Donald Trump pushed supporters to participate in the 2026 midterm elections during the Republican gathering in Dallas, where he led the crowd through a mock Pledge of Allegiance focused on voting.
The president encouraged attendees to repeat a pledge promising to cast ballots on November 3. He later joked that supporters would “go to hell” if they stayed home.
Donald Trump leads MAGA crowd in mock Pledge of Allegiance at GOP convention
Trump, 80, addressed the Republican midterm convention on September 10 and asked the audience to raise their right hands.
“Please raise your right hand,” Trump said. “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much he can’t even breathe.”
He then urged the MAGA crowd to bring relatives and friends to the polls, as reported by NBC News.
“That I will go out with my family, my friends. I’ll do it anyway,” Trump continued.
Trump also repeated his unsubstantiated claim that Democrats cheat in elections while delivering the mock oath.
“I don’t care if I am registered or not, I am going to cheat like hell like they do. There have never been bigger cheaters,” he said.
The president later returned to his main message and urged supporters to vote either on November 3 or before Election Day.
When Trump mentioned that attendees remained free to vote for Democrats, the crowd responded with boos.
“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],” he said.
Trump then invoked religion while stressing the importance of turnout.
“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, so please go and vote,” he said.
Trump delivered the speech on the second day of the GOP convention.
Vice President JD Vance had spoken earlier and focused on the upcoming elections. Members of the crowd also chanted “48,” signaling support for Vance as a potential successor to Trump in 2028. Reuters reported that the chants fueled speculation about Vance’s potential 2028 presidential bid, although he did not directly address the possibility.
Vance pushed that discussion aside and kept his attention on the Trump midterms effort.
“We’ve got to take care of business this November, then we’ll worry about what comes next,” he said.
