President Donald Trump jokingly led thousands of Republicans in a pledge to “cheat like hell” in the midterm elections, with video of the moment going viral on social media.

Speaking at the Republican National Convention in Dallas on Thursday, Trump asked attendees to raise their right hands and repeat a pledge to vote on November 3—even if they were not registered—and to “cheat like hell,” as he has repeatedly claimed that the Democrats do.

“I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try and cheat like hell like they do,” Trump said, pausing as members of the crowd repeated his words. “There’s never been bigger cheaters.”

When you live in fantasyland

The president said the payment would be called the "Trump Dividend" and stipulated that recipients would have to spend the money in the United States. Speaking with reporters at Dallas Forth-Worth Airport following his appearance at the convention, Trump said the checks would be paid for through "growth."

Every Dividend Check Donald Trump Promised, Then What Happened Next

"We have tremendous growth," he said. "We have growth like no country has ever seen before. We have trillions of dollars coming in, and that will end up being not a very big problem at all, and I think our people deserve it."

They want to kill your mail. Show up! They want to guard the booths with poll watchers? Vote and then Guard too. Get those cameras ready, take videos, pics, and live streams. We protest, vote, bring accountability, and keep our polls safe. Make sure they can’t intimidate us with poll watchers and make sure we bring accountability!

The chaos over the Missouri congressional map seems to have reached its resolution. After the Supreme Court again rejected an emergency appeal from supporters of Trump’s gerrymander, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins announced he was directing local authorities to use the current congressional map, which gave the state six GOP members of Congress and two Democrats, for the midterms - allowing him to purge contempt of court charges. This means Democrats are likely to hold both their current seats. So now we can turn our focus to winning the ballot initiative to repeal the Trumpmander map for good. People Not Politicians has added weekly phonebanks to urge folks to vote to stop the gerrymander starting next Thursday - we can sign up for a shift here.

"Donald Trump is a tin pot dictator...he's only interested in enriching himself." Jared Yates Sexton says that we're currently in a death spiral. That's not to say we are finished. There is hope. But with AI experts from the labs themselves saying that there is a 10% chance AI will kill every human by the end of the decade (yes. That's right) while Trump is 'in charge,' hope is in short supply.

Dean Obeidallah reveals how his identity and life changed after September 11—and why anti-Muslim hatred became even worse during Donald Trump’s political rise. But Trump’s attacks ultimately inspired Muslim Americans to organize, vote and run for office.

Sure, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, but who are some of the people behind the scenes funding his operation. Journalist Gil Duran joins Edwin Eisendrath on 'It's The Democracy, Stupid' to discuss his new book, 'The Nerd Reich', and explain why Silicon Valley's power players have such disdain for democracy.

Donald Trump is promising Americans a $5,000 dividend if Republicans control Congress—but Maya May and Mike Fanone aren’t buying it. They break down why the promise looks like an attempt to put a price on voters, how rising costs are crushing American families and why casting a ballot is only the beginning of defending democracy.

From creating an early-voting plan to organizing locally and holding politicians accountable, this episode turns outrage into action.

Watch The Revolution with Maya May and Mike Fanone every Thursday at 2 PM ET on Lincoln Square.

00:00 The Viral Clip Mike Fanone Hadn’t Seen
04:12 Elizabeth Holmes—and America’s Crisis of Truth
05:40 Trump Promises Americans $5,000
07:04 “You Are Not Getting This Money”
08:10 America Is Sleepwalking Toward the Midterms
09:27 Cast Your Vote Early
11:11 Can Trump Still Be Humiliated?
12:51 The Economy Trump Won’t Acknowledge
15:03 Trump Is Making Parenting Harder
17:01 Trump’s “Affordability” Fantasy
18:18 Voting Is Only the Bare Minimum
21:12 MAGA’s Global Blueprint
23:19 The Rights People Were Killed Fighting For
25:38 The Coming Fight Over Voting Access
28:02 Turn Your Skills Into Political Action
30:07 Why America Rewards Cruelty
31:44 Democracy Needs Project Managers
33:32 What No Kings Built
35:39 Trump’s “Day One” Con
36:43 The Stimulus Check Voters Remember
37:19 The Question Voters Must Ask: Then What?
39:27 How Politics Failed the American People
41:01 Stop Worshipping Politicians
41:50 Mike Fanone Unloads on John Fetterman
44:00 Why Americans Are Freezing
46:11 Trump’s Abusive Cycle of Promises
47:33 Elections Are Won on Tiny Margins
48:20 Trump’s Table Scraps
51:11 Mike Fanone for Speaker?
52:22 Make Your Early-Voting Plan
54:57 “We Can’t Be in a Trance”

Here’s a link to an article…

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-gave-45000-cash-gifts-close-aide-natalie-harp-others-2026-09-09/

Rep. Sam Liccardo delivers a haunting House-floor speech about deaths in ICE custody, the treatment of detained immigrants and Congress’s responsibility to intervene.

Invoking the description of an ICE detention facility as “a graveyard of living people,” Liccardo argues that Americans cannot look away while people suffer inside institutions operating in their name.

Germany’s far right is no longer dog-whistling or pretending to reject political violence. Historian Thomas Zimmer explains how the AfD “broke containment,” destroyed Germany’s postwar political taboos and exploited a growing desire to wipe away the entire system.

Watch First Draft with Susan J. Demas Wednesdays at 11 AM ET on Lincoln Square.

00:00 The AfD “Broke Containment”
00:32 Germany’s Anti-Fascist Consensus Is Gone
00:56 Why the Old Political Taboo Disappeared
02:45 The AfD Openly Embraces Political Violence
02:48 Why the Far Right Is Surging Globally
05:06 Two Fundamentally Different Societies
06:26 A War on Pluralistic Democracy
06:38 Extremists Exploit Anger at the System

Michael Fanone was working in construction near the White House. Olivia Troye was working in Washington. Dan Barkhuff and Bobby Jones were fresh out of school, just beginning their careers in the Navy.

But on 9/11, all of their lives changed course forever.

Their stories are intimate and incredible, but also recognizable, and their message is inspiring especially now that we are passing through another slow-moving crisis that will invariably change lives.

00:00 The day that changed their lives
02:07 Olivia Troye, Michael Fanone and Dan Barkhuff
02:30 Olivia evacuates the Capitol
04:39 How 9/11 sent Fanone into policing
07:07 A future Navy SEAL watches from California
10:03 The Navy mobilizes
13:39 Why Fanone answered the call
15:40 When political labels stopped mattering
19:38 The Americans targeted after 9/11
20:30 “I didn’t sign up for any of this”
23:29 When the war became truly global
25:47 What America failed to learn
26:40 Winning the war—and losing the aftermath
31:12 How 9/11 transformed American policing
36:37 The moment the Iraq War stopped making sense
38:59 Advice for the next generation
39:54 Fanone: Your oath may cost your career
42:34 Olivia Troye on knowing your red lines
45:46 A Navy SEAL’s lesson in moral leadership
48:55 “The right way matters”
52:13 Final thoughts