxical hope that it would be both watched and not watched. It was carried in its entirety on C-SPAN and in considerable part by conservative outlets including Fox News and Newsmax. It was also up against high-profile N.F.L. games each night, which one could see as a challenge or a blessing. Surely at least some Republicans would have been just as happy if no one watched.
For better or worse, some of us did. What we saw was the culmination of the decades-long trend that has turned conventions from substantive political events into pure long-form TV ads.
There was no convention in this convention. No one was nominated, no ballots cast, no running mates picked. It was pared down to the state signs, novelty costumes — the president shouted out “Mr. Wall,” a supporter wearing a suit of trompe l’oeil bricks — and hour upon hour of speeches.
In good times and bad, Mr. Trump has always been able to produce a spectacle. His 2016 convention had the chaotic energy of his first campaign. In 2020 — well, it was Covid and things were weird, but his media team still assembled a highly produced package. And his renomination in 2024 combined the emotional charge from the recent assassination attempt on him with a pro-wrestling air of belligerence.
But this? This lacked oomph, especially when the guest of his own honor was offstage. There were few celebrity guests, other than the perennial G.O.P. serenader Lee Greenwood (twice) and Jimmy Kimmel’s former “Man Show” compadre Adam Carolla. Arguably the biggest non-Trump speaker of the first night was a Democrat, Senator John Fetterman, who recorded an introduction for his Pennsylvania colleague, Senator Dave McCormick.
The strongest energy onscreen was negative, the speeches more warning than promise, the jeers for Democrats rivaling the cheers for the G.O.P. The praise of the administration’s record was received politely but not as loudly as the scarifying about communism, open borders and gender transition.
The crowd perked up most vocally at the mention of political enemies, particularly the Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, who was mentioned enough to be a kind of recurring guest star: “How about we transition him and his crazy ideas out of Texas?” said his opponent, Ken Paxton, to roars. As Senator Ted Cruz of Texas inveighed against Mr. Talarico, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a voice in the crowd repeatedly yelled what sounded like, “He should be shot!”
The second night detoured into a memorial tone, with remembrances both of the 9/11 attacks and of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was killed a year earlier. Vice President JD Vance, the prime-time speaker Thursday, began with a tribute to Mr. Kirk, with whom he was close.
Here, too, the real energy came from conflict. Mr. Vance and the crowd became most engaged when a protester interrupted his speech, waving some combination of Palestinian and Mexican flags. Seeming to sense a moment, Mr. Vance leaned in: “If you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there. I’ll buy you the plane ticket!” Mr. Vance does not exactly have a happy-warrior affect, but he gleefully perked up at having a foil.
And how was Mr. Trump’s speech? Which one? Which hour? His appearance was spread over two nights, as if requiring an intermission.
Wednesday was the “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” of Trump speeches, a 105-minute jam-band epic. He began on-prompter, running down a list of accomplishments. But as usual, he seemed to enjoy most riffing and rambling, doing enough “weaving” (his preferred term) to fill a wing of the Cloisters.
What did he say? What didn’t he! He imitated the French president, Emmanuel Macron, with a Pepé Le Pew accent. He floated renaming New Mexico “New America.” He played some greatest hits, jabbing the media in advance lest they report that there were empty seats in the hall and that viewers were leaving the arena. (There were and they did.) He promised Americans $5,000 checks if Republicans retained Congress and later said, “America is not for sale.”
On Thursday, he said, “I’m going to be a little bit brief” and spoke for another 25 minutes.
It was a lot, but whatever notice the convention generated was more likely to come from clips shared afterward. For anyone who did the full binge-watch, there was a home-team feel to the broadcast, because much of the coverage was on Trump-friendly networks. (Other news networks dipped in intermittently.) When Mr. Trump pre-emptively defended his crowd size, the camera on Fox panned the densest part of the crowd.
Newsmax leaned more heavily on showing the pre-Trump speakers, while Fox focused on its own commentators. For some of them, any political fault in the moment lay not in the president but in his constituency.
“The voters,” Jesse Watters of Fox said on “The Five,” “are like children who had a bad night’s sleep, not enough to eat, and they’re cranky. And they want what they want, and they want it now.”
And what was that? Apparently football. By Thursday, the first-night numbers were in, and Mr. Trump, once a big draw for Fox News, brought the channel no higher ratings than on a typical weeknight. As it turned out, what the voters wanted was a game where the hits are delivered with helmets on, and where the outcome is surprising.
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