President Donald Trump capped the first day of his Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention by proposing to pay every U.S. adult a $5,000 “Trump dividend” if his ​party wins November’s congressional elections.

Trump delivered the extraordinary overture during a primetime speech that lasted nearly two hours and firmly placed him at the ‌center of the midterm campaign at a time when his sagging approval ratings could weigh on Republicans’ chances, Reuters reported.

Vice President JD Vance will give the keynote address on Thursday night, though Trump is scheduled to make closing remarks to bring the made-for-television two-day event in Dallas to an end.

With Trump constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, Vance’s speech could serve as an early audition ​for the 2028 presidential election and offer clues about how he would lead a party reshaped by Trump.

It was not immediately clear how the $5,000 payments ​would work or whether they would be legal. The proposal would likely cost more than $1 trillion, with approximately 270 million ⁠U.S. adults, and could require the approval of Congress.

The convention’s focus on Trump – some Republicans have dubbed it “Trumpapalooza” – amounts to a risky bet that he can mobilize ​the voters who carried him to the presidency two years ago, despite opinion polls showing his popularity is at an all-time low.

But it remains to be seen whether ​his campaign-style speech will appeal to the critical swing voters who have drifted away from Trump’s party amid growing dissatisfaction with the cost of living and the war on Iran.

‘PRETEND THAT I’M ON THE BALLOT’

“I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” Trump said, a line that may have pleased Democratic campaign strategists just as much as MAGA voters.

Republican efforts ​got a boost from an unlikely source on Wednesday, when Democratic U.S. Senator John Fetterman appeared in a pretaped video segment introducing his “great friend,” fellow Pennsylvania Senator Dave ​McCormick, a Republican.

Fetterman said he would always “reject the extremes in socialism,” a comment that is likely to bolster Republican attacks on Democrats as too left-wing. Fetterman, who has increasingly broken ‌with his ⁠fellow Democrats, has nevertheless rejected speculation that he might leave the party.

Some vulnerable Republicans in tough races, perhaps mindful of tying themselves too closely to the unpopular Trump, elected to skip the affair, including Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Senator Susan Collins of Maine.

DEMOCRATS PORTRAYED AS ‘SOCIALISTS’ AND ‘COMMUNISTS’

While Republican officials had described the convention as an opportunity to tout Trump’s policies, most speakers focused on attacking Democrats as extreme on topics such as transgender women in sports and border security – political red meat ​for core Trump supporters.

Alabama state Representative Ernie ​Yarbrough, a convention attendee, said Trump ⁠needs to give voters a clearer sense of how long the war in Iran could last.

“People want to feel like we’re not getting stuck in an endless cycle,” he said.

Trump defended his decision to attack Iran, saying he acted to prevent ​Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. He also promised that oil prices would drop “as soon as we win the ​war with Iran,” which ⁠he vowed would happen soon.

But the conflict shows little sign of ending more than six months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, and analysts have said Iran’s nuclear program has not been eliminated. Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon.

Before Trump took the stage, a parade of speakers called Democrats “socialists” and “communists,” echoing one of Trump’s favorite ⁠attack lines. ​Democrats are “dangerous, radical and weird,” said Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chairman of the ​party’s Senate campaign arm.

The stakes are high for both parties. With the elections less than two months away, Republicans face the prospect of losing control of at least one chamber of Congress, with public ​polling showing Democrats more motivated to vote and Trump’s approval ratings deeply underwater.

The United States on Tuesday issued 36 Iran-related sanctions targeting the country’s aviation sector and other companies as part of a broad ​push to escalate economic pressure on Tehran as the war in the Middle East has moved into a seventh month, Reuters reported.

The U.S. Treasury ‌Department said the action was aimed at grounding Iran’s Mahan Air, which was already sanctioned by the U.S. and the European Union, and expanding sanctions to all other Iranian airlines. The sanctions also took aim at covert front companies, cargo handlers, foreign intermediaries and deceptive trans-shipment routes that Washington says Iran relies on to obtain U.S.-origin aircraft and sensitive technology.

The Treasury instructed financial institutions to report any procurement networks ​supporting Iran’s aviation industry, while designating firms in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Kazakhstan that it said had helped Iran’s airlines operate and Tehran ​acquire U.S.-origin aircraft and sensitive technology.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also suspended three Iran-related aviation authorizations that allowed overflights and permitted ⁠non-U.S. airlines to fly U.S.-origin or U.S.-controlled commercial aircraft into Iran.

Miad Maleki, a former senior Treasury official and fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, ​said the suspension would hit air traffic from Dubai, Doha and Istanbul, shutting Tehran’s main gateways to regional trade and finance. OFAC’s action also closes previous ​carve-outs that allowed transport of safety parts, fuel and emergency repairs, he said.

