Trump doubles down on pledge of $5,000 payments if his party retains control of Congress on second night of convention – as it happened

Once again, the president tried to assuage the shock of oil prices increasing to more than $100 a barrel amid renewed hostilities with Iran. “The prices will go back to where they were,” he insisted. “The prices will go down to less than $2 a gallon for oil … I’m pretty sure. I’m pretty good at it.” A reminder that the average price for a gallon of gas is more than a dollar higher than before the war with Iran started in February. Trump also continued to praise JD Vance’s performance at the convention. “I think he did very well tonight, and he’s a very talented guy. He’s a great been a great vice-president. I think he did a very good job,” Trump said. Ahead of flying back to Washington, Trump told reporters on the tarmac that he isn’t pledging the $5,000 checks for every US adult to turn out the vote. “I did it as a reward,” he said, for “four years of horrible, a horrible situation caused by Biden”. Trump reiterated that the money, estimated to be well over $1tn, will come from tariff revenues and global investments. “We have growth like no country has ever seen before. We have trillions of dollars coming in, and that will end up being not a very big problem at all. And I think our people deserve it,” he said. Here are a few pictures as the second day of the GOP midterm convention wrapped up. The press pool notes that Donald Trump has now boarded his flight from Dallas, back to Washington. Donald Trump doubled down on his pledge to pay all US adults $5,000 if Republicans hold on to control of Congress in the midterm elections. He’s one of the few people to actually mention the pledge tonight, as many lawmakers and officials – including his vice-president, JD Vance – avoided mentioning the so-called “dividend” altogether. Trump defended his plan: “We can do that because our country has never done better. We’re taking in trillions, trillions of dollars.” In a shorter address to voters than his nearly two-hour speech on Wednesday, Trump again pleaded with voters to “pretend I’m on the ticket” in November. In an improvised pledge of allegiance to himself, Trump directed the audience to commit to voting in the midterm elections at all costs. The president asked Republicans in the arena to repeat: “I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try. And cheat like hell like they do.” Trump also told those gathered in Dallas that they would “go to hell” if they didn’t vote. Earlier, JD Vance urged Republicans who may oppose parts of the Trump administration’s agenda not to abandon the party in November’s congressional races. The vice-president pointed to Charlie Kirk – the conservative activist killed a year ago today – to argue that voters shouldn’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater” over “a policy issue here or there”, an apparent nod to dissent over the Iran war that he avoided naming. Vance’s speech, in many ways, was an audition for a possible 2028 presidential run. He spent much of his time on stage setting out the threats of the so-called “far left”, listing the administration’s greatest hits and slamming Joe Biden’s tenure in office. Other cabinet officials and Trump allies addressed the crowd at the hastily organized convention in Dallas. Throughout the night we heard from health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who said the “irony” of his “presence here is inescapable” – a former Democrat from a political dynasty. “I mourn the fact that neither my father nor my uncle would recognize the Democratic party of today,” Kennedy said. Meanwhile, Karoline Leavitt, the former White House secretary, said it felt “much better speaking to a stadium full of patriots than a briefing room full of journalists”. Meanwhile, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the arena to protest Trump’s policy agenda. Dallas police said that two people were taken into custody after an alleged assault involving a counter-protester and for blocking a roadway. Also today, Trump said that he doesn’t think that Congress would need to approve the $5,000 checks that he wants to cut should Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in November. “The country is doing so well, we’ve taken in trillions of dollars in tariffs and other things,” the president said in an interview with CBS News – inflating the revenue generated from the duties he’s implemented. However, any money generated from tariffs is deposited to the US treasury, and then allocated by Congress through legislation. Earlier, we reported that Joseph diGenova, the longtime Trump loyalist hired in April to pursue the “grand conspiracy” charges against the president’s perceived enemies such as former CIA director John Brennan, resigned today. I called diGenova and he said pointedly that “sometimes people want things done faster and that’s all you can do”. He appeared to be referring to concerns among other Trump loyalists that Trump’s retribution cases weren’t moving quickly enough. “The bottom line is it takes a long time to make good cases, and you simply have to work at it. And, you know, sometimes people want things done faster, and that’s all you can do. All you can do is do the best you can under the circumstances,” diGenova added. Retribution by the justice department against Trump’s perceived adversaries has been one of the president’s highest priorities. Though diGenova’s comments to the Guardian clearly hint at dissent and disagreement inside the justice department over the cases, he declined to spell out exactly why he quit. “I’m not going to make any comments about indictments or anything else. When you’ve been a prosecutor as long as I have. You know how to make cases, and it takes time. And that’s just part of the process. And sometimes that works out, and sometimes it doesn’t,” he said. During the first Trump administration, diGenova was a legal adviser to far-right journalist John Solomon, who has played an official role in White House efforts to push the conspiracy allegations. Trump’s energy for talking about politics appears to have waned. “I’ve been doing this now for seven days straight. I want a little music, if you don’t mind,” Trump said, while introducing opera singer Christopher Macchio. In an improvised pledge of allegiance to himself, Trump directed the audience to commit to voting in the midterm elections at all costs. The president asked Republicans in the arena to repeat: “I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try. And cheat like hell like they do.” Trump added: “You know what happens if you don’t vote? You go to hell.” Trump said that voters have to do “the biggest favor you’ve ever done me” and “pretend I’m on the ticket”. “In a way I am on the ballot,” the president said, despite the fact that many Republicans in battleground states might actually be hampered by yolking themselves to the Trump administration, amid record low approval ratings. Trump acknowledged that when he’s on the ticket “everybody comes to vote”, but it is still crucial to vote for Republicans in races across the country. He urged