President Donald J. Trump, the Commander-in-Chief, was fully in command as he took the stage at the American Airlines Center to cap off the first day of the 2026 Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas. Trump was jovial, and looked rested and in great spirits as singer Lee Greenwood introduced him to the signature anthem, "God Bless the USA." At the end of the song, the audience broke into chants of "USA," as Trump and Greenwood greeted each other.

This convention was Trump's brainchild, and the first in history for a national political party. Its aim is to energize voters ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, where the Republican majority for the House and the Senate hangs in the balance.

Trump greeted the crowd with enthusiasm, thanking them. "And friends, distinguished guests, Vice President Vance, and the proud citizens of the United States of America, welcome to the first ever midterm convention of any party!"

Trump talked about how, "it took a little imagination to think of it, but we thought of it. I'm sure it will become a staple in years to come."

It wouldn't be a Trump speech without him pointing out and ribbing the fake news. Trump teased, "You have to remember, when we originally announced this eight weeks ago, they said, 'Who's going to come to a midterm convention?' This place is packed."

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Trump also mentioned the many people - offsite - standing outside watching the convention on a big screen.

Trump then delved into what was at stake.

In 55 days Americans will be going to the polls in one of the most important elections in our country's history. Your vote will decide whether our country stumbles at the starting gate of the next 250 years, or surges forward and never, ever looks back. If we hand America's future to the radical Left Democrats and our nation will spend the next decade just getting back on its feet, it will be a tragedy. Vote Republican and we will leave the world in our dust for generations to come. There will be nothing like it. We're right at that gate.

When the audience again broke out into chants of "USA," Trump thanked them and continued.

The choice in this election is very, very simple: Democrats are asking you to vote for their failed, far-Left agenda, it's never worked. That destroyed your finances and delivered you four years of disaster, bedlam, and death under Sleepy Joe Biden. And I'm asking you to let us finish the job we began with the greatest two years in the history of the presidency.  

This has been the most successful two years, financially and in every way in the history of the presidency. And together we will turn a two-year comeback into a 250-year lead. 

Trump talked about the country's tremendous turnaround economically and on the world stage, then said to the crowd: "I want you to remember when this country is rocketing: I'm the one that got it started!"

Someone in the crowd yelled, "Trump 2028!"

After Trump gave honor to his stalwart supporters who have followed him since 2016, he moved into the midterms, and the conventional wisdom in Washington that the party in power always loses big in the midterms. 

We've got something so good. We can't let that string be broken. We're going to change that. There's no reason for it. There's no reason for it. So, I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot, just one more time. Because if we lose we're going to lose the border, you're going to lose your tax cuts, you're going to lose your safety and security. You're going to lose your wealth. Our country is going through hell, you will be going through hell just like you did just two years ago, we went through hell. We were a laughingstock all over the world.

Trump made a call for a united front and a determination to not see that happen again.

In this election, all that matters is that we are united, we are together, and what we say, counts. That's all that matters. And on November 3, the great American majority is going to stand up and continue to Make America Great Again. The midterms are not supposed to be won by the sitting president, and we're going to change that.

Trump committed to campaign for 35 House of Representatives and Senate races, and said that he would visit some states more than once. 

We really have 35 races that are, I guess you'd call, "the swings." Like we had seven swing states, and we won all seven. We're campaigning to make it incredible. 

Trump said some of the campaign stops would be rallies in big arenas, and planned to tout the Republican policies that are common sense. 

"It's really about common sense more than anything else," Trump said. 

Trump turned his focus to TX Attorney General and nominee for U.S. Senate, Ken Paxton. Trump claimed that he would come to Texas as many times as he could in order to see Paxton elected to the Senate seat.

I'm going to go to every one of them, about 35, in a couple of cases I'll go twice, and I'll do tele-town halls, and I'll come back to Texas because we have to elect Ken Paxton. 

The audience cheered uproariously. Trump declared, "He's the greatest attorney general in America and he deserves to be your next senator!"

