Trump steps on Vance’s primetime moment and other takeaways from RNC convention’s second night

Vice President JD Vance offered Republicans a glimpse of what could be the party’s future on Thursday night, as he hammered home a midterm message with overtures to disaffected voters, a pro-family pitch in personal terms, and plenty of red-meat attacks on Democrats.

Then President Donald Trump stepped on stage.

And he stayed there, for more than 25 minutes, riffing about his favorite opera singers, how ugly he thinks Texas Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton is and urging attendees at one point to “cheat like hell” to keep Republicans in control of Congress – all a night after he covered many of the same topics in a rollicking speech of his own.

President Donald Trump closed out the GOP’s midterm convention Thursday night by calling on its attendees to vote and pledge to “cheat like hell” to help Republicans keep control of Congress.

It was a jarring end to the GOP’s unusual two-day midterm convention in Dallas, which came less than two months before Americans will decide whether the party will retain its House and Senate majorities or hand Democrats power for the last two years of Trump’s term.

Faced with an unpopular president, a war with Iran that has sent gas prices rising and historical headwinds, Republicans are seeking to make the midterm elections about the Democrats — casting even the party’s more moderate nominees in key races as beholden to its progressive insurgency.

“It’s about sending a message to the Democratic Party that if you send your crazies, we’re going to send you packing,” Vance said of the stakes of November’s elections.

But since Trump’s ascension a decade ago, Republicans have performed poorly in many elections when his name hasn’t been on the ballot. So even as some GOP candidates in competitive races seek to shift voters’ focus away from the president, Trump urged the party faithful on Thursday night to pretend he is on the ballot this year.

“You know what happens if you don’t vote?” Trump asked the crowd Thursday night. “You go to hell.”

Here are key takeaways from the final night of the GOP’s midterm convention:

Just as important as what Vance said in his keynote speech closing Thursday night is that he was chosen to fill the most important slot on the schedule aside from Trump’s appearances.

The 2028 presidential race will kick into gear immediately after the midterms. Vance hasn’t yet said whether he will run, but he is viewed by many Republicans as Trump’s heir apparent.

It was on the crowd’s mind. At one point during his speech, some Republicans broke into a “48” chant. The president who succeeds Trump will be the nation’s 48th.

“We’ve got to take care of business this November. Then we’ll worry about what comes next,” a laughing Vance told them.

From the personal references Vance peppered about his wife, Usha, their children, and his grandfather, to the kinds of jokes he delivered, the stylistic differences between the vice president and Trump were obvious.

Like Trump, he waded eagerly into culture wars. But unlike Trump, he focused his message on faith and family values — detailing at length the nation he wants for his newborn son .

“What I want for my family, I want for your family, too,” Vance said.

One of the strongest crowd reactions to Vance came in an unscripted moment. A protester interrupted the vice president’s speech, and Vance told viewers at home that the protester was holding a Mexican flag.

“If you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there. I’ll buy you a plane ticket,” Vance said, as the crowd erupted in a “USA” chant.

Throughout the two-day convention, most Republican speakers skirted by the Trump administration’s most controversial moves, including the war with Iran , a failure to roll back high prices, and tariffs and mass deportation efforts that many voters say have gone too far.

Instead, they highlighted the ascendance of far-left progressives and democratic socialists, and ascribed some of their positions — including policies involving transgender people, calls to defund the police and efforts to disband US Immigration and Customs Enforcement — to the entire Democratic Party.

“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,” the vice president pleaded with those listening to his remarks. “I’m not asking anybody to agree on every single policy of the administration; what I am asking you to do is to recognize the contrast with the radicals and recognize the achievements of the last 18 months.”

The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., highlighted the rise of democratic socialists who have won a handful of House primaries, mostly in deep-blue districts, as well as the Democratic Senate nomination in Florida.

“We should call it what it is: communism,” Trump Jr. said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drew on his family lineage as he argued Democrats have abandoned the values of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, Robert Kennedy.

“I mourn the fact that neither my father nor my uncle would recognize the Democratic Party of today,” he said.

The most mentioned Democrat of the night Thursday was Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Senate nominee.

His prominence is no surprise: Democrats’ hopes of netting the four seats they need to take control of the Senate depend in part on El-Sayed retaining the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. And as Republicans look to cast Democrats as too extreme, they’ve zeroed in on the progressive firebrand and strident Israel critic as their favorite example.

