Republicans are gathering in Dallas on Wednesday for a highly unusual two-day midterm convention , a first for the party, that will put President Donald Trump at the center of this fall’s midterm elections. Trump plans to take the stage both nights, delivering a keynote address Wednesday and then closing remarks after Vice President JD Vance gives his own speech on Thursday. Members of Trump’s Cabinet will also address the convention. Democrats, meanwhile,
are planning their own counterprogramming.
Republicans hope the event, which is part rally and part fundraiser, will help catapult their candidates into November, primarily by highlighting the first two years of Trump’s term. The president has insisted that running on his record will give the GOP their best shot at winning, even as his own poll numbers sag.
In an exchange with reporters before his flight to the convention, Trump said oil prices that have surged because of the Iran war likely won’t come down until after the midterm elections. An AP-NORC poll in July offered a stark repudiation of Trump’s handling of the conflict, as results showed abouttwo-thirds of U.S. adults say the war with Iran has not been worthwhile.
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Republican Carlos De La Cruz, running in Texas’ newly drawn 35th District, praised Trump for securing the border in “record time” during a speech before the GOP midterm convention.
De La Cruz had listed himself as a “TRUMP CONSERVATIVE” on his campaign website. That changed to “PROVEN CONSERVATIVE.”
His campaign rejected a suggestion that he was moving away from the president.
The change came amid a sprint to Election Day as a small group of Republican candidates has quietly begun to distance themselves in subtle ways.
Republican delegates were seated on the center floor of the arena in sections near signs designating the states they represent. In the seats on the sides of the arena, other attendees were starting to file in.
Those in their seats chatted with each other and took photos, giving modest applause to the speakers.
Many in the crowd were given red American flag signs to wave.
Joe Gruters opened the convention by clanking a comically oversized gavel.
“The Republican Party is America’s party,” Gruters said. The GOP, he said, is “faith, family, community and country.”
He laid out the contrast Republicans plan to drive over the next two nights:
“Republicans are delivering freedom, opportunity, security and common sense,” Gruters said. “Democrats are being overtaken by radical socialists driving their party further and further from the values that make America great.”
And Gruters delivered the first of what is likely to be a steady stream of effusive praise for Trump, calling him “the greatest Republican messenger of our lifetime” and “the best president this country has ever had.”
The Republican midterm convention kicked off with the national anthem and “America the Beautiful,” alongside an honor guard presenting the U.S. and other flags.
Before the songs, an announcer said the party was ready to “fight, fight, fight” Democrats.
Calling Mexico “an even graver challenge” than other countries in the region because of cartels’ power there, Rubio said Wednesday that the “ideal” scenario would be for the two countries to address the situation jointly.
“Eventually that threat will have to be confronted one way or the other,” Rubio told reporters in Ecuador. “But our hope is to do it cooperatively with Mexican authorities.”
Rubio complimented Mexican authorities for doing “more than they’ve ever done before to go after these groups, but it is still not nearly enough.”
Asked by reporters if the U.S. knows which countries are helping Tehran in the ongoing war, Rubio said the U.S. doesn’t believe that foreign assistance is helping the country, as both sides have returned to open hostilities in recent weeks.
“We don’t believe anybody is giving Iran anything that’s changing the dynamics or the parameters of what we’re seeing,” Rubio said while in Ecuador. “At the end of the day, they continue to fire on naval ships and when they fire at our naval ships, they pay a price in tankers.
He added, “In the meantime, we’re going to continue to strangle them economically.”
At the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador, Rubio said that U.S. strategy in dealing with boats allegedly tied to drug trafficking “depends on the country.”
The U.S. secretary of state was asked whether the United States had changed its approach to intercepting the boats, as opposed to boat strikes that have been part of a months-long campaign.
Rubio said that countries like Ecuador have “been very cooperative,” calling such bilateral agreements “an incredible advance.”
Saying that each target “goes through all the lawyers” of the Pentagon, Rubio stressed strikes “are joint operations” and occur under “an understanding as to how those operations are going to occur” with the country in whose waters they take place.
The president and his onetime fixer have made up since Cohen went to prison and was a key witness in a 2024 business fraud trial that resulted in Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts.
“What they did to Michael Cohen was a disgrace,” Trump said Wednesday.
Cohen spent three years in prison for federal crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss’ alleged sexual affairs. Cohen told his sentencing judge that he did Trump’s “dirty deeds” out of “blind loyalty.”