Republicans to turn out and vote for Ken Paxton, the GOP nominee for US Senate in Texas. Once again, Trump took digs at Paxton’s appearance, and even revealed that many advisers pleaded with him to not offer comment. “I don’t really like the way he looks, I don’t like it,” Trump said. “But you know what I do like? He was the greatest attorney general in the history of Texas.” The president just mentioned the $5,000 for all US adults he has promised if Republicans win the midterm elections. He’s one of the few people to actually mention the pledge on stage tonight. “We can do that because our country has never done better. We’re taking in trillions, trillions of dollars,” Trump said. The major legal question of whether this “dividend” actually violates federal law still remains. As he runs through what he sees as his main achievements, Trump repeats his false claim that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has delivered the “largest tax cuts in American history”. This isn’t true. In fact, these tax cuts aren’t actually in the top five in US history. Trump praised Vance for his performance on stage, and repeated claims that the venue is “packed” again. He said he would be “a little bit brief” in his remarks because of his nearly two-hour speech last night. “I don’t feel like going over the same material again,” the president said. Donald Trump is, again, walking on stage to a second live performance of God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood. As Vance wraps up his remarks, insisting that it’s imperative to send Democrats “packing” in November, the vice-president was another speaker who avoided mentioning Trump’s $5,000 “dividend” to every US adult if Republicans hold on to control of Congress. Interestingly, Vance doubled down on his criticism of Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Michigan, by chiding him for appearing to suggest that Vance’s grandfather (who helped raised him) wouldn’t approve of the vice-president’s interracial marriage. “The Democrats are the party of hatred. They’re the party that despises America and the people who built it,” Vance said. “They say that people with names like James Vance are incapable of loving people with names like Usha, and they couldn’t be more wrong.” Vance continued to urge voters to stay with the Republican party. “We have done a lot, my friends, and we can do a lot more if we fight together,” he said. “Let’s send these lunatics packing and govern our country for the future.” JD Vance just used Charlie Kirk as his vehicle to implore voters who may disagree with certain Trump administration policies not to abandon the party in key congressional races this November. “Charlie hated war. Whether it was Europe or Africa, the Middle East, he didn’t care. He just hated war. That was his view. Now, of course, there are people who love what we’ve done and people who don’t,” Vance said, referring to the ongoing conflict in Iran that has caused prices across the country to spike. “What I’m asking you to do is do what Charlie did: do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don’t don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there.” Vance is now slamming several Democratic nominees in states where Republicans are facing key challenges. This includes James Talarico in Texas and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan – both of whom are frequent targets of the GOP ahead of November. “These are the candidates that congressional Democrats have put forth for you to vote for in November,” the vice-president said. “They asked my friends for a one-way ticket to Washington to legislate and regulate and wield power over your lives. Instead, in my opinion, they need a one-way ticket to a mental hospital.” In many ways this speech is an audition for JD Vance’s possible 2028 presidential run. He’s spent much of his time on stage setting out the threats of the so-called “far left”, the administration’s greatest hits and slamming Joe Biden’s tenure in office. Vance just acknowledged that a protester interrupted his remarks while waving a Mexican flag. “Well, my friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there. I’ll buy you the plane ticket,” Vance said, in a moment that was red meat for the base, and saw chants of “USA” erupt throughout the arena. Vance, using the birth of his fourth child as a launchpad, addressed “radicals who wish to abolish my family and the thousands and millions of other families all across our country” to “stay the hell away from our kids”. A quick aside from Vance, who says that his wife – Usha – who gave birth to a son over a month ago, is not in Dallas. The vice-president recalled that his wife said “hell no” when Republican National Committee (RNC) organizers asked if she would be willing to introduce her husband, just two weeks after giving birth. “But she sends her love, and I know she’s watching at home,” Vance said. JD Vance has dedicated a portion of his speech, as we noted earlier, to remember Charlie Kirk – the Turning Point USA founder who was murdered at a campus event in Utah exactly a year ago. Vance and Kirk were close friends. “Charlie left behind two children, two little kids … I hope that one day they will watch and they will know, and they will understand what I’m trying to say to them tonight. Though they may not appreciate it today, history will record that your father was a great man,” Vance said. In his opening remarks, Vance said that Republicans in the arena today are not going to let the US “go backwards”. The vice-president noted that voters were “tired” two years ago. “We were tired of not being able to afford anything,” Vance added; even though inflation is actually higher than it was when Joe Biden left office in 2025. Vice-president JD Vance has just walked out on stage at Republican midterm convention in Dallas. “I gotta say, it’s pretty cool to hear a crowd that is this fired up chant your name. So go ahead and do it again,” Vance said. As he wrapped up his speech, Donald Trump Jr repeated a common refrain we’ve heard across both nights of the GOP midterm convention. “The choice is clear,” he said. “Don’t let these radicals gaslight you into thinking common sense is extreme, and extreme is somehow common sense. Don’t let them convince you that caring about this country makes you a villain.” The president’s son added: “Not a single one of us can afford to sleep through the midterms.” On stage, there has been little to no mention of Donald Trump’s pledge to pay all adult US citizens $5,000 if Republicans win the midterms. Instead, most of the speakers have focused on Charlie Kirk’s murder a year ago today, bashing Democrats and progressive candidates on the ballot in November and trying to focus on how the administration is tackling the issue of affordability. Donald Trump Jr has spent much of his speech re-hashing many of the hard-right talking points of the night. “As we speak, Democrat candidates across the country are openly embracing the radical ideology of democratic socialism,” the president’s son said. “They claim that their socialism is for the people, but that’s the exact same story we’ve heard