Repeatedly, Republicans linked El-Sayed to far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has campaigned with El-Sayed, including appearing with him the day before Michigan’s Democratic primary.

Piker is a pro-Palestinian activist and one of the loudest critics of the Israeli government’s bombardment in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks. He once said the United States “deserved 9/11” – comments he later acknowledged as “inappropriate,” and said he was trying to make a more nuanced point about US foreign policy. El-Sayed has distanced himself from the streamer as his general election campaign has gotten underway.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP/File

Abdul El-Sayed distances himself from left-wing influencer after comments about American Jews

The day before the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks, GOP speakers repeatedly invoked those remarks and linked El-Sayed to Piker.

“I never imagined that 25 years after 9/11, I would be running against somebody that campaigns with Hasan Piker, who thinks America deserved it,” said El-Sayed’s opponent, Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers.

“El-Sayed’s biggest booster, a man named Hasan Piker, he said, and I quote: ‘America deserved 9/11.’ Well, ladies and gentlemen, my mom has a saying: ‘You are who you hang with,’ and let me tell you, Hasan Piker is who Abdul El-Sayed hangs with,” said Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain.

Vance also dedicated several minutes of his remarks to an ongoing feud with El-Sayed.

The vice president had mused in a speech last month that he’d have difficulty going back in time and explaining the current Democratic Party to his late grandfather, who he called “Papaw.” Vance in the speech also falsely accused El-Sayed, a practicing Muslim, of wanting to impose Sharia law.

El-Sayed later responded to the speech on X, writing: “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no?” in reference to Vance’s wife, who is Indian American and was raised in a Hindu household.

Vance on Thursday night detailed the back-and-forth and said that “that is what he thinks of my grandfather.”

“Abdul looks at him, sees the color of his skin, sees his background, and decides that he could never have loved my wife,” Vance said. “Abdul himself was raised by his own white step-grandparents. He knows exactly that kind of bond and what it looks like in a family, and he chose anyway to say that a man like my grandfather couldn’t have loved from the bottom of his heart someone who looks like Usha.”

El-Sayed responded to Vance in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday night.

“I believe in an America where any of us — me, his wife, any of us with different-colored skin, or who pray different ways — can be just as American as JD and his papaw,” El-Sayed said. “But he’s not making that argument. He likes to dog-whistle about these things, but when you actually call him out on it, he acts like he would never bring anything like that into our political conversation, despite he and his boss doing that every single day.”

Trump on Thursday night re-upped the surprise pitch he included in Wednesday night’s speech — one that dominated news coverage of the convention: $5,000 for every American adult if Republicans retain their House and Senate majorities in November.

Perhaps more notable is that his vice president didn’t once mention the idea.

Nor did other Republican speakers throughout the convention’s second night — most of whom had likely prepared their remarks before Trump blindsided many of his administration’s own officials with his proposal .

Trump’s proposal ignited controversy for a number of reasons: Democrats decried it as a blatant attempt to buy votes. Economists warned it would cause inflation. Trump vacillated in interviews Thursday about whether or not the checks would need the approval of Congress. And no one knew how Trump would pay for the proposal. He said it would come from tariff revenue, but those revenues don’t come close to covering the $1 trillion bill for such checks.

“We can do that because our country has never done better. We are taking in trillions of dollars,” Trump said Thursday night, dramatically inflating tariff revenues.

Most of the two-day GOP convention was red meat — attacks on Democrats and pitches for Trump’s signature achievements, aimed at ginning up the party’s base for the sprint to November.

But New York Rep. Mike Lawler, one of three GOP House members who represents a district former Vice President Kamala Harris won in the 2024 election, had a much different target in mind: Independents and moderate Democrats.

Or, as Lawler put it, voters “who are deeply concerned about the rise of socialism and extremism on the left, but they aren’t exactly sold on Republicans either.”

He used his own public and private disagreements with Trump to make his case. He acknowledged that Trump had called him a “pain in the ass” and even did a convincing impersonation of Trump mocking him.

Lawler advocated for lifting the cap on the amount of state and local taxes residents could deduct on their federal income tax returns — an issue that matters to high-income states like New York. He threatened to oppose Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act if the measure was not included.

“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,” Lawler said. “There’s even some profanity.”

“What I learned about President Trump behind closed doors is that if you’re willing to make your case and fight for what you believe in, he’s willing to listen,” he said.

