President Donald Trump may be facing the weakest national approval numbers of his political career, with support sinking to 33 percent, but inside the Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention in Dallas, loyalists were projecting confidence rather than concern.
Across the two-day Republican gathering, the atmosphere was unmistakably pro-Trump. Attendees largely dismissed worries about his economic record and the continuing war with Iran, arguing that criticism of the president has done little to shake their support.
Many conventiongoers went further, saying Trump’s role in the midterm campaign could be exactly what Republicans need to avoid a painful defeat in November.
“If you don’t get behind Trump, you’re gone,” said Nick Passino, a Trump supporter at the Dallas convention. “We just need unity from the party and everybody else to get behind Trump,” he added.
Whether Republican candidates in competitive races will openly align themselves with Trump remains an open question. In key battleground contests, embracing the president too tightly could carry serious political risk.
An August Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump’s approval rating dropping to 33 percent, as public frustration over both the Iran conflict and the state of the economy dragged down his standing with voters nationwide.
The same survey found that just 20 percent of Americans believed the war with Iran had been worth it, while 80 percent expected the conflict to drag on.
Still, within the insulated world of a partisan Republican convention, Trump’s supporters showed little sign of backing away.
On whether Trump should spend more time campaigning for Republicans, there was little disagreement
Trump has publicly said he expects the conflict to end immediately after the November midterms. But attendees at the convention largely rejected the idea that Trump had failed to be candid about the war
A recent AARP poll put Talarico four points ahead of Paxton, while an Overton Insights survey found the two candidates tied at 50 percent each when leaners were included and Talarico ahead 44 percent to Paxton’s 43.4 percent without leaners
Vice President JD Vance was the keynote speaker on night two of the convention
A protestor interrupted Vance’s speech pulling out a Mexican flag first, then the Palestinian flag. The flags were pulled out of his pocket and then thrown at the crowd
The starkest test of that faith is unfolding with Republican Ken Paxton trailing Democrat James Talarico.
A new AARP poll conducted by Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio’s firm, Fabrizio Ward, has Talarico leading Paxton 48 percent to 44 percent.
Fabrizio has served as President Donald Trump’s pollster — meaning the warning is not coming from a Democratic polling outfit, but from one of Trump’s own longtime Republican pollsters.
The warning signs extend beyond Texas.
Vice President JD Vance is heading to Kansas, while the Club for Growth is spending in Nebraska — moves that underscore how Republicans are being forced to put resources into states that would ordinarily be considered comfortably in the GOP column.
And Trump himself has been mocked over his offer of $5,000 stipends to Americans if Republicans retain control of Congress.
Democratic Representative Ted Lieu also mocked it, joking that if Democrats won both chambers, everyone would get a $10,000 dividend, ‘and a pony, and free ice cream for life.’
Inside the convention, it’s not even a thought of a possibility.
‘I’m not too terribly concerned about the polling,’ said Michael Walton, of Dallas. ‘I think Paxton is a conservative warrior, and Texas knows that.’ Talarico, he added, ‘is a fraud and a phony.’
Actor John Schneider was blunter about the numbers: ‘I’m one of those people that don’t believe the polls unless they’re in my favor.’
Karen Love, also of Dallas, conceded the figures were concerning, then dismissed them — polls, she said, ‘are not correct so often.’
Denise Hopkins, of Louisiana, went further. ‘It’s not time to worry. It’s time to pray up. Speak up. Stand up,’ she said. ‘There’s no perfect human. Like the saying is that President Trump is not a perfect man, but he’s a perfect man for the job.’
The same conviction is conveyed on Iran.
Trump’s own advisers, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have privately warned him the conflict could grind on to the end of his presidency in 2029, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Trump has told the public it will end immediately after November’s midterms.
Attendees were untroubled by the gap.
Love said Trump had been transparent, though the war was ‘lasting longer than I would have liked to see.’ Asked if America was right to go in: ‘Yeah, it probably had to happen.’
Walton had no hesitation. ‘I think the war was completely necessary,’ he said. ‘I think we’re going to end up winning it… when something’s completely necessary, that’s the bottom line.’
Schneider declined to second-guess the commander in chief at all. ‘That’s President Trump’s business. That’s not my business,’ he said. ‘There’s no good way to do a bad thing. We need to just get it over with.’
Passino put it plainest: ‘We trust the process and what Donald Trump wants to do.’
Hopkins said the US was ‘absolutely 100 percent right’ to act, pointing to Iran’s long history of confrontation with America.
And on the one question that has Republican strategists nervous — whether a president underwater in the polls should be out on the trail at all — the hall wanted more of him, not less.
‘I think it’s a help,’ Hopkins said. ‘He’s got courage. Courage is contagious.’
‘I hope it helps a lot,’ said Roy Parker, of Carrollton. Trump, he added, is ‘the most open’ — ‘answers any question all the time.’
‘Oh, it’s always helped him,’ Walton said. ‘Everybody likes him.’
Schneider left no room for argument. ‘People who think that Donald Trump is not the face of the Republican Party are delusional.’
