DALLAS — The Republican Party’s “Trump-a-palooza” midterm convention in Texas concluded on Thursday night with the president of the United States playing a meme video about how “God gave us” Donald Trump and then leading the crowd in swearing a loyalty pledge to him, adding that they’d “go to Hell” for violating it. The crowd absolutely gobbled up the cultish Dear Leader performance artistry, and the president basked in the glow of a two-day party he threw for himself to feed his mammoth ego, not to aid his party in the high-stakes 2026 midterm elections.
But by nightfall on Thursday, members of Team Trump started feeling the gnaw of reality, rather than the good vibes that Trump and his party were trying to present to the public. After Trump’s Thursday speech wrapped, several administration officials, Trump advisers, and other longtime associates of the president’s – including some who were in Dallas for the GOP convention – privately relayed to Zeteo their concerns that Trump’s Iran war was further spiraling out of control.
Several of the sources said it was a terrible split-screen to have President Trump throwing a two-day, Trump-worshipping bash for himself in Dallas – where he defended launching his failed war in Iran, and dismissed voters’ complaints about higher gas prices – at the same time that the Iranian government and its allies were mounting a startling new level of attacks and operations in the regional war that Trump recklessly started.
“It looks bad, I am willing to admit it,” a Trump adviser told Zeteo late on Thursday.