Trump Makes His Closing Argument: ‘Pretend I’m on the Ballot’

The nation is counting the days until the midterm election decides the fate of President Trump’s final two years in office, so the president is using them to make his closing argument, urging voters on the fence to treat the midterms as a referendum on his own leadership even though his name is not on the ballot.The president attended his 28th campaign rally on Tuesday at Corpus Christi, Texas, after appearing at another event earlier in the day at Lubbock, Texas. Two more are scheduled on Wednesday at Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Chillicothe, Ohio. At Corpus Christi, the president urged the crowd to maintain the same enthusiasm that catapulted him to a second term in 2024. “Now I want you to pretend I’m on the ballot,” Mr. Trump said, noting that Republican turnout historically surges when he is a candidate. He pointed to his 2024 performance in Texas, where he said Republicans won “by 18 or 19 points,” and argued that similar enthusiasm could deliver a landslide for candidates such as Texas Senate hopeful Ken Paxton. Mr. Paxton, the state’s attorney general, is facing an uphill battle against a Democratic state Representative, James Talarico. Mr. Talarico’s victory would be the first time Texas has sent a Democratic senator to Washington since the appointment of Bob Krueger in January 1993, when President Clinton tapped Senator Lloyd Bentsen to be his treasury secretary. Mr. Krueger was defeated in a special election in June of that year.Mr. Trump framed the stakes of the election in stark terms, telling the audience the race comes down to two paths. “The choice in this election is very simple. You can vote for the radical left — Democrat, Communist — to loot your wealth, raise your taxes by $5 trillion, annihilate your borders, decimate Texas oil and gas, mutilate your children, and give 25 million illegal aliens amnesty and the right to vote,” he said. “Or you can defeat the Democrat communists and vote for more money in your pockets, bigger paychecks for your families, lower taxes, less crime, a booming Texas economy, no amnesty for illegal aliens, but you must vote Republican.”The president leaned heavily on economic arguments, pointing to Tuesday’s reported jump in the Consumer Confidence Index of 7.5 percent in October, 10 points higher than the consensus forecast, and attributed in part to improved perceptions of America’s current and expected business climate and a decline in gas prices. Nationwide, a gallon of gas has dropped more than 20 cents a gallon in the last month, the motor club AAA reported Tuesday. The president also touted the tax package he signed earlier this year for increasing take-home pay and a 3.9 percent drop in prescription drug costs as of August, a reported decline every month this year. The president said those savings are reason enough to vote Republican. “With our Republican Congress, I signed a great, big, beautiful bill delivering the largest tax cuts in American history, including no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our great seniors,” he said. While not directly offering to buy votes, the president also made an attractive financial pitch, pledging a payout tied to tariff revenue if Republicans hold Congress and warning of “a 1929-style economic depression” if Democrats undo his global tax strategy. “You’re going to get $5,000 if we win,” Mr. Trump said, adding that married couples would receive $10,000. The money will come from “massive amounts of money through tariffs and record-setting economic success.” He also joked that people should not spend that money at his Mar-a-Lago members-only resort because the “most you’ll be able to buy is a hamburger and a small dessert.” “Don’t go there if you’re price conscious,” he shrugged.Immigration also served as a central theme in the president’s remarks delivered to rallygoers in the southern border state. Mr. Trump credited his administration’s border policies with a sharp drop in illegal crossings. The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection last week reported a 95 percent drop in southwest border apprehensions in fiscal year 2026 compared to the Biden administration and a reported zero releases throughout 17 months in office. Total nationwide encounters in the fiscal year that ended on September 30 were the lowest in agency history at 379,243, DHS reported.Adding an emotional side to the argument, at the president’s side for part of the speech was the mother of a 12-year-old girl, Jocelyn Nungaray, who was killed in Houston in 2024, allegedly at the hands of two Venezuelan nationals who entered the country illegally. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank President Trump for keeping my daughter Jocelyn Nungari’s name alive,” Alexis Nungaray told the crowd, “and proving that her death was not just a number.”With nationwide polls suggesting that Republicans are going to take a bath on Election Day, the Trump administration is pulling out all the stops to increase voter enthusiasm, which analysts say is the key to success at the ballot box. Early and mail-in voting so far suggest Democrats are more enthusiastic and are turning out to vote in higher numbers than Republicans. The GOP hopes to close that deficit in the final week before the November 3 Election Day but has so far yet to prove it can wrangle ambivalent GOP and independent voters.The Corpus Christi rally came the same day Mr. Vance appeared at a separate campaign stop in Howell, Michigan, where he leveled his own sharp attacks on Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Speaking to reporters on the tarmac ahead of a rally, Mr. Vance accused the Democrat, who is marginally ahead of his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, in polls, of “explicitly anti-white racial hatred.” He argued voters should reject his candidacy outright. “Abdul El-Sayed, who may be more than any Democrat running in the nation, has engaged in the kind of explicitly anti-white racial hatred,” Mr. Vance said, adding that Republicans stand “for everybody, whether you’re black or white.”Mr. Vance contrasted Dr. El-Sayed against Mr. Rogers, whom he called “fundamentally a decent guy” and the kind of public servant voters should send to Washington. Dr. El-Sayed, a former Michigan public health official who could become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, has rejected accusations that he holds anti-American or racially tinged views.Despite the sometimes combative rhetoric, Mr. Trump closed on a note of national pride, telling supporters the country had turned a corner after years of decline. “America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it,” he said, pledging that a Republican sweep would bring new levels of prosperity. “We will make America powerful again, wealthy again, healthy again, strong again, proud again, safe again, and most importantly, we will make America great again.”

Trump Makes His Closing Argument: ‘Pretend I’m on the Ballot’

Trump Makes His Closing Argument: ‘Pretend I’m on the Ballot’

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