Tuesday’s actions marked a sharp escalation of the Trump administration’s renewed push to squeeze Iran’s economy and pressure Tehran to loosen its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. A U.S. naval blockade and tougher sanctions are curbing Iran’s oil exports, restricting access to foreign currency and exposing growing strains in the economy.

Treasury ​said any foreign firm or individual aiding Iranian airlines through aircraft transfers, cargo services or general sales agent support would face serious consequences.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week warned that airlines were possible sanctions targets along with digital assets and the maritime industry.

”Under Operation Economic Outcast, we promised severe consequences for ‌those providing ⁠financial lifelines to the Iranian regime,” Bessent said in a statement on Tuesday. “Let this be a warning to anyone doing business with Iran’s remaining airlines, all of which we sanctioned today: You are at risk of being cut off from the global financial system.”

On Tuesday, Treasury designated 27 Iranian airlines, as well as several firms based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for helping Mahan Air secure at least three Boeing B-777 aircraft this summer that had been retired ​elsewhere, read the report.

It hit UAE-based Egyptian citizen Ibrahim ​Ali Mohamed Mohamed Mahran, the chief ⁠executive of ECT Aviation Support, as well as the British unit of the firm.

OFAC also imposed sanctions on two firms based in Turkey and Malaysia that it said had serviced Mahan Air’s international flights and coordinated cargo shipments.

The U.S. ​Treasury has repeatedly targeted global networks supporting Mahan Air. In July, Treasury designated six entities and individuals in China, ​India, Russia and Iran, ⁠including several firms that act as sales agents for the airline. Washington first sanctioned Mahan in 2011 over support it provided to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on a China-based company it accused of acting on behalf of Mahan Air.

Brett Erickson, managing principal of Obsidian Risk Advisors, said the latest moves ⁠were significant.

“The ​United States is using sanctions to effectively blockade Iran’s aviation sector from the rest of the ​world,” he said. “That represents a major expansion of the economic war, with foreseeable consequences for civilian travel, commerce, supply chains and Iran’s ability to sustain their strained economy.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to unveil on Monday a ​boost in EU investments in Greenland and closer political ties with the Danish Arctic territory, which Donald Trump ‌has insisted should belong to the United States, Reuters reported.

Von der Leyen arrived in Greenland on Sunday for a two-day visit serving as a show of support for the governments of Greenland and Denmark, which have strongly rebuffed Trump’s campaign to annex the world’s largest island.

The head of the 27-nation European ​Union’s executive body, von der Leyen is expected to unveil plans to invest in sectors including critical minerals, satellite ​communications and renewable energy in Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of the Danish realm.

On Sunday in Nuuk, ⁠the capital, von der Leyen said the package would be “substantial” but gave no details. Greenland Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen said his ​country wanted to build on its “close friendship and good partnership” with the EU.

Von der Leyen’s visit reflects the increasing geopolitical importance ​of the Arctic to major powers, such as the United States, Russia, China and Europe, as melting ice opens new shipping routes to make the region’s mineral wealth more accessible.

“Greenland’s stunning landscapes and natural beauty will stay with me for a long time. But so will the ​visible scars of climate change on the ice sheet,” von der Leyen posted on X after a boat trip under ​clear blue skies in a fjord scattered with chunks of ice.

“As the ice melts, a new reality is taking shape.”

Trump, the U.S. president, sparked a crisis in U.S.-European ties and turmoil within the transatlantic NATO military alliance this year when he stepped up his demands for the U.S. to control Greenland, arguing that fellow NATO member Denmark could not defend it.

European officials stressed Greenland is part of NATO territory, meaning it is covered by the alliance’s mutual defence pact, and that ​the U.S. already has the ​right to increase its military ⁠presence there under a longstanding treaty.

Tensions lowered after Trump and NATO boss Mark Rutte agreed in Davos in January that the United States, Denmark and Greenland would begin talks to resolve ​their differences and NATO would step up its role in Arctic security, read the report.

However, the trilateral talks ​have yet to ⁠yield an agreement and, at a NATO summit in Turkey in July, Trump restated his insistence that the U.S. should control Greenland.

While Denmark is a member of the EU, Greenland left the bloc in 1985. But its people, as Danish citizens, are also citizens ⁠of the ​EU.

The EU has long provided funding to Greenland, mainly to pay for ​fishing rights and support its education system. The package to be announced by von der Leyen will represent not only a big increase in funding but ​a broadening of the sectors that will receive EU cash, according to EU officials.