The unusual Republican midterm convention is nothing more than another stage for the party to spout lies on, from seemingly forgetting that they’re the ones in charge to President Donald Trump’s promise to give every adult American citizen $5,000 if the GOP maintains its majority in the legislature.
"I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot," Trump said during his remarks the first night
. "I'm on the ballot just one more time."Sadly, pretend is all that Republicans have.
Everything about this “Trumpapalooza,” as Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters has dubbed it, is designed to benefit the president’s image more than to fundraise or promote the candidates who are on the ballot across the country. In fact, many of the candidates the convention
was expected to assist smartly chose to spend these crucial days leading up to the midterms in the districts they’re running in.
The party would like you to pay no attention to the failures of Trump’s second term, including high gas prices and a war with Iran that no one wanted. They want you to ignore that the president’s approval rating hit a record low over Labor Day weekend in a Focaldata/Financial Times poll. All of this, they’re suggesting, is a distraction from the president’s aura and his ability to rally Republicans to the polls.
Republicans still think they're not the extreme ones
The first evening of the Trumpapalooza was focused on the president’s keynote, where he said he would give the American people a "Trump Dividend," which would cost more than $1 trillion.
But when Republicans weren’t praising Trump and promoting his merchandise available at the convention, they were bashing Democrats as the extreme ones, constantly bringing up candidates like Michigan Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an avowed democratic socialist.
"By the way, these people aren’t even socialists," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minnesota, said in reference to Democrats during his time on stage. "They’re communists and they’re anarchists and they hate our country."
In a surprise video introducing fellow senator David McCormick, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, even mentioned the perceived extremism of the Democratic Party.
“I’m a commonsense Democrat, I’m always going to stand with America,” Fetterman said in the video. “I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism, and that anti-American way of life."
It’s ironic that Republicans are the ones calling Democrats extreme while saying that their opponents be painted as Make America Great Again followers no matter what, considering that the GOP are the ones who can’t imagine a party without Trump at the helm and want to impose even his wildest ideas on the American people. While Democrats are comfortable having discussions about where the line of extremism lies, Republicans seem unwilling to have that conversation in the midst of Immigration and Customs Enforcement attacking American citizens or the high cost of war with Iran.
Republicans still love Trump, even if nobody else does
Surprisingly, Republican voters don’t seem to mind the fact that this convention is all about Trump. According to the Focaldata/Financial Times poll, 72% of Republicans support the president. While this is a drop of two percentage points compared to the last poll, it’s still astronomically high compared to his overall polling.
Republicans, does it not get exhausting to lie to yourselves day after day? To tell yourselves that Trump is the greatest president of all time, only to be met with the high cost of gas and groceries and end up in yet another war in the Middle East that no one asked for? How long can you continue to tell yourselves that everything is fine?
Yes, Trump is the face of the Republican Party and has been for the last decade. It’s something he loves to remind the country of constantly. But as the person in charge of the White House, he has refused to take accountability for the problems he is causing the country. The American people continue to struggle to afford everyday necessities, and Trump is only focused on how he can make himself seem like the country’s savior.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The GOP's 'Trumpapalooza' is just pure Republican pretend | Opinion