The speech stood out as a rare example of a Republican candidate even acknowledging any daylight between themselves and Trump at the convention. For the most part, speakers either lavished praise on the president or avoided mentioning him and attacked their own Democratic opponents in this year’s elections.

Thursday marked one year since a gunman shot and killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk during a Turning Point USA event on a college campus in Utah.

Trump paid tribute to Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk , on Wednesday night. And several speakers acknowledged Kirk on Thursday.

“History will record that your father was a great man,” Vance said in a message aimed at Kirk’s children. He called Kirk a friend, and recalled him cheering Vance on when he last spoke at a Republican convention, after accepting the vice presidential nomination in 2024.

Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

Charlie Kirk’s organization grapples with its direction one year after his death: ‘There is a void’

Trump Jr. said Kirk was a good friend, and said he “had already inspired hundreds of thousands of young people to take up the cause of liberty and to fight for it.”

Other speakers, including Kennedy and former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt , also remembered Kirk.

Leaders of the organization he co-founded vowed to continue with his mission.

“One year later there is something wonderfully defiant about the fact that his voice has not grown quieter — it has multiplied,” Lucas Miles, the vice president of Turning Point USA, said at the convention.

周四晚上，副总统 JD Vance 向共和党人展示了该党未来的发展方向，他大力宣传中期选举信息，向不满的选民示好，以个人化的方式倡导家庭理念，并对民主党人进行了猛烈抨击。

随后，唐纳德·特朗普总统走上舞台。

他在那里待了超过 25 分钟，滔滔不绝地谈论他最喜欢的歌剧演员，以及他认为德克萨斯州共和党参议员候选人肯·帕克斯顿有多丑，甚至一度敦促与会者“拼命作弊”，以确保共和党继续控制国会——而就在前一天晚上，他自己也发表了一场精彩纷呈的演讲，内容涵盖了许多相同的话题。

周四晚，唐纳德·特朗普总统在共和党中期选举大会闭幕式上呼吁与会者投票，并承诺“不择手段地作弊”，以帮助共和党人保住对国会的控制权。

共和党在达拉斯举行的为期两天的中期选举大会以令人震惊的方式结束。距离美国民众决定共和党能否保住众议院和参议院多数席位，还是将权力移交给民主党，以完成特朗普任期的最后两年，距离大选还有不到两个月的时间。

面对不受欢迎的总统、导致汽油价格上涨的伊朗战争以及历史性的逆风，共和党人正试图将中期选举变成民主党的较量——甚至将关键竞选中该党较为温和的候选人描绘成受制于其进步派的叛乱。

“这是为了向民主党发出一个信息：如果你们派出你们的疯子，我们就把你们赶下台。”万斯在谈到11月选举的利害关系时说道。

但自从特朗普十年前上台以来，只要他的名字没有出现在选票上，共和党在许多选举中的表现就都很差。因此，即便一些共和党候选人在竞争激烈的选战中试图转移选民对总统的注意力，特朗普周四晚间仍然敦促党内忠实拥趸假装他今年也在选票上。

“你们知道不投票的后果吗？”特朗普周四晚上问人群，“你们会下地狱。”

以下是共和党中期选举大会最后一晚的主要内容：

范斯在周四晚间闭幕式的主题演讲中所说的话固然重要，但同样重要的是，他被选中填补了除特朗普露面之外日程安排中最重要的一席之地。

2028年总统大选将在中期选举后立即拉开帷幕。万斯尚未表明是否会参选，但许多共和党人认为他是特朗普的接班人。

这件事一直萦绕在人群心头。在他演讲期间，一些共和党人一度高喊“48”。接替特朗普的总统将是美国第48任总统。

“我们得先把十一月的事情处理好。之后的事情我们再说，”范斯笑着对他们说。

从万斯在讲话中穿插提及他的妻子乌莎、他们的孩子和他的祖父，到他讲的笑话类型，副总统和特朗普之间的风格差异显而易见。

和特朗普一样，他也热衷于文化战争。但与特朗普不同的是，他将信息重点放在信仰和家庭价值观上——详细阐述了他希望为刚出生的儿子创造怎样的国家。

“我希望我的家人拥有的，我也希望你的家人拥有，”万斯说。

万斯演讲时，现场观众反应最为激烈的一次是即兴发挥。一名抗议者打断了副总统的讲话，万斯随即告诉电视机前的观众，这名抗议者手里拿着一面墨西哥国旗。

“如果你那么爱墨西哥，那就赶紧过去。我给你买张机票。”万斯说着，人群爆发出“美国”的欢呼声。

在为期两天的大会上，大多数共和党演讲者都回避了特朗普政府最具争议的举措，包括与伊朗的战争、未能遏制高物价、以及许多选民认为已经做得太过火的关税和大规模驱逐行动。

相反，他们强调了极左进步派和民主社会主义者的崛起，并将他们的一些立场——包括涉及跨性别者的政策、呼吁削减警察经费以及解散美国移民和海关执法局的努力——归咎于整个民主党。