from every communist in human history.” Karoline Leavitt, the former White House press secretary, is now speaking to Republicans at the second night of the midterm convention. “It feels good to be back behind a podium,” Leavitt said. “It feels much better speaking to a stadium full of patriots than a briefing room full of journalists.” A reminder that the former press secretary left the West Wing to spend more time with her family (she recently gave birth to her second child) and take a role at the Trump-aligned Super Pac, Maga Inc. Dallas mayor Eric Johnson is now addressing attendees at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas. A reminder that Johnson was, until recently, a Democrat. He became a registered Republican in 2023. “Today’s progressives don’t believe in giving hardworking Americans a square deal, a fair deal, or a new deal,” Johnson told the crowd. “Every time these extreme democrat socialists grab power, all we get is a raw deal.” As part of his breakneck midterm race tour, Donald Trump will travel to North Carolina next to help campaign on behalf of Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee in the state’s race for US Senate. The president will deliver remarks in Gastonia, Whatley’s hometown, on Wednesday. Kennedy hurled one of many attacks against transgender people of the night during his speech. Robert F Kennedy Jr also spoke about his uncle, Ted Kennedy, who served as a senator for Massachusetts and fought for several amendments to Title IX – which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program that receives federal funding. “He [Ted Kennedy] wanted to make sure that women, real women, were able to have a safe and guaranteed spot in college sports,” the health secretary said. Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, is now addressing the crowd in Dallas. He’s outlining his shift from a staunch Democrat to an independent, and eventually working for a Republican administration. “The irony of my presence here is inescapable,” Kennedy said, acknowledging that he hails from a political dynasty that includes his father (and namesake), who served as the US attorney general and a Democratic senator. “The Democrats of that era stood with labor and working people and the American middle class. Nearly every cop and firefighter was a Democrat,” Kennedy added. “I mourn the fact that neither my father nor my uncle would recognize the Democratic Party of today.” As we noted earlier, dozens of protesters have gathered outside the arena where the GOP midterm convention is taking place. Dallas police said that two people were taken into custody after an alleged assault involving a counter-protester and for blocking a roadway. Vice-president JD Vance will talk about fatherhood and his populist vision in his midterm convention speech, a source familiar with the address told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Vance will also reflect on the death of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was assassinated exactly a year ago, the source told AFP. My colleague J Oliver Conroy spoke to Turning Point insiders, historians and sociologists of the right, as well as leftwing critics for this deep dive into what happened to Kirk’s organization in the year since he died. Ross Ulbricht, the convicted cybercriminal and founder of the illegal online drug marketplace the Silk Road, who Donald Trump pardoned when he returned to the White House, spent his speech heaping praise on the president. “I learned that the machinery we built to protect ourselves from criminals can be turned around and pointed at people who have harmed no one,” Ulbricht told the audience. A man in the crowd quickly shouted back: “like J6ers!” – referring to the rioters who attacked the Capitol on 6 January 2021 and were also pardoned by Trump. Susan Collins, the five-term GOP senator from Maine who is facing a tough re-election race in November, has raised doubts about Donald Trump’s $5,000 incentive if Republicans win the midterms. Collins said in a statement that “from the few details we have” the pledge “would not have an income cap and would be extraordinarily costly”. She added: “Tax and spending decisions should be made based on the needs of the American people and the state of the economy, they should not appear to be tied to election results.” Mike Lawler, the vulnerable Republican congressman running for re-election in New York, is now speaking at the American Airlines center in Dallas. “Speaking to a room full of Republicans is not something I do every day. You see, my district is located just north of New York City, and home to 80,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. Two of my constituents are Bill and Hillary Clinton,” Lawler said. “So while I’m honored to be in this arena with so many fellow Republicans tonight, my message is really aimed at commonsense Democrats and independents across the country tuning in and still undecided about their vote in November.” Lawler represents New York’s 17th district, which Kamala Harris won, narrowly, in 2024, and the Cook report rates the race as a “toss up” between Lawler and Cait Conley, his Democratic opponent. “Radical socialists are winning Democratic primaries, and they claim to be well-meaning, but there is nothing kind-hearted about protecting criminals at the expense of American families,” the congressman said. On Wednesday, Lawler defended his decision to attend the GOP midterm convention, despite several Republicans in swing districts and states opting to sit out the event. On stage, Lawler noted that he has, at times, a contentious relationship with Donald Trump: “The truth is that the president and I don’t always agree, and that’s OK. After all, we’re both New Yorkers. We argue. We tell each other what we think.” On stage, Greg Abbott, the Texas governor who is seeking a fourth term in office, ran through what he sees as many of his accomplishments as he fends off a challenge from Gina Hinojosa, a Democratic state lawmaker. “The Democrats running on the ticket in Texas. They’re gaslighting the public about affordability,” Abbott said. Mike Rogers, the former congressman and the Republican nominee for the US Senate race in Michigan, is now speaking in Dallas. He opened he speech by acknowledging the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, but quickly segued to targeting his midterm opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, who is Muslim. Rogers said, falsely, that Hasan Piker, whom I mentioned earlier, is El-Sayed’s running mate. The Republican nominee also falsely claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist organization, has provided funding for El-Sayed’s campaign. However, there is no evidence to support this link. Rogers also blasted El-Sayed for comments he made, and later apologized for, about an attack on a Michigan synagogue earlier this year. “To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention,” the Democratic nominee said in August. The man charged with the attack, Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, had lost four relatives in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon