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.”