“不要因为你们在某些政策问题上与我们意见相左，就把国家拱手让给一群疯子，”副总统恳求听众们。“我并不是要求大家在政府的每一项政策上都达成一致；我只是请求你们认识到我们与激进分子之间的区别，并认可过去18个月以来取得的成就。”

总统的长子小唐纳德·特朗普强调了民主社会主义者的崛起，他们赢得了一些众议院初选，大多是在深蓝选区，以及佛罗里达州的民主党参议院提名。

“我们应该直呼其名：共产主义，”小特朗普说道。

美国卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪援引他的家族血统，论证民主党人已经背弃了他的叔叔约翰·F·肯尼迪总统和他的父亲罗伯特·肯尼迪的价值观。

“令我感到悲哀的是，我的父亲和叔叔都不会认得今天的民主党，”他说。

周四晚间被提及最多的民主党人是密歇根州参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德。

他的崛起并不令人意外：民主党能否赢得控制参议院所需的四个席位，部分取决于埃尔-赛义德能否保住即将退休的民主党参议员加里·彼得斯的席位。而共和党人则试图将民主党描绘成过于极端，并将这位激进的进步派人士和对以色列持强烈批评态度的批评者视为他们最喜欢的攻击目标。

共和党人多次将埃尔-赛义德与极左翼 Twitch 主播哈桑·皮克联系起来，后者曾与埃尔-赛义德一起参加竞选活动，包括在密歇根州民主党初选前一天与他一同露面。

皮克是一位亲巴勒斯坦活动人士，也是以色列政府在哈马斯于2023年10月7日发动袭击后轰炸加沙地带最激烈的批评者之一。他曾说过美国“活该遭受9·11袭击”，后来他承认这番言论“不恰当”，并表示他当时是想就美国的外交政策表达一个更细致的观点。随着埃尔-赛义德大选活动的展开，他已与这位主播划清界限。

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/美联社/档案照片

阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德在左翼网红发表有关美国犹太人的言论后，与其划清界限。

在 2001 年 9 月 11 日袭击事件 25 周年纪念日的前一天，共和党演讲者反复提及这些言论，并将埃尔-赛义德与皮克联系起来。

“我从未想过，在9/11事件发生25年后，我会与一个和哈桑·皮克一起竞选的人竞争，而这个人认为美国罪有应得，”埃尔-赛义德的对手，共和党前众议员迈克·罗杰斯说道。

“埃尔-赛义德最大的支持者，一个名叫哈桑·皮克的人，他说，我引用他的原话：‘美国活该遭受9/11袭击。’女士们先生们，我妈妈常说：‘物以类聚，人以群分。’让我告诉你们，哈桑·皮克就是阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德的同伙，”密歇根州众议员丽莎·麦克莱恩说道。

范斯还在讲话中用了几分钟时间谈到了他与埃尔-赛义德之间的持续不和。

副总统上个月在一次演讲中曾表示，他很难回到过去，向他已故的祖父（他称祖父为“爷爷”）解释现在的民主党。在演讲中，万斯还错误地指责身为穆斯林的埃尔-赛义德想要推行伊斯兰教法。

埃尔-赛义德后来在 X 上回应了这番言论，写道：“所以我们认为 JD 会带着乌莎回到过去去见爷爷吗？”他指的是万斯的妻子，乌莎是印度裔美国人，在印度教家庭长大。

周四晚上，Vance 详细描述了双方的争论，并表示“这就是他对我的祖父的看法”。

“阿卜杜勒看着他，看到了他的肤色，看到了他的出身，就断定他永远不可能爱上我的妻子，”万斯说。“阿卜杜勒自己也是由他的白人继祖父母抚养长大的。他非常了解那种家庭纽带，也知道那种纽带在一个家庭中是什么样子，但他仍然选择说，像我祖父那样的人不可能真心实意地爱上像乌莎那样的人。”