the week prior. In a video response at the time, El-Sayed condemned the attack and added that “hurt people hurt people” a reference to what happened to Ghazali’s family. Critics accused El-Sayed of justifying Ghazali’s actions. On the one year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s killing at Utah Valley University, Lucas Miles, the vice-president of Turning Point USA – the organization Kirk founded – took to the stage. “There is something wonderfully defiant about the fact that his [Kirk’s] voice has not grown quieter; it has multiplied today,” Miles said. “They could take the man; they could not take the mission, because Charlie spent his life sowing the seeds of that mission in others.” In his remarks to the audience in Dallas, Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, said that while big names like Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed are known entities, he focused on “Democrats in the swing seats who say one thing, and then join forces and vote with the socialists that they’re afraid of”. Johnson added: “They’re the ones who have let the barbarians inside the gate, and next year the communists will be in Congress. That’s what’s so frightening.” Cruz hit on many of the Republican party’s obsessions when it comes to the left wing. “We are witnessing a new and dangerous red-green alliance: communists and Islamists coming together and sweeping over the Democrat party,” Cruz said, while invoking New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Michigan. Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, has walked on stage in Dallas to rapturous applause. “We are just 54 days out from the most consequential midterms of our lifetime,” he said, while acknowledging the killing of Charlie Kirk a year ago and the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. While Cruz is using his time to heap praise on Donald Trump, this is a far cry from the same lawmaker who called the now-president a “serial philanderer”, an “amoral pathological liar” and a “braggadocious, arrogant buffoon” on the 2016 presidential campaign trail, when Cruz ran for the Republican nomination that Trump eventually won. The prosecutor in charge of leading a justice department investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president has stepped down from his position, according to the Associated Press. “I did in fact resign,” Joe diGenova told the AP, calling it an “honor and a privilege” to serve Trump and the justice department. DiGenova declined to comment on the circumstances of his departure, which came just five months after he was brought back to the DoJ to oversee the investigation targeting former government officials who, over the last decade, have scrutinized Trump in various criminal inquiries. On stage now is Lisa McClain, House Republican conference chair and representative from Michigan. McClain is using her time to repeat many of the same fear-mongering talking points about the upcoming midterms that we heard on night one. She’s particularly focused on slamming the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in her state, Abdul El-Sayed, who she says wants to “release violent criminals back into your communities”. McClain also zeroed in on El-Sayed campaigning with Hasan Piker, the progressive Twitch streamer, during Michigan’s Democratic primary, where El-Sayed was forced to answer for Piker’s past comments on Israel and September 11. In 2019, as part of a broader critique of American foreign policy, Piker said the US “deserved” the terror attacks. However, he later apologised for the remark. “My mom has a saying: ‘You are who you hang with’,” McClain said, adding that the November elections are a choice “between common sense and communist crazy”. In an interview with CBS News on the second night of the GOP midterm convention, Donald Trump said that he doesn’t think that Congress would need to approve the $5,000 checks that he wants to cut should Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in November. A reminder that this pledge comes with a price tag that is well over $1tn. “The country is doing so well, we’ve taken in trillions of dollars in tariffs and other things,” the president said, again inflating the revenue generated from the duties he’s implemented. However, any money generated from tariffs is deposited to the US treasury, and then allocated by Congress through legislation. Trump repeated to CBS News that the money given to US citizens would need to be spent in the US, but didn’t explain how that would be tracked. Joe Lonsdale, the founder of Palantir and major GOP donor, has pushed back against Donald Trump’s pledge to offer $5,000 to US citizens if Republicans win the midterm elections in November. Lonsdale said that while he is “in favor of winning the midterms, and love much about this admin”, he is “strongly against bread and circus bribes” in a post on X. Ryan Mackenzie, the Republican congressman running in a competitive re-election race for a Pennsylvania district he flipped red in 2024, took the stage at the American Airlines center today. Mackenzie avoided speaking about any contentious Trump administration policies, and instead focused on tax relief, border security and slamming Bob Brooks, a union leader and Mackenzie’s progressive opponent in his November contest. “When we hear about the decision between common sense and crazy, it’s not rhetoric. It’s not a slogan. You need to think about the real effects that it has in a district like mine in Pennsylvania and all across the country,” Mackenzie added. The fight for Pennsylvania’s seventh congressional seat –which encompasses the Lehigh valley – is one of the most competitive House races in the country, according to the Cook Political Report. We’re getting more pictures of protests in the streets of Dallas on the second night of the GOP midterm convention. There are several signs against the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. In particular, those killed by federal agents during Donald Trump’s crackdown in Minnesota. Reporting from Dallas It was a simple enough assignment. Donald Trump attended the National Medal of Honor museum on Thursday for an event where he was supposed to give an address that would celebrate medal recipients, then sign a bipartisan bill that would lead to a monument being installed on the National Mall. Instead, the US president used his speech to attack James Talarico, the Texas Democratic candidate for Senate; to list fantasy figures about foreign investment in the US; and to muse about how Washington DC is cleaner than it used to be. Trump, who seemed drained after his address at the Republican midterm convention on Wednesday night, also used the supposedly politically neutral event to once again tear into the appearance of Ken Paxton, his handpicked candidate for Senate. “I’m not sure if I like your look. I’m not sure if I like the way you dress. I don’t like the way you talk,” Trump said, imagining a conversation between himself and Paxton in a rerun of criticism he had used a day earlier. “But you’re the greatest attorney general.” Trump went on to dub Talarico “Talafreako”, and to hail