U.S. President Donald Trump reacts on stage at the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 9, 2026.
At a packed convention in Dallas, Donald Trump delivered a midterm campaign address that alternated between boisterous boasts and familiar grievances, though several key moments fell noticeably flat with the crowd. From attempting to rewrite the narrative on his global economic standing to praising controversial local allies, the former president laid out a aggressive, yet uneven, roadmap for the upcoming elections.
The event highlighted both the enduring loyalty of his base and the growing friction surrounding his rhetoric:
1. President Donald Trump flopped when trying to brag. Even as the entire world talks about Canada achieving the economic advantage over the United States in his recent trade war, Trump claimed during the midterm elections convention that "we were a laughingstock all over the world [two years ago]. They don't laugh at us anymore, do they?" The crowd's reaction, which was otherwise exuberant throughout the night, was noticeably more tepid in its response to that line.
As Dr. Richard Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, told AlterNet earlier in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney has achieved the political upper hand as Trump continues raising tariffs on Americans.
"It's not just Mr. Carney, he is the expression of something that he knows as a politician is now a very popular view in Canada," Wolff said to AlterNet. "He's not going to be held to blame because this or that difficulty happens. If he can show, as he often can, that the United States' hostility, tariff policy number one, is the root cause, then he gets a pass. The kind of anger that might often be addressed to a politician won't be, because they correctly perceive that the problem is something else. And so they appeal to the politician when he comes up with solutions or attempted solution to keep workers' needs in mind."
2. He flipped to calling Ken Paxton "spiffy," praised his ability to get crowds and admitted that he shares Paxton's ability to upset people with "how he looks" and "how he talks."
His own Texas Republican voters have called Paxton "trash" for cheating on his wife and being involved in infidelity and other scandals.
3. He also felt the need to offer praise to a pair of UFC fighters who competed during the White House match for his 80th birthday in June. While talking about the idea of transgender people competing in sports (a subject met with thundering boos when he mentioned the concept), he explained that Bo Nickal and Justin Gaethje were invited because they both agreed with him when he suggested they could beat any woman in a fight.
4. He repeated his Big Lie, namely that the 2020 election was stolen from him by Joe Biden, who won legitimately: "We won the presidency three times, and now you notice numerous people on the other side are actually admitting it," Trump said, inaccurately. "How about that? We won it big, and we also won everything else — whatever it was, when I was on the ticket, people came out and did tremendously with senators and congressmen. But for some reason, when a president wins — even if he's really a good president, a great president — they don't win the midterms, and nobody quite knows why. Two out of 25 races."
5. Trump vowed to go to every one of the states during the midterm elections. He also issued a challenge of "loaded up" arenas. Trump has already established that he plans on rigging the midterm elections through mail-in voting suppression, purging voters, sending ICE agents an/dor other law enforcement to polling places and other methods.