埃尔-赛义德周四晚在接受 CNN 记者凯特兰·柯林斯采访时回应了万斯的言论。

“我相信，在美国，我们每个人——我、他的妻子、任何肤色不同或信仰不同的人——都可以像JD和他的爷爷一样，成为真正的美国人，”埃尔-赛义德说。“但他并没有这样说。他喜欢用隐晦的方式表达这些观点，但当你真正指出他的错误时，他却装作绝不会把这些带入我们的政治讨论中，尽管他和他的老板每天都在这样做。”

周四晚，特朗普再次提出了他在周三晚演讲中提出的惊人提议——这一提议主导了大会的新闻报道：如果共和党在 11 月保住众议院和参议院的多数席位，将向每位美国成年人发放 5000 美元。

更值得注意的是，他的副总统一次也没有提到过这个想法。

在大会第二晚的其他共和党演讲者中，也没有人这样做——他们中的大多数人可能在特朗普突然提出这项提议之前就已经准备好了发言稿，而特朗普的提议令他政府的许多官员措手不及。

特朗普的提议引发了诸多争议：民主党人谴责这是公然收买选票的伎俩；经济学家警告称这将导致通货膨胀；周四的采访中，特朗普在是否需要国会批准发放支票的问题上摇摆不定；而且没有人知道特朗普将如何支付这项提议的费用。他声称资金将来自关税收入，但这些收入远远不足以支付发放支票所需的1万亿美元。

“我们之所以能做到这一点，是因为我们国家从未像现在这样繁荣。我们正在获得数万亿美元的收入，”特朗普周四晚间说道，大幅夸大了关税收入。

为期两天的共和党大会大部分时间都在煽动情绪——攻击民主党人，宣传特朗普的标志性成就，旨在激励该党的基本盘，为11月的大选冲刺做好准备。

但纽约州众议员迈克·劳勒（Mike Lawler）的目标却截然不同：他是三位共和党众议员之一，其选区在2024年大选中被前副总统卡马拉·哈里斯（Kamala Harris）赢得。劳勒的目标是独立人士和温和派民主党人。

或者，正如劳勒所说，选民“对左翼社会主义和极端主义的兴起深感担忧，但他们对共和党人也并非完全信服。”

他利用自己与特朗普在公开和私下的分歧来佐证自己的观点。他承认特朗普曾称他为“讨厌鬼”，甚至还惟妙惟肖地模仿了特朗普嘲讽他的样子。

劳勒主张取消居民在联邦所得税申报中可扣除的州和地方税额上限——这对纽约等高收入州来说至关重要。他威胁说，如果这项措施没有被纳入特朗普的《一项宏伟法案》，他将反对该法案。

“事实上，我和总统并非总能达成一致，这没关系。毕竟，我们都是纽约人。我们会争论，会坦诚地表达自己的想法，”劳勒说。“甚至还会爆粗口。”

他说：“我从私下里了解到，如果你愿意阐明你的观点，并为你所信仰的事情而奋斗，特朗普总统就愿意倾听。”

在共和党全国代表大会上，这位共和党候选人罕见地公开承认自己与特朗普之间存在任何分歧，这在当时实属罕见。大多数情况下，演讲者要么对总统大加赞扬，要么避而不谈他，转而攻击今年大选中的民主党对手。

周四是枪手在犹他州一所大学校园举行的“美国转折点”活动中枪杀保守派活动家查理·柯克一周年的日子。

周三晚，特朗普向柯克的遗孀埃里卡·柯克致敬。周四，多位发言者也对柯克表示了哀悼。

“历史将会铭记，你们的父亲是一位伟人，”万斯在给柯克孩子们的慰问信中说道。他称柯克为朋友，并回忆起2024年接受共和党副总统提名后，他在共和党全国代表大会上发表讲话时，柯克曾为他加油鼓劲。

Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

查理·柯克去世一年后，他的组织仍在努力寻找发展方向：“这里存在一个空白”

小特朗普说柯克是他的好朋友，并表示他“已经激励了成千上万的年轻人投身自由事业并为之奋斗”。

包括肯尼迪和前白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特在内的其他发言者也缅怀了柯克。

他共同创立的组织的领导人誓言要继续完成他的使命。

“一年过去了，他的声音不仅没有减弱，反而更加响亮，这本身就是一种奇妙的反抗精神，”美国转折点组织副总裁卢卡斯·迈尔斯在大会上说道。