{"id":223730,"date":"2026-09-10T18:03:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/vance-appears-to-walk-back-trumps-offer-of-5000-dividend-if-republicans-win-midterms-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T18:03:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:03:39","slug":"vance-appears-to-walk-back-trumps-offer-of-5000-dividend-if-republicans-win-midterms-us-politics-live-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/vance-appears-to-walk-back-trumps-offer-of-5000-dividend-if-republicans-win-midterms-us-politics-live-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Vance appears to walk back Trump\u2019s offer of $5,000 \u2018dividend\u2019 if Republicans win midterms \u2013 US politics live – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Court\u2019s decision to block federal judge\u2019s ruling likely to prevent GOP\u2019s attempts to extract additional Republican-leaning seat
US supreme court again rejects Missouri congressional maps redrawn to benefit Republicans in midterms<\/a>
Sign up for the US Breaking News email<\/a>
The Supreme Court has blocked a federal judge\u2019s ruling that would\u2019ve restored Republican-drawn congressional districts in Missouri.
The decision, issued by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, appeared to sound a death knell for efforts by the Missouri GOP to extract an additional Republican-leaning congressional seat for their party ahead of the midterm elections.
The latest decision is the second time the nation\u2019s highest court has weighed in on the matter in the last several days. It follows a winding legal saga that has seen the exact boundaries of Missouri\u2019s congressional districts for the 2026 election kept in protracted limbo, with election day less than two months out.
The legal back-and-forth began last September, when Missouri Republicans<\/a> redrew their state\u2019s electoral maps to carve up a Democrat-controlled district around Kansas City, likely securing them one more of the state\u2019s eight House seats. The decision came as President Trump urged Republican state leaders to gerrymander their congressional districts to help their party retain control of Congress, a move that prompted a retaliatory redistricting blitz by Democrats.
Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the new maps weren\u2019t valid until they were put to a public referendum. That meant the state\u2019s congressional districts would revert to their 2022 borders ahead of the midterms. Missouri leaders appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which left the lower court\u2019s ruling in place.
A federal judge in St. Louis, presiding over a different case, issued a conflicting ruling soon after, ordering the state to return to the Republican-favored maps. It was that ruling Kavanaugh blocked today, in a brief decision with no noted dissents.
Republican leaders in Missouri have argued that requiring the state to shift back to its earlier district boundaries so close to November could throw the state\u2019s elections into chaos. The state held its primaries using the new, GOP-leaning maps, meaning that candidates have won party nominations to represent districts that may no longer exist.
A US appeals court has rejected Donald Trump\u2019s bid to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting, dealing a fresh blow to the president\u2019s attempted crackdown.
The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals three-judge panel declined to \u2060put on hold an \u2060injunction issued by a \u200blower court judge last week, preventing the US Postal Service<\/a> from tightening rules around postal voting.
The decision comes as the Supreme Court considers the same case and states have already started sending out ballots for the high-stakes midterm elections.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel<\/strong> said the Federal Communications Commission<\/strong> (FCC) \u201cthreatened\u201d the show and that an interview with James Talarico<\/strong>, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, will not air on television but on YouTube.<\/strong>
The FCC has been enforcing equal time rules for political candidates, which traditionally didn\u2019t apply to talk shows.
In Kimmel\u2019s Wednesday night broadcast, he suggested Trump\u2019s presidency influenced this change.
\u201cNow that [Trump] is president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple, traditional editorial decisions,\u201d Kimmel said.
\u201cIn the America we live in right now, that is the best we can do, until November, of course,\u201d Kimmel added regarding the decision.
Talarico, a Texas state representative, is locked in a tight Senate race against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who\u2019s gotten an endorsement from President Donald Trump<\/a>.
Vance was followed on the Charlie Kirk Podcast\u2019s memorial show by Donald Trump<\/a> Jr., the president\u2019s son. Trump Jr. recalled how he first met Kirk in 2015 during his father\u2019s first run for president.
\u201cIt was the beginning of a long friendship,\u201d Trump Jr. said.
\u201cI think we spoke every day for 10 years,\u201d he added later.
Elsewhere, conservative leaders in the United States and around the world have issued statements commemorating the one year anniversary of Kirk\u2019s assassination. The White House posted a tribute video to social media, and Trump honored the anniversary of Kirk\u2019s death during his address to the GOP midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday night.
James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, has accused his rival Ken Paxton of \u201cignoring\u201d survivors of Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sexual abuse, as Democrats seek to increase pressure on Republicans<\/a> ahead of the midterm elections.
Speaking in Dallas, where Republicans are holding a midterm convention this week, Talarico appeared alongside one of Epstein\u2019s victims at an exhibit<\/a> which featured about three million pages of Department of Justice files related to Epstein.