the self-stated success of his tariffs. He also claimed that “close to $21tn” had been invested in the US since he became president, something CNN factcheck described as a “fictional economic figure”. There are 65 living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, which is awarded to military service members “who distinguish themselves through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty”. Trump suggested there should be 66. “What I really want is I want for myself the Congressional Medal of Honor,” said Trump, who famously was exempted from the draft for the Vietnam war after a doctor diagnosed him with bone spurs. “I would give it to myself; I have no problem, but I’m not allowed to.” Trump later clarified that he was joking. The ceremony, honoring what Trump said was an “incredible” level of bravery, was brought to a close by the blasting of the song YMCA by the Village People, who, to be fair, did have a (pretend) soldier, Alex Briley, in their original lineup. Reporting from Dallas Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman and Democratic presidential candidate, has ruled out another bid for the White House in 2028. But he has thoughts on who might run. “There’s obvious people: Gavin Newsom’s been running for the last 20 years for the presidency in 2028,” O’Rourke, 53, told a roundtable hosted by Bloomberg News in Dallas on Thursday. “I’ve been watching some of what Pete Buttigieg has been doing: he’s so freaking intelligent and amazing and connecting with people and answering questions on Fox News. JB Pritzker was just here: he certainly seems to be running. “My son is 19 years old and has grown up around politics and therefore doesn’t like it and doesn’t really engage, but to get a text from him, ‘Hey dad, do you know this Jon Ossoff guy? I just saw one of his speeches.’ To see him get excited: if you’re a parent and your kid gets excited about something, it means something. I think that’s awesome,” he said. O’Rourke added: “In the same way that some of these folks are obvious in their intentions, I can’t really tell what Kamala [Harris] is doing or wants to do. I think she’s amazing. I think that’s a decision for her to make. But I do think 2028 primary election voters are going to be watching what the contenders did in 2026 when everything was on the line, so I think every one of those people we just talked about, they’re being measured from the future right now by what they’re doing at this moment.” There is an old saying that every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. What does O’Rourke see now? “I see someone who’s so glad that they got it out of their system,” he quipped. Back with his comically large gavel, Joe Gruters – the Republican National Committee chair – kicked off the second night of the GOP midterm convention. Gruters noted that today is the one year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death – the conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder who was shot and killed while speaking at a campus event in Utah. “He [Kirk] believed in America, in freedom, in young people’s courage to stand up and fight for the country they love. He didn’t just join a movement; he built one,” Gruters said. “Let’s honor Charlie and let’s be more like Charlie Kirk.” Later today, we’ll also hear from vice-president JD Vance, who’ll deliver the keynote address. Donald Trump will also speak again, but assured last night’s audience in Dallas that he doesn’t plan to speak for that long. “I’m going to be just sort of getting up here and saying, good luck. We love you all,” he said at the end of his nearly two-hour speech on Wednesday. Gavin Newsom has called Donald Trump’s $5,000 incentive to US adults if Republicans retain control of Congress “pathetic and sad”, while speaking to reporters in California today. The outgoing governor added: “Pathetic because it’s just bullshit. And sad that he has to go in front of people and bribe them. I mean, that’s how desperate he is to hold on to power. He knows his presidency is de facto over as we know it this November. He’s going to do everything he can to rig the election, and in the absence of that he wanted to buy everybody off.” The supreme court appeared to end the legal turmoil around Missouri’s congressional map. After a protracted legal battle that has thrown the state’s elections into chaos, the supreme court ruled for a second time in favor of a Missouri court’s order to restore the state’s 2022 congressional district map. The decision likely kills Missouri Republicans’ efforts to use the new district boundaries they drew in 2025, which could’ve secured them an extra House seat in the state. The Missouri secretary of state, himself facing a contempt hearing over his alleged intransigence in restoring the old maps, officially ordered local elections officials to use the 2022 maps. Donald Trump’s pledge to give Americans $5,000 each if Republicans win the midterms is met with skepticism and bribery allegations. On Wednesday night, the US president promised to send Americans $5,000 payments if Republicans won out in the midterms. But not long after Trump made the promise, his vice-president was already hedging on it, and other Republicans expressed similar unease. Meanwhile, some Democrats, like Beto O’Rourke, lambasted the proposal as outright bribery. Conservatives marked the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr, both friends and allies of the conservative activist, appeared on his flagship podcast for a memorial show, as Thursday marked one year since Kirk was killed during an event at a Utah university. The White House, top US Republicans and conservative heads of state also put out statements honoring Kirk. An appeals court rejected Trump’s restrictions on voting by mail. A panel of judges at the first US circuit court of appeals in Boston declined to lift a block against the restrictions Trump outlined in an executive order, which granted the federal government sweeping new authorities over mail-in voting. Top advisors to Trump warn the war in Iran could endure longer than his term. The Wall Street Journal reported that, behind closed doors, top members of Trump’s cabinet have been warning him that Iran could potentially hold out against US pressure for longer than he’ll remain in office. That report undercuts Trump’s public stance, which is that Iran will cave as soon as the midterm elections are over (so long as Republicans win). Missouri’s top elections official on Thursday ordered local authorities to use the state’s older congressional district map for the midterm election, after a supreme court ruling today blocked the reinstatement of a newer, Republican-favored map. Denny Hoskins, Missouri’s Republican secretary of state, had been fighting in the courts to keep the newer maps. But his office issued a statement on Thursday confirming that Missouri is now set to use its congressional district map from 2022 heading into the November elections. Previously, the Missouri state supreme court had ruled that the newer set of maps, drawn by Missouri Republicans in 2025, couldn’t be used for the 2026 election, and ordered the state to