Trump makes convention audience swear pledge of allegiance to vote Republican – or go to hell

Donald Trump rounded out the final night of his two-day Republican midterm convention in Dallas by leading his audience in a mock version of the Pledge of Allegiance in which he made his followers promise to vote for his allies in the upcoming elections.

The president urged his followers to raise their right hand, as if they were swearing an oath of public service, before directing them to repeat: “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much he can’t even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends. I’ll do it anyway– I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try and cheat like hell, like they do.”

The bizarre pledge continued a moment later, after Trump acknowledged some of his fans in the front row.

“So we swear that on November 3rd we are going to go out and vote. And you know what? If you want, you can vote Democrat, but I don’t think there’s one person in this room that’s going to vote [for them],” Trump continued.

He finished with a threat: “You know what happens if you don’t vote? You go to hell, you know that? Okay? You go to hell, and I don’t want that to happen to you.”

The spectacle concluded a meandering address that was comparatively shorter than the marathon speech Trump gave to end night one of the two-day gathering in Dallas, but still managed to be long enough to cast a shadow on the address given moments earlier by JD Vance, his vice president, who’d earlier given an impassioned memorial to conservative activist Charlie Kirk and urged Republican voters who were wavering from the president’s side to keep the faith.

Trump’s address was less focused and was typical of his second-term addresses to the media and his supporters. Unable to stay on any one topic, the president often follows a pattern in his public remarks that hits every issue in the headlines, and some that aren’t — which he semi-jokingly calls “the Weave”.

As his remarks finished on Thursday, opera music blared in the Dallas convention hall while balloons dropped from the ceiling and the president’s supporters clapped and waved. An announcer urged attendees to get home safely.

The end of the convention in Dallas marks the beginning of the end for the 2026 campaign season. With primaries out of the way and just two months left until the midterm elections, the president’s approval rating is registering in the mid to low thirties as Republican candidates struggle in key races around the country and battlegrounds in red-purple states like Texas become more favorable ground by the day for their Democratic opponents.

In Texas, Ken Paxton was a guest for the second night of the convention after delivering his address to the crowd Wednesday evening. Trump’s abbreviated address closing out the ceremonies still managed to hit Paxton for his appearance, as the president had done to greater lengths the night before in a sign that the president recognized the jab’s potential to get laughs from his audience.

Paxton sat next to Michael Whatley during the proceedings Thursday evening. Whatley, the GOP nominee for Senate in North Carolina, was trailing his Democratic opponent by double digits in an Elon University/YouGov poll released Thursday that signals an easy Senate seat pickup opportunity for Democrats this fall.