\u201cWhen did pedophilia become a partisan issue? When did holding sexual abusers accountable become controversial?\u201d Talarico said. He said survivors of Epstein\u2019s abuse had requested to meet with Paxton, the Texas attorney general, but he had refused.
\u201cOur attorney general here in Texas has the power to get justice for these survivors, and he\u2019s refusing to do so,\u201d Talarico said.
He added: \u201cKen Paxton has two choices: he can stand with these survivors and get justice, or he can continue to cover up Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s abuse. The choice is entirely his.\u201d
On Wednesday Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat running against Texas Governor Greg Abbott, visited the same exhibit and met with Epstein\u2019s victims, in a sign Democrats plan to highlight Trump\u2019s relationship with the convicted sex offender.
\u201cIt\u2019s really incredible that we live in a country where the justice system is so broken at every level that there has not been accountability of what we know was extensive sexual abuse, exploitation that happened for decades,\u201d Hinojosa said, according to Associated press. \u201cAnd that powerful people who run this country are still living their lives without having been held to account.\u201d
JD Vance is currently speaking on the Charlie Kirk Show as today marks the one year anniversary of Kirk\u2019s assassination during an event at a university in Utah.
A year removed from Kirk\u2019s killing, Vance eulogized him on his former flagship podcast as an irreplaceable leader of the conservative movement and as a close personal friend and ally.
\u201cThere\u2019s no way to replace Charlie Kirk,\u201d Vance said.
Kirk was an early supporter of Vance during his 2022 run for Senate in Ohio, and later advocated for his selection as Trump\u2019s running mate in 2024. Since his death, Kirk\u2019s widow, Erika Kirk, who has taken over running her late husband\u2019s political organization, Turning Point USA, has voiced support for Vance to succeed Trump as president.
Beto O\u2019Rourke, a former US congressman and presidential candidate, has dismissed Donald Trump\u2019s offer of $5,000 to US citizens if Republicans win Congress as \u201cthe stink of desperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people will take it for what it is: it\u2019s a gimmick, it\u2019s a bribe,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said on Thursday at a roundtable hosted by Bloomberg News in Dallas. \u201cIt\u2019s another promise that the president will be unable to fulfill. He\u2019s promised these kinds of dividends before. I think we were supposed to get one from all of the money we were making off of tariffs. It\u2019s never materialised.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Rourke, founder of Powered by People, a Texas-based progressive organisation focused on turning out voters, continued: \u201cIt adds to the stink of desperation. That is emanating from that convention centre and every action that we\u2019ve seen over the last 12 months: gerrymandering five congressional districts, screwing with vote by mail, shutting down 92 polling places, more than a million Texans on the suspense list.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a party that cannot compete on the power of its ideas or on its accomplishments while in office and so they\u2019re trying to stop people literally from voting or bribe those who they think can be persuaded. I just don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to be effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Rourke, who lost a Texas Senate race to Ted Cruz in 2018, struck an optimistic note about Democrat James Talarico\u2019s chances against Republican Ken Paxton. He suggested that Trump is even more unpopular now than he was then and that Talarico will be boosted by Democrats competing in every down ballot election this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had to dream up the perfect opponent in the Senate race, if you\u2019re a Democrat, you could not do better than Ken Paxton. Zero charisma, no connection, no money. The president is openly mocking him at every single turn. Those are all totally different from what we saw in 2018.\u201d
The Supreme Court has blocked a federal judge\u2019s ruling that would\u2019ve restored Republican-drawn congressional districts in Missouri.
The decision, issued by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, appeared to sound a death knell for efforts by the Missouri GOP to extract an additional Republican-leaning congressional seat for their party ahead of the midterm elections.
The latest decision is the second time the nation\u2019s highest court has weighed in on the matter in the last several days. It follows a winding legal saga that has seen the exact boundaries of Missouri\u2019s congressional districts for the 2026 election kept in protracted limbo, with election day less than two months out.
The legal back-and-forth began last September, when Missouri Republicans<\/a> redrew their state\u2019s electoral maps to carve up a Democrat-controlled district around Kansas City, likely securing them one more of the state\u2019s eight House seats. The decision came as President Trump urged Republican state leaders to gerrymander their congressional districts to help their party retain control of Congress, a move that prompted a retaliatory redistricting blitz by Democrats.
Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the new maps weren\u2019t valid until they were put to a public referendum. That meant the state\u2019s congressional districts would revert to their 2022 borders ahead of the midterms. Missouri leaders appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which left the lower court\u2019s ruling in place.
A federal judge in St. Louis, presiding over a different case, issued a conflicting ruling soon after, ordering the state to return to the Republican-favored maps. It was that ruling Kavanaugh blocked today, in a brief decision with no noted dissents.