Trump noted that Cohen “recanted” and said prosecutors “forced him to say things he didn’t want to say and that he didn’t believe.”
Cohen has told CNN he has submitted a pardon application to the White House.
Asked whether he’d pardon Cohen, the president said he’s “never been asked that question” and added he appreciated that Cohen “came out and rectified the situation.”
Gina Hinojosa said that if the GOP midterm convention kicking off Wednesday in Dallas is just about the culture wars, she doesn’t think people have the patience for that.
“People don’t want politics as usual and that is why our campaign is building momentum,” she said.
The state lawmaker is running against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is seeking a record fourth term in November.
She spoke in Dallas at a venue that featured thousands of volumes of files related to Jeffrey Epstein and met with women who have accused him of sexual abuse.
Hinojosa said it’s “really incredible that we live in a country where the justice system is so broken at every level that there has not been accountability.”
“We do not have a better ally in the region with regards to confronting the threat of criminal transnational organizations,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday in Ecuador, standing alongside Foreign Minister Roberto Kury.
Speaking first in Spanish, then in English, Rubio said “elite forces” from both countries “are working jointly on a day-to-day basis in a way that has no precedence in order to try to dismantle these terrorist organizations.”
Rubio also said he would be asking Congress for $45 million “to continue contributing towards this effort of dismantling these terrorist groups and finishing them once and for all.” However, he did not specify what the funds would be for.
Rubio visited Ecuador on Wednesday on the second leg of a three-nation tour of South America.
The Qatari-gifted Air Force One took off at around 2:55 p.m. ET after the issue with the inflatable emergency slide was resolved.
Asked whether he was sure the Qatari-gifted jet was safe for his trip to Texas, the president expressed no doubt: “Yeah, I am, or I wouldn’t be on it.”
Trump said crews had been testing an emergency slide that was seen deployed on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews.
After Trump boarded, a crew appeared to pack up and cart away the deployed slide.
Trump flew on the Qatari jet during his July trip to Turkey for the NATO summit. An older Air Force One was used as a decoy when he returned home from Ankara.
In Quito, Rubio announced his latest foreign terrorist organization designation of a Latin American drug trafficking ring: Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones.
The designation imposes sanctions on the group and its members and makes providing any kind of “material support” to it a U.S. criminal offense.
Perhaps more significantly, under the Trump administration’s counternarcotics strategy, it could make the group a target for military action.
Los Tiguerones are among 22 criminal gangs designated as “terrorists” by Ecuador’s government in 2024 after it declared an internal armed conflict during a surge in violence that included gunmen storming a television station during a live broadcast.
The gang’s top leader, William Alcívar, alias “Negro Willy,” was captured that year but later released.
The president rejected the idea that any Republicans might want to avoid attending the midterm convention.
“Everybody’s coming to the convention. Everybody wants to come,” Trump said.
The president claimed the arena doesn’t have space for every politician who wants to attend. “We have room for the ones that have a close race,” he said.
However, multiple Republicans with tight contests will be at home campaigning. Among them are Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, GOP Senate nominee John Sununu of New Hampshire, and Rep. David Valadao of California, one of the most vulnerable House Republicans.
Republicans have a razor-thin House majority and have grown increasingly worried about defending their 53-47 Senate majority.
Trump said Wednesday that oil prices that have surged because of the Iran war likely won’t come down until after U.S. midterm elections.
Oil prices jumped more than 3% today, pushing international Brent crude past the $100 threshold for the first time since July as salvos between the U.S. and Iran escalated.
“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” Trump said. “I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterm.”
Trump, in an exchange with reporters before traveling to Dallas for the midterm Republican convention, added that he believes Iran will finally relent after the pivotal elections are held in the U.S.
“I think the war’s going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer,” Trump said.
At the outset of the war, the president said it would last a matter of weeks. The war is now in its seventh month.
The organizers say they understand why many Republicans are skipping the Dallas midterm convention.
“One thing, we just have so many speaking slots. We can’t get them all in,” Ray Washburne, co-chair of the Dallas host committee, told reporters before the convention’s kickoff at an event hosted by Bloomberg News. “The other is: If you’re not in a contested race, it really doesn’t make much sense to come. And the ones in contested races, they need to be in their home states to campaign.”
Nonetheless, he said about 30,000 people are expected to attend over the two nights.
“It’s going to be a packed house. It’s going to be raucous,” said Rick Gorka, a convention spokesperson.
Despite Trump’s low approval ratings, Washburne said the president “absolutely” remains an asset and that it makes sense for him to be prominent.
