As with everything President Trump touches, his party’s midterm mini-convention was a spectacle. Slick videos, light shows, balloons, U.F.C. fighters, Lee Greenwood and a sea of sparkles and sequins covering the thousands of MAGA devotees assembled to celebrate their leader.
However you want to characterize “Dallas 2026” — a convention, a political rally, “Trumpapalooza,” as its cheeky billing had it — the Republican Party’s midterm convention was at heart an extended opportunity for this president, who is feeling his impermanence, to drive home to his fellow Republicans, and really all of America: Everything is still all about me, so don’t try to wriggle away.
The president’s face and name were splashed everywhere. The attendees, many of whom shelled out big bucks for a ticket, were awash in Trump wear: hats, shirts, jackets. The merch fell into two categories: gear sporting the basic Dallas 2026 logo, alongside a variety of Trumpy MAGA options. Plus copies of Eric Trump’s book, piled near the checkout counter. (Can’t miss an opportunity for family enrichment!)
Mr. Trump was the scheduled closing act both nights, and his fans sat through hours of opening videos and speakers — a mix of candidates, cabinet members, congressional leaders and “everyday Americans.” Program participants had two key jobs: praise the president and terrify the party faithful about the communist, socialist, anarchist hellscape that a Democratic victory in November would usher in.
The latter message, of course, was also framed in terms of Mr. Trump’s unparalleled leadership. He saved America from the horrors wrought by President Joe Biden, and now it is up to his voters to keep Congress in Republican hands to enable him to “finish the job.” At long last, the president was getting a convention focused on attacking the Biden presidency, making up for the one he felt cheated out of in 2024.
The arena was not, despite the president’s repeated assertions, packed. (After all these years, the man cannot stop obsessing about crowd size.) And for much of the program, the crowd was a little low energy — especially away from the floor seats. A couple of congressional leaders, such as Representatives Tom Emmer and Steve Scalise, managed to rile up the troops with their hair-on-fire Dem bashing. But people also spent a lot of time playing on their phones or staring off into space looking tired, bored or otherwise disengaged.
Until the president took the stage, of course. Then the joint was jumping. These were Mr. Trump’s people, and most of them gamely sat through nearly two hours of his trademark, stream-of-consciousness “weave.”
The president opened with a message centering himself (surprise!): When he is on the ballot, Republicans do well. When he isn’t, they don’t. Noting that almost every president, no matter how world-historically great, sees his party punished in midterm elections, he pleaded for people to break this curse this year by pretending that he was on the ballot.
From there he plowed ahead with variations on his usual themes: a factually sketchy list of all the great things he has accomplished; much griping about how underappreciated he is; attacks on the media; the mandatory claims of voter fraud; and an increasingly unhinged demonization of Democrats, who he says are dead set on bringing about a communist America. There was so much Red-baiting in Wednesday’s speeches that I half expected the ghost of Joe McCarthy to take the stage.
As for all the recent chatter that the president might drag down his party’s candidates and that many of those in tough races would prefer to keep him at arm’s length? Not in Mr. Trump’s telling, where he remains Republicans’ only hope. “I’m going to go to every one of those states for congressmen and for senators” in close races, he vowed. “In a couple of cases, I’ll go twice.” Message: I am still the only one who can save them. In the distance, you could almost hear Republican candidates in purple districts hyperventilating.
But even in the alternative reality constructed inside the hall, reality intruded at times. Mr. Trump was clearly feeling sentimental, even elegiac. He waxed rhapsodic about his past campaigns — all three of which he claimed to have won. He sounded misty when giving a shout-out to the Front Row Joes, the die-hards who travel around the country to his events and who had front-row space reserved for them at this gathering.
He also made multiple references to his time in the White House drawing to a close. “I’m on the ballot. Just one more time,” he stressed. There are no guarantees he won’t try to characterize 2028 as another referendum on him, justifying more intervention from the president. But not once did he joke about actually running again in 2028. Whining about the unpopularity of his ballroom project, he said that people “forget” he will only get to enjoy it “for a few months” before leaving office. And when praising his economic leadership as pure genius, he urged: “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.”
It promises to be a while yet before people need to remember. Until speech fails him, Mr. Trump will remind them. The eternal question is whether — or when — his party, and the rest of America, can at last tune him out, despite all the flash and sparkles and endless refrains of “God Bless the U.S.A.”
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: [email protected].
Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp and Threads.
The post Think Trump Is Going Away? His Message This Week: Not a Chance. appeared first on New York Times.