restore its 2022 congressional district boundaries. The supreme court shot down an appeal of that decision last week. A federal judge’s conflicting ruling in another case to restore the GOP-backed maps sent the matter back to the supreme court. The high court again sided against Missouri Republicans. “Following the United States supreme court’s stay, the only governing court order in effect is from the Missouri supreme court,” Hoskins’ office said in a statement. “In accordance with that order, my Office is directing local election authorities to use the 2022 congressional map.” The Republican-favored map drawn in 2025 came as part of a nationwide Republican redistricting push backed by Donald Trump. The new boundaries would’ve carved up a Kansas City-area district held by Democrats, likely winning Missouri Republicans an additional seat in the House of Representatives. Earlier on Thursday, Hoskins appeared before the Missouri Supreme Court in a contempt hearing over his failure to immediately enact the court’s order to restore the 2022 maps. The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday published a formal proposal to eliminate a visa grace period for foreign workers who lose their jobs. Under rules established by the Obama administration, foreign workers with certain work-related visas – including the common H-1B visa category – had a 60-day window after losing their job before having to leave the country. During that time, workers could seek new employment or pursue other changes to their immigration status. The new rule published Wednesday would remove that grace period and require workers, as well as any family members dependent on their visa status, to leave the US immediately after their employment ends. An alliance of advocacy groups and a Democratic-led city on Thursday filed a preemptive lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from deploying armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to polling sites ahead of November’s midterm elections. The lawsuit cites a statute dating back to the civil war that forbids armed federal officers from approaching voting sites. “The specter of armed officers at polling places threatens the freedom of this upcoming election,” the lawsuit read. “It places voters in fear that they will be confronted by armed federal law enforcement if they choose to cast a ballot.” The lawsuit specifically named the Department of Homeland Security and ICE as defendants, as well as their respective leaders, Markwayne Mullin and David Venturella. It was filed by the liberal-leaning legal group Democracy Forward, on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens, Common Cause, UnidosUS and the city of Denver. Despite Mullin saying that “ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places,” he added that they could be present if there is a threat to the site or if agents are serving a warrant to someone present. Trump administration officials have denied concrete plans for such deployments, while simultaneously not ruling out the presence of agents at polling sites under some circumstances, such as those shared by Mullin. A US appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s bid to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting, dealing a fresh blow to the president’s attempted crackdown. The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals three-judge panel declined to ⁠put on hold an ⁠injunction issued by a lower court judge last week, preventing the US Postal Service from tightening rules around postal voting. The decision comes as the supreme court considers the same case and states have already started sending out ballots for the high-stakes midterm elections. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “threatened” the show and that an interview with James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, will not air on television but on YouTube. The FCC has been enforcing equal time rules for political candidates, which traditionally didn’t apply to talk shows. In Kimmel’s Wednesday night broadcast, he suggested Trump’s presidency influenced this change. “Now that [Trump] is president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple, traditional editorial decisions,” Kimmel said. “In the America we live in right now, that is the best we can do, until November, of course,” Kimmel added regarding the decision. Talarico, a Texas state representative, is locked in a tight Senate race against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s gotten an endorsement from President Donald Trump. Vance was followed on the Charlie Kirk Podcast’s memorial show by Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son. Trump Jr. recalled how he first met Kirk in 2015 during his father’s first run for president. “It was the beginning of a long friendship,” Trump Jr. said. “I think we spoke every day for 10 years,” he added later. Elsewhere, conservative leaders in the United States and around the world have issued statements commemorating the one year anniversary of Kirk’s assassination. The White House posted a tribute video to social media, and Trump honored the anniversary of Kirk’s death during his address to the GOP midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday night. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, has accused his rival Ken Paxton of “ignoring” survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, as Democrats seek to increase pressure on Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. Speaking in Dallas, where Republicans are holding a midterm convention this week, Talarico appeared alongside one of Epstein’s victims at an exhibit which featured about three million pages of Department of Justice files related to Epstein. “When did pedophilia become a partisan issue? When did holding sexual abusers accountable become controversial?” Talarico said. He said survivors of Epstein’s abuse had requested to meet with Paxton, the Texas attorney general, but he had refused. “Our attorney general here in Texas has the power to get justice for these survivors, and he’s refusing to do so,” Talarico said. He added: “Ken Paxton has two choices: he can stand with these survivors and get justice, or he can continue to cover up Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse. The choice is entirely his.” On Wednesday Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat running against Texas Governor Greg Abbott, visited the same exhibit and met with Epstein’s victims, in a sign Democrats plan to highlight Trump’s relationship with the convicted sex offender. “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 of what we know was extensive sexual abuse, exploitation that happened for decades,” Hinojosa said, according to Associated press. “And that powerful people who run this country are still living their lives without having been held to account.” JD Vance is currently speaking on the Charlie Kirk Show as today marks the one year anniversary of Kirk’s assassination during an event at a university in Utah. A year removed from Kirk’s killing, Vance eulogized him on his former flagship podcast as an irreplaceable