“He’s always front-and-center,” he said.
The president said, “We’re going to have a tremendous crowd tonight” in Dallas, adding that the ticketed event is “sold out.”
“Looks very big. Looks very exciting, and we’re going to explain what we’ve done,” Trump added before boarding Air Force One.
Trump wanted the unusual midterm convention to boost excitement among Republican voters. His approval ratings have dropped over the course of this election year.
Even though he’s not on the ballot, that threatens GOP majorities in the House and Senate.
An emergency inflated slide was visible on the side of Air Force One.
Trump told reporters on the tarmac that crews were testing the slide. He had stayed on Marine One for several minutes after arriving at Joint Base Andrews before emerging to talk to reporters.
Trump said he’s confident the aircraft is safe as he travels to Texas.
The vice president is using his time in Dallas to meet with Republican delegations from three key presidential battleground states, according to sources familiar with the plans.
Vance, keynoting the Midterm Republican Convention on Thursday evening, is talking at a morning breakfast with GOP leaders and activists from Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, some of the most competitive states in the 2024 election, as well as his home state of Ohio.
Vance has not said whether he plans to seek the 2028 Republican nomination, but is widely expected to explore running to succeed Trump.
The Illinois governor demurred about his own White House plans. But he certainly was thinking about the potential Republican candidate who is now vice president.
Blasting the Republicans who are speaking at the GOP midterm convention, Pritzker called Vance “Trump’s chief bootlicker” and said the vice president “wants to hide the fact that he’s the architect of Trump’s endless war in Iran.”
Vance has declined to share publicly how he has advised Trump on Iran.
As a senator and as Trump’s running mate, Vance advocated for less U.S. military intervention abroad and specifically criticized “stupid wars” fought by previous administrations. He has been less critical of the Iran war, having to balance his role as Trump’s understudy with his previous statements about the U.S. role in the world.
The potential 2028 White House contender came to Dallas to urge voters not to be distracted by Trump’s made-for-TV event.
“Voters can see through the BS that Republicans are spewing,” Pritzker told reporters.
Among other aspects of Trump’s record, Pritzker cited the Iran war, Trump’s trade war with Canada, and rising prices on gas, housing, healthcare, and other consumer goods.
And he framed the 80-year-old Trump as a “president suffering from dementia, who unleashed violence on our cities, who jacked up grocery prices, screwed our farmers, and now has you paying for his gaudy golden ballroom.”
Pritzker brushed aside questions about his own presidential ambitions.
He’s running for a third term as governor and said he’d decide his next moves after November.
The U.N. atomic watchdog’s board reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years for failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at various undeclared sites in Iran.
Twenty-three countries on the IAEA’s 35-member board of governors voted Wednesday for the resolution at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.
China, Russia and Niger opposed it, while eight countries abstained and one didn’t vote as it was in arrears.
The United States, Britain, France and Germany put forward the resolution.
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U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro was peppered with questions about her decision to drop a criminal case against a former Olympian who was charged with intentionally damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a move the president strongly criticized.
Trump has said Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” in seeking to dismiss a felony charge against David Hearn.
At an unrelated press conference, Pirro wouldn’t answer reporters’ questions about her charging decision.
“I’m not going to talk about any other issue,” she said in one of her first public appearances since the decision. “The president has a right to decide what he wants to do and what is important.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that most of the pool damage was caused by vandals. But Pirro’s office cited evidence that the damage was the result of a botched installation by a contractor as well as a rush to complete the project.
Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” said Wednesday’s decision on whether to extend protections against deportation for Salvadorans in the U.S. rests with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
“If it expires, it’s up to the secretary,” Homan, who has advocated for ending the Temporary Protected Status designation, said Tuesday. “Temporary protected status means temporary. Let’s face it, El Salvador is a much safer country than it’s ever been now with a new president up there.”
Dozens of protesters rallied in South Korea’s capital Wednesday, calling on the government to reject any U.S. demand to deploy military assets to the Strait of Hormuz.
They chanted slogans and held signs and letter cards that read “Oppose the deployment” and “Do not join a war of aggression.”
The government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has said it sent a team of military investigators to the Middle East to assess the security situation, but has not made any decision on whether to deploy military assets.
Trump has openly demanded that South Korea help secure safe passage through the critical oil route, complaining that Seoul has been unwilling to help. Iran has warned of “serious consequences” if South Korea participates in U.S. operations around the waterway.
