With Republican Convention, Trump Hopes to Pull His Party Out of a Tailspin

Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. No one asked for it. Not the Republicans struggling to campaign amid a war against Iran that seems to have no offramp. Not the voters who can’t understand why energy costs are through the roof and trips to grocery stores feel like extortion. Not the business owners who can’t forecast quarter-to-quarter outlays because tariff policy seems as capricious as the weather. Yet here we are, about to start an unsolicited Republican Convention for the midterms, programmed around President Donald Trump, whose polling is in the gutter and who many of his party’s leaders view as nothing short of an annoyance. The spectacle is set to start Wednesday in Dallas, where the cheap seats start at $25,000. The GOP has a total of 12 hours of programming scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday nights—the vast majority of it set to be speeches by Republican candidates and incumbents about what’s at stake in these upcoming elections. Almost every aspect of the convention has been designed by Trump. The first night will end with a keynote address from Trump. The following night is to conclude with Vice President J.D. Vance’s address—and...