leader of the conservative movement and as a close personal friend and ally. “There’s no way to replace Charlie Kirk,” Vance said. Kirk was an early supporter of Vance during his 2022 run for Senate in Ohio, and later advocated for his selection as Trump’s running mate in 2024. Since his death, Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, who has taken over running her late husband’s political organization, Turning Point USA, has voiced support for Vance to succeed Trump as president. Beto O’Rourke, a former US congressman and presidential candidate, has dismissed Donald Trump’s offer of $5,000 to US citizens if Republicans win Congress as “the stink of desperation.” “I think people will take it for what it is: it’s a gimmick, it’s a bribe,” O’Rourke said on Thursday at a roundtable hosted by Bloomberg News in Dallas. “It’s another promise that the president will be unable to fulfill. He’s promised these kinds of dividends before. I think we were supposed to get one from all of the money we were making off of tariffs. It’s never materialised.” O’Rourke, founder of Powered by People, a Texas-based progressive organisation focused on turning out voters, continued: “It adds to the stink of desperation. That is emanating from that convention centre and every action that we’ve seen over the last 12 months: gerrymandering five congressional districts, screwing with vote by mail, shutting down 92 polling places, more than a million Texans on the suspense list. “This is a party that cannot compete on the power of its ideas or on its accomplishments while in office and so they’re trying to stop people literally from voting or bribe those who they think can be persuaded. I just don’t think that’s going to be effective.” O’Rourke, who lost a Texas Senate race to Ted Cruz in 2018, struck an optimistic note about Democrat James Talarico’s chances against Republican Ken Paxton. He suggested that Trump is even more unpopular now than he was then and that Talarico will be boosted by Democrats competing in every down ballot election this time. “If you had to dream up the perfect opponent in the Senate race, if you’re a Democrat, you could not do better than Ken Paxton. Zero charisma, no connection, no money. The president is openly mocking him at every single turn. Those are all totally different from what we saw in 2018.” The Supreme Court has blocked a federal judge’s ruling that would’ve restored Republican-drawn congressional districts in Missouri. The decision, issued by justice Brett Kavanaugh, appeared to sound a death knell for efforts by the Missouri GOP to extract an additional Republican-leaning congressional seat for their party ahead of the midterm elections. The latest decision is the second time the country’s highest court has weighed in on the matter in the last several days. It follows a winding legal saga that has seen the exact boundaries of Missouri’s congressional districts for the 2026 election kept in protracted limbo, with election day less than two months out. The legal back-and-forth began last September, when Missouri Republicans redrew their state’s electoral maps to carve up a Democrat-controlled district around Kansas City, likely securing them one more of the state’s eight House seats. The decision came as Donald Trump urged Republican state leaders to gerrymander their congressional districts to help their party retain control of Congress, a move that prompted a retaliatory redistricting blitz by Democrats. Last week, the Missouri supreme court ruled that the new maps weren’t valid until they were put to a public referendum. That meant the state’s congressional districts would revert to their 2022 borders ahead of the midterms. Missouri leaders appealed that decision to the supreme court, which left the lower court’s ruling in place. A federal judge in St Louis, presiding over a different case, issued a conflicting ruling soon after, ordering the state to return to the Republican-favored maps. It was that ruling Kavanaugh blocked today, in a brief decision with no noted dissents. Republican leaders in Missouri have argued that requiring the state to shift back to its earlier district boundaries so close to November could throw the state’s elections into chaos. The state held its primaries using the new, GOP-leaning maps, meaning that candidates have won party nominations to represent districts that may no longer exist. After temporary protections were set to expire Wednesday for hundreds of thousands of Salvadoran migrants in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said it would, at least for now, allow them to keep their protected status. The department said in a statement that the temporary protected status that has permitted roughly 200,000 Salvadoran migrants to live in the US without fear of deportation would remain for the time being. “An announcement on El Salvador’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “Until such announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection.” Night one of Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas faced a major challenge in attracting viewers: it had to compete with the NFL’s season kickoff, a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. The tug-of-war for viewership appeared to resonate with Trump, in any case, as the President was adamant Thursday morning that he’d won more attention that the NFL – even before any official ratings were in. “It was really something, streaming all over the place, and really big numbers, despite going up against the NFL,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social, adding: “The overall numbers beat the NFL.” Another interesting result from yesterday’s Democratic primaries in Rhode Island: David Morales, a democratic socialist candidate, unseated sitting Providence mayor Brett Smiley. The win for Morales, a member of the Rhode Island legislature, notches a win for an insurgent progressive faction of the party that has vied to unseat establishment incumbents. That movement has found success in mayoral races around the country, notably ushering Zohran Mamdani into office as mayor of New York City. Both before and during Republicans’ midterm convention yesterday, President Trump predicted that the war in Iran that he helped launch would end immediately after the midterm elections (assuming that his party held onto its majority in Congress). But a new report from the Wall Street Journal, published Wednesday evening, indicates that, behind closed doors, Trump’s top advisors have given him less optimistic forecasts. The paper reports that top officials – including JD Vance, Trump’s vice president, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state – have warned that Iran could very well hold out against US pressure through the remainder of Trump’s second term. The unpopular and seemingly frozen conflict, as well as the surging energy prices it touched off, have become a sore spot for Republicans ahead of the midterms. Fighting has flared up again after negotiations between the US and Iran fell through, with both sides trading missile attacks on oil tankers. The Trump administration’s latest step, a new sanctions regime aimed at strangling what remains of Iran’s economy, would punish nations that continue to trade with the regime. Trump has cast his party’s victory in the midterms as the difference between US success and failure in Iran. He’s repeatedly dismissed economic pain downstream of the conflict as a temporary but worthwhile sacrifice to subdue Iran and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Vice-president JD Vance will give the keynote address tonight, though Donald Trump is scheduled to make closing remarks to bring the made-for-television RNC event in Dallas to ⁠an end. “If the American people give Republicans another chance to govern, we’re going to create more prosperity,” Vance told Fox News after Trump’s speech last night. “And we want the American people to share in that prosperity.” Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said his interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will not air on ABC tomorrow following threats from the FCC. Kimmel said the FCC had threatened him, his show, ABC, its affiliates, and local stations over “simple traditional editorial decisions” and guest bookings. He said the full interview will be shared on YouTube instead. Democratic senator John Fetterman made a surprise virtual appearance at the Republican midterm convention, delivering a video address supporting Dave McCormick, a Republican senator in Pennsylvania. Fetterman, who has increasingly broken with his party since his election in 2022, said in the video that he would always reject “extremes and socialism”, repeating an oft-used Republican critique of the Democratic party’s increasingly popular left wing. The video message will do little to dampen speculation that the renegade senator, who is now more popular among Republican voters in Pennsylvania than the Democrats who helped elect him, is preparing to switch political parties. Fetterman has repeatedly said that is not his plan, though he recently suggested he would be forced to formally break with the Democratic party if it ever became “the anti-Israel party”. Democrats currently hold 47 seats in the US Senate. Despite the long odds, Democrats believe discontent with the economy and Trump’s low approval ratings have given them a rare opportunity to retake control of the upper chamber. A defection would jeopardize their already narrow path to a majority. Yet if Fetterman remains a Democrat, he would hold outsized influence, effectively wielding veto power in a 51-49 majority. Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank in Washington, said Donald Trump has no authority send money to Americans without approval from Congress. Goldwein added that dividends are something that companies pay when there’s a surplus, but the US is running $2tn annual deficits and has $40tn in debt. “The idea that we’ve had fiscal success is backwards and bordering on laughable,” he said. “We don’t have surpluses to give away.” Congress would need to approve or otherwise acquiesce to the payment. The sum would far exceed US tariff revenues even before the Supreme Court tossed much of the president’s tariff program last year. The move was reminiscent of billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to buy votes in last year’s Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, where he handed out million-dollar checks to voters to try to boost a candidate who ultimately lost. Trump’s proposal would be legal because the payment would go to everyone regardless of how they voted, or whether they voted at all, said New Mexico-based attorney John Day. “This is a campaign promise,” Day said. “It’s not a payment to individuals to try to get them to vote in a particular way.” Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. Vice-president JD Vance appeared to partially row back on Donald Trump’s outlandish claims that every adult citizen in the US would receive $5,000 if the Republicans retain the House and Senate in the midterm elections. “If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000,” Trump told a roaring crowd, during a nearly two-hour long speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas in which he also urged voters to “pretend that I’m on the ballot”. But Vance, speaking after the president, suggested the so-called dividend payments would not go to the wealthy and that it could be paid for by US tariff revenues – though the suggested payment dwarfs what the US has taken in through the protectionist measures. Congress would need to approve or otherwise acquiesce to the payment. The sum would far exceed US tariff revenues even before the Supreme Court tossed much of the president’s tariff program last year. The White House has yet to release details on Trump’s announcement. Surrounded by supporters waving American flag placards, Trump claimed, without evidence, that his second term had been “the most successful two years, financially and every other way, in the history of the presidency”, but devoted much of his speech to fearmongering about what would happen should Democrats win the House or the Senate for the final two years of his presidency. “There is a crazy little sick cloud over our country,” Trump said. “We will defeat communism in America.” The president and Republicans are gambling that throwing a midterm convention – the first the GOP has ever held – can buoy the party, which is predicted to lose control of the House. Yet, Trump’s deep unpopularity among Americans – his approval rating is hovering at about 38% – meant many Republican candidates running in competitive races skipped the two-day confab entirely. Read the full story here: In other developments: In a nearly two-hour speech, Donald Trump capped off his first night remarks at the GOP midterm convention by pleading with Republicans to “pretend that I’m running”. The president centered himself in the battle to control Congress, and acknowledged that candidates are more successful when he is on the ballot. He offered an ominous outlook if Republicans fail to retain power. Throughout his remarks, Trump also tried to campaign on behalf of Republicans in competitive midterm races. While he made fun of Ken Paxton’s clothing choices and the way he speaks, he praised the Republican nominee for US Senate in Texas as “the single greatest attorney general” in the state’s history, while also branding his opponent James Talarico as a “disaster”. Earlier, Democratic senator John Fetterman made a surprise virtual appearance at the Republican midterm convention, delivering a video address supporting Dave McCormick, a Republican senator in Pennsylvania. Fetterman, who has increasingly broken with his party since his election in 2022, said in the video that he would always reject “extremes and socialism”, repeating an oft-used Republican critique of the Democratic party’s increasingly popular left wing. Meanwhile, several Republicans who are facing tough races have chosen not to attend the convention in Dallas. This include Susan Collins, the five-term incumbent senator from Maine, and Dan Sullivan – the Republican senator from Alaska who is facing a tough contest against former Democratic congresswoman Mary Peltola.