Republican leaders in Missouri have argued that requiring the state to shift back to its earlier district boundaries so close to November could throw the state\u2019s elections into chaos. The state held its primaries using the new, GOP-leaning maps, meaning that candidates have won party nominations to represent districts that may no longer exist.
After temporary protections were set to expire Wednesday for hundreds of thousands of Salvadoran migrants in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said it would, at least for now, allow them to keep their protected status.
The department said in a statement that the temporary protected status that has permitted roughly 200,000 Salvadoran migrants to live in the US without fear of deportation would remain for the time being.
\u201cAn announcement on El Salvador\u2019s TPS will be made at the appropriate time,\u201d the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. \u201cUntil such announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection.\u201d
Night one of Trump\u2019s midterm convention in Dallas faced a major challenge in attracting viewers: it had to compete with the NFL\u2019s season kickoff, a rematch of last year\u2019s Super Bowl game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots.
The tug-of-war for viewership appeared to resonate with Trump, in any case, as the President was adamant Thursday morning that he\u2019d won more attention that the NFL \u2013\u00a0even before any official ratings were in.
\u201cIt was really something, streaming all over the place, and really big numbers, despite going up against the NFL,\u201d Trump said in a post to Truth Social, adding: \u201cThe overall numbers beat the NFL.\u201d
Another interesting result from yesterday\u2019s Democratic primaries in Rhode Island: David Morales, a democratic socialist candidate, unseated sitting Providence mayor Brett Smiley.
The win for Morales, a member of the Rhode Island legislature, notches a win for an insurgent progressive faction of the party that has vied to unseat establishment incumbents. That movement has found success in mayoral races around the country, notably ushering Zohran Mamdani into office as mayor of New York City.
Both before and during Republicans\u2019 midterm convention yesterday, President Trump predicted that the war in Iran that he helped launch would end immediately after the midterm elections (assuming that his party held onto its majority in Congress).
But a new report from the Wall Street Journal, published Wednesday evening, indicates that, behind closed doors, Trump\u2019s top advisors have given him less optimistic forecasts. The paper reports that top officials \u2013\u00a0including JD Vance<\/a>, Trump\u2019s vice president, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state \u2013\u00a0have warned that Iran could very well hold out against US pressure through the remainder of Trump\u2019s second term.
The unpopular and seemingly frozen conflict, as well as the surging energy prices it touched off, have become a sore spot for Republicans ahead of the midterms. Fighting has flared up again after negotiations between the US and Iran fell through, with both sides trading missile attacks on oil tankers.
The Trump administration\u2019s latest step, a new sanctions regime aimed at strangling what remains of Iran\u2019s economy, would punish nations that continue to trade with the regime.
Trump has cast his party\u2019s victory in the midterms as the difference between US success and failure in Iran. He\u2019s repeatedly dismissed economic pain downstream of the conflict as a temporary but worthwhile sacrifice to subdue Iran and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Vice-president JD Vance will give the keynote address tonight, though Donald Trump<\/a> is scheduled to make closing remarks to bring the made-for-television RNC event in Dallas to \u2060an end.<\/strong>
\u201cIf the American people give Republicans<\/a> another chance to govern, we\u2019re going to create more prosperity,\u201d Vance told Fox News after Trump\u2019s speech last night.
\u201cAnd we want the American people to share in that prosperity.\u201d
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said his interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will not air on ABC tomorrow following threats from the FCC.<\/strong>
Kimmel said the FCC had threatened him, his show, ABC, its affiliates, and local stations over \u201csimple traditional editorial decisions\u201d and guest bookings.
He said the full interview will be shared on YouTube instead.
Democratic senator John Fetterman made a surprise virtual appearance at the Republican midterm convention, delivering a video address supporting Dave McCormick, a Republican senator in Pennsylvania<\/a>.<\/strong>
Fetterman, who has increasingly broken with his party since his election in 2022, said in the video that he would always reject \u201cextremes and socialism\u201d, repeating an oft-used Republican critique of the Democratic party\u2019s increasingly popular left wing.
The video message will do little to dampen speculation that the renegade senator, who is now more popular<\/a> among Republican voters in Pennsylvania than the Democrats who helped elect him, is preparing to switch political parties. Fetterman has repeatedly said that is not his plan, though he recently suggested he would be forced to formally break with the Democratic party if it ever became \u201cthe anti-Israel party\u201d.
Democrats currently hold 47 seats in the US Senate<\/a>. Despite the long odds, Democrats believe discontent with the economy and Trump\u2019s low approval ratings have given them a rare opportunity to retake control of the upper chamber. A defection would jeopardize their already narrow path to a majority.
