By Tim Reid
Sept 10 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and his Republican Party wrapped up an unusual convention in Dallas on Thursday hoping to strengthen their midterm election prospects, gambling that a high-profile show of party unity will energize supporters and help Republicans defy historical midterm losses.
Here are five takeaways from the two-day convention.
RUNNING AGAINST A 'SOCIALIST HELLSCAPE'
The Republican National Committee had billed the convention as a chance to refocus voters on Trump's
political agenda and tout the party's policy successes.
But Trump and many other speakers on the convention stage focused most of their time on attacking Democrats as left-wing extremists and dangerously un-American. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Democrats of wanting to turn the country into a "socialist hellscape."
The tactic of attacking political opponents and injecting fear into an election campaign is a strategy deployed by both parties for decades. Trump has long made issues such as crime and immigration central to his political appeal.
The focus on Democrats underscored the political challenges confronting Republicans as they seek to defend their congressional majorities. With dissatisfaction over high prices and the war in Iran weighing on Trump, speakers repeatedly argued that Democratic control of Congress would pose the greater risk.
IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID
The gathering took place against the backdrop of growing unhappiness over Trump's stewardship of the economy and his inability to bring down high prices on gasoline and groceries.
Trump has been under pressure from White House aides since last year to talk more about the economy. Yet as he has done for months, Trump said little about the pain Americans are experiencing from the high cost of living.
Instead, he said concerns about inflation were exaggerated, after a summer in which opponents say he has appeared more focused on renovation and legacy projects in Washington including his White House ballroom.
In his Wednesday night speech Trump again said that the word "affordable" was "fake" and that it was Democrats who caused high prices.
"I'm bringing prices way down," Trump said, a statement that jars with government economic data.
Trump and other speakers did tout his 2025 tax cuts, which led to larger refunds from the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service this year for many families, and his efforts to reduce drug prices.
'PRETEND THAT I'M ON THE BALLOT'
Trump and many Republicans believe that his MAGA supporters are less likely to vote when he is not on the ballot, as will be the case in November.
"Pretend that I'm on the ballot," Trump said to cheers. But Democratic strategists may well have had more reason to celebrate, viewing his determination to put himself at the center of the campaign as advancing their effort to make the election a referendum on an unpopular president.
Trump's strategy is a gambit that risks turning off critical swing voters needed to win congressional races but who have drifted away from Trump and his party over a range of issues, including the economy, the war and immigration raids.
BIG-TICKET PROMISES
Trump used the speech to make several ambitious promises, some of which may be difficult to deliver.
The most extraordinary was a proposal to pay every U.S. adult a $5,000 "Trump dividend" if Republicans win the elections and retain their control of both houses of Congress.
The proposal faces the same obstacle as Trump's previously floated $2,000 tariff rebate, which never won congressional approval: persuading lawmakers to support a measure that could cost more than $1 trillion.
Trump also promised that oil prices would drop "as soon as we win the war with Iran," which he predicted would end "right after Election Day," November 3.
The conflict has shown little sign of ending since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February, frustrating Trump's efforts to bring it to a close either through military pressure or diplomatic negotiation.
POSSIBLE START OF JD VANCE'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
If Republicans lose one or both chambers of Congress in November, it will likely intensify a simmering debate over who will succeed Trump as the party's presidential candidate in 2028. A central figure in that discussion is Vice President JD Vance.
On Thursday night, Vance delivered a keynote address that offered a glimpse of how he might position himself should he seek the presidency. While embracing Trump's populist politics and combative attacks on Democrats, he devoted far more time to themes of family, faith and children's futures than Trump typically does, casting the election as a fight to preserve what he called Americans' "birthright."
Vance was greeted by chants of "48, 48" – a reference to the idea he could be the 48th U.S. president after Trump, the 47th. "We got to take care of business this November, then we'll worry about what comes next," he said.
A key unknown is whether Trump will eventually anoint a successor, and the president gave no hint of his thinking when he took the stage after Vance. His endorsement could carry enormous weight after a decade in which he reshaped the party and built a fiercely loyal base of supporters.
(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
