What Did They Say?

Sep 13, 2026· Updated

Trump Closes the Republican Midterm Convention by Having Thousands Raise Their Right Hands and Swear an Oath to Him — "I Pledge to the Greatest President in the History of the United States … I Don't Care if I'm Registered or Not, I'm Going to Try and Cheat Like Hell Like They Do"

Closing the first Republican midterm convention in modern history at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on the night of Sept. 10, 2026, President Trump asked the crowd to raise their right hands and repeat after him. What they repeated was not the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag but a pledge to Trump personally — "I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States. That loves us so much he can't even breathe" — followed by a vow to vote on Nov. 3 "any way — I don't care if I'm registered or not," and the line "I'm going to try to cheat like hell like they do." The crowd laughed, repeated it, and finished with "So help me God." Trump framed the cheating line as a jab at Democrats, whom he baselessly called the biggest cheaters in American elections. Earlier in the same passage he told the room, "You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell, you know that." Voting when not registered is a federal crime, and the pledge came a night after Trump promised every adult citizen a $5,000 "dividend" if Republicans hold the House and Senate — a promise Democrats had already called a bribe. California Gov. Gavin Newsom answered that Trump "just replaced the Pledge of Allegiance with a pledge of allegiance to himself." Congress was out of session for the 9/11 anniversary weekend, and as of Sept. 12 no Republican member of Congress had publicly defended or criticized the pledge on the record.

“I pledge my allegiance to my constituents, which I always have. … The truth is that the president and I don't always agree. And that's OK.”
Michael Lawler (R-NY) · Sep 13, 2026

Republican Midterm Convention

2026 Midterms

Election Integrity

4 statements

Sep 11, 2026

Three Days Before the 25th Anniversary, Trump Tells a Room of 9/11 First Responders That Two Firemen "Literally Lifted Me Up" and Carried Him From a Creaking Building Near Ground Zero — a Veteran of the Wars That Followed Answers That "This Solemn Day Is Not About Trump"

At a Sept. 8, 2026 ceremony on the White House Ellipse honoring 9/11 emergency responders, President Trump described his own role in the aftermath of the attacks. He said he had sent a construction crew to the site — "I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened" — and that when the U.S. Steel Building, now One Liberty Plaza, began to give way, two firefighters carried him out: "They grab me under the arms. They literally lifted me up … They lifted me up and they started running with me." Fact-checkers at CNN, PolitiFact, PBS, Snopes and Newsweek could find no evidence for either claim. Trump was four miles uptown at Trump Tower on the morning of the attacks — he phoned WWOR-TV that day and said "I have a window that looks directly at the World Trade Center" — and no firefighter has ever come forward to corroborate the rescue. CNN's Daniel Dale wrote that when he asked the White House for evidence, "the White House provided none." John Feal, who supervised demolition at Ground Zero beginning Sept. 12, 2001 and later founded the FealGood Foundation, told Snopes he saw no sign of hundreds of Trump-hired workers at the site. The reaction split along familiar lines but with an unusual wrinkle: Trump skipped the New York commemoration entirely — reportedly because the ceremony does not let politicians speak — and Vice President JD Vance represented the administration at Ground Zero, where all four living former presidents appeared together. Sen. Ted Cruz defended the account on CNN, saying "the man is a New Yorker, he loves New York." Rep. Jason Crow, an Army veteran of the wars that followed the attacks, called Trump "a small and sick man." The White House answered the fact-checks by attacking the press, and Trump himself posted a defense on Truth Social conceding he was there "obviously not on the same day as the collapse."

“Our president is a small and sick man to make a day of remembrance and service about himself. This solemn day is not about Trump. It never was, and it never will be.”
Jason Crow (D-CO) · Sep 11, 2026

9/11

25th Anniversary

Ground Zero

6 statements

Stories

Trump Closes the Republican Midterm Convention by Having Thousands Raise Their Right Hands and Swear an Oath to Him — "I Pledge to the Greatest President in the History of the United States … I Don't Care if I'm Registered or Not, I'm Going to Try and Cheat Like Hell Like They Do"

Three Days Before the 25th Anniversary, Trump Tells a Room of 9/11 First Responders That Two Firemen "Literally Lifted Me Up" and Carried Him From a Creaking Building Near Ground Zero — a Veteran of the Wars That Followed Answers That "This Solemn Day Is Not About Trump"