Yet if Fetterman remains a Democrat, he would hold outsized influence, effectively wielding veto power in a 51-49 majority.
Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank in Washington, said Donald Trump<\/a> has no authority send money to Americans without approval from Congress.<\/strong>
Goldwein added that dividends are something that companies pay when there\u2019s a surplus, but the US is running $2tn annual deficits and has $40tn in debt.
\u201cThe idea that we\u2019ve had fiscal success is backwards and bordering on laughable,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have surpluses to give away.\u201d
Congress would need to approve or otherwise acquiesce to the payment. The sum would far exceed US tariff revenues even before the Supreme Court tossed much of the president\u2019s tariff program last year.
The move was reminiscent of billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s efforts to buy votes in last year\u2019s Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, where he handed out million-dollar checks to voters to try to boost a candidate who ultimately lost.
Trump\u2019s proposal would be legal because the payment would go to everyone regardless of how they voted, or whether they voted at all, said New Mexico-based attorney John Day.
\u201cThis is a campaign promise,\u201d Day said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a payment to individuals to try to get them to vote in a particular way.\u201d
Hello and welcome to the US politics<\/a> live blog.
Vice-president JD Vance appeared to partially row back on Donald Trump\u2019s outlandish claims that every adult citizen in the US would receive $5,000 if the Republicans retain the House and Senate in the midterm elections.<\/strong>
\u201cIf the Republicans<\/a> win, you win with us, and you get $5,000,\u201d Trump told a roaring crowd, during a nearly two-hour long speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas in which he also urged voters to \u201cpretend that I\u2019m on the ballot\u201d.
But Vance, speaking after the president, suggested the so-called dividend payments would not go to the wealthy and that it could be paid for by US tariff revenues \u2013 though the suggested payment dwarfs what the US has taken in through the protectionist measures.
Congress would need to approve or otherwise acquiesce to the payment. The sum would far exceed US tariff revenues even before the Supreme Court tossed much of the president\u2019s tariff program last year.
The White House has yet to release details on Trump\u2019s announcement.
Surrounded by supporters waving American flag placards, Trump claimed, without evidence, that his second term had been \u201cthe most successful two years, financially and every other way, in the history of the presidency\u201d, but devoted much of his speech to fearmongering about what would happen should Democrats win the House or the Senate for the final two years of his presidency.
\u201cThere is a crazy little sick cloud over our country,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe will defeat communism in America.\u201d
The president and Republicans are gambling that throwing a midterm convention \u2013 the first the GOP has ever held \u2013 can buoy the party, which is predicted to lose control of the House. Yet, Trump\u2019s deep unpopularity among Americans \u2013 his approval rating is hovering at about 38% \u2013 meant many Republican candidates running in competitive races skipped the two-day confab entirely.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
In a nearly two-hour speech, Donald Trump<\/a> capped off his first night remarks at the GOP midterm convention by pleading with Republicans to<\/strong> \u201cpretend that I\u2019m running\u201d. <\/strong>The president centered himself in the battle to control Congress, and acknowledged that candidates are more successful when he is on the ballot. He offered an ominous outlook if Republicans fail to retain power.
Throughout his remarks, Trump also tried to campaign on behalf of Republicans in competitive midterm races.<\/strong> While he made fun of Ken Paxton\u2019s clothing choices and the way he speaks, he praised the Republican nominee for US Senate in Texas as \u201cthe single greatest attorney general\u201d in the state\u2019s history, while also branding his opponent James Talarico as a \u201cdisaster\u201d.
Earlier, Democratic senator John Fetterman made a surprise virtual appearance at the Republican midterm convention, delivering a video address supporting Dave McCormick, a Republican senator in Pennsylvania<\/a>. <\/strong>Fetterman, who has increasingly broken with his party since his election in 2022, said in the video that he would always reject \u201cextremes and socialism\u201d, repeating an oft-used Republican critique of the Democratic party\u2019s increasingly popular left wing.
Meanwhile, several Republicans who are facing tough races have chosen not to attend the convention in Dallas. <\/strong>This include Susan Collins, the five-term incumbent senator from Maine, and Dan Sullivan \u2013 the Republican senator from Alaska who is facing a tough contest against former Democratic congresswoman Mary Peltola.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Court\u2019s decision to block federal judge\u2019s ruling likely to prevent GOP\u2019s attempts to extract additional Republican-leaning seatUS supreme court again rejects Missouri congressional maps redrawn to benefit Republicans in midtermsSign up for the US Breaking News emailThe Supreme Court has blocked a federal judge\u2019s ruling that would\u2019ve restored Republican-drawn congressional districts in Missouri.The decision, issued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}