But the meat of the speech, and what the president chose to emphasize, were his great successes achieved during the first two years of his second term. Namely, border numbers, crime numbers, and the common sense policies which have helped the American people to prosper.

Together, we're going to continue to have, we have the strongest borders. We have to continue low taxes, I gave you the biggest tax decrease in the history of our country, and no crime.

We will have energy dominance, we will stand with our heroes in the military. We take care of our veterans, our great police and law enforcement: we love our police and law enforcement.

The president gave props to Texas' sitting GOP senators - Ted Cruz and John Cornyn - for helping to get the wall built, then presented the stunning numbers: "Zero illegal aliens have entered our Southern border in the last 15 months. ZERO."

The crowd cheered and went into another round of "USA" chants.

Trump declared, "We're also out here to have a little bit of fun!" And went on a riff of how he came up with, "Dumocrats, because their policies are so bad."

Men playing in women's sports is one of those bad policies on which the Democrats appear to be doubling down. Trump said, "They say it's an 80/20 issue, I say it's a 99 to 1, and I have no idea who the one is."

Trump laid out the contrast of open borders, highlighting that under his administration, "we have the lowest level of illegal immigration ever recorded in our country. ZERO illegal immigrants have entered your border."

Trump even declared on the Iran conflict that: 

We're winning it. We control the Hormuz Strait. I think we should call it "The Trump Strait," I should get something out of this! We should call it The Trump Strait and I'm sure the Iranian leadership will be thrilled with it. They've been the bully of the Middle East for 50 years, now they can't bully anyone anymore.

On the economy, Trump said: "Right now, in the United States of America we have more people working than we ever have before, by A LOT."

Trump then gave a shoutout to House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-04), who Trump said would go down as the greatest Speaker of the House. When Trump moved to pay respect to Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the audience booed. Trump tried to calm them a bit, and said Thune is "working hard."

Trump once again mentioned the One Big Beautiful Law with its No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Overtime, and No Tax on Social Security, saving American families thousands of dollars, and returning it back to their pockets. Trump talked about the manufacturing renaissance occurring in the country, with car manufacturers bringing production back to the U.S. 

"It's the Golden Age of the Automobile Business," Trump said.

Trump followed with a discussion of the Golden Age of Energy, as he touted the Venezuela deal of 65 billion barrels of oil, the money being pulled in thanks to tariffs, and the tax-free White House ballroom being built. Trump also promoted the Trump Accounts and prescription drug discounts through Trump Rx.

Trump joked about his ability to weave in and out of subjects, but declared that if the weave didn't get back to the main point, he was done. 

The president did weave back to the economy, and made this stunning promise: Should the Republicans regain the Senate and the House of Representatives, he would give every American citizen what he called the "Trump Dividend."

What we're doing, because we're doing so well, and because our country is making so much money. Here is my promise: If the Republicans win the Senate and the House of Representatives, both of them. Because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every citizen of the United States of America for 5,000 dollars. Very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders. Or last year when I gave our great military $1776 dollars. 

This is guaranteed to make Democrats head explode. Trump proclaimed that the Democrats would not be able to do it because, "all they know is poverty and how to ruin the country."

Trump detailed the sins of the former NC Gov. Roy Cooper, who is the Democrat vying for retiring Republican Thom Tillis' Senate seat. From the lax laws which allowed the killer of Iryna Zarutska to be released multiple times, to his horrific handling of Hurricane Helene, Cooper would like North Carolinians to forget, but Trump proclaimed this record must not be forgotten. Trump gave a shoutout to Republican candidate for NC Senate Michael Whatley, and encouraged North Carolinians to vote for him in November.  

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) were next in Trump's crosshairs. Trump declared that "they're crazy," and have skipped over socialism to go straight to communism. Trump called out TX Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico, MI Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, FL Senate candidate Angie Nixon, and other DSA and DSA-adjacent candidates running, highlighting the damage they wanted to enact on the country, and their stated hatred for America.

Trump's most pointed proclamation said it all:

Our party is really based on a thing called common sense, it's all common sense[...] On election night, we're going to prove that America doesn't belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it.