Trump Leads Dallas Convention Crowd in 'Cheat Like Hell' Pledge as Attendees Shout 'He Should Be Shot' During Cruz Speech

Since Republicans wrapped their first-ever midterm convention in Dallas on Thursday night, September 10, with President Trump's closing speech, two moments from that night have generated the most fallout: a pledge in which Trump told the crowd to "cheat like hell," and a separate incident in which attendees shouted "he should be shot" three times as Senator Ted Cruz named Democratic politicians.

The Pledge, In Full

Trump closed the two-day convention at the American Airlines Center by asking the crowd to raise their right hands and repeat after him. The full line, according to PBS, HuffPost, The New Republic, Anadolu Agency and Yahoo News, was: "I pledge, to the greatest president in the history of the United States, that loves us so much he can't even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends, I'll do it any way, I don't care if I'm registered or not, I'm gonna try and cheat like hell like they do, there's never been bigger cheaters, they don't care. I am gonna go out and I'm going to get my friends and family and we are going to vote on November 3rd, or we are going to vote before that!"

He followed it with: "You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell."

According to Yahoo News, Speaker Mike Johnson and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were among those who took the pledge.

How to read the "cheat like hell" line depends on which outlet you check. Latintimes reported it as Trump "framing it as a swipe at Democratic tactics rather than a genuine call to break the law," noting he was accusing Democrats, not instructing supporters, to cheat. HuffPost and The New Republic read the same words as a literal instruction, with The New Republic calling it proof that "Trump's rants about election fraud have always been self-serving." Both readings rely on the same transcript. Trump has spent years alleging, without evidence accepted by courts, that Democrats engage in systematic voter fraud, so the line functions as a continuation of that claim as much as a stand-alone instruction. No election authority has opened any investigation tied to the pledge itself.

The pledge came the same night Trump reiterated support for the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections, according to ZeroHedge's coverage via The Epoch Times. Voter ID and citizenship-verification requirements are mainstream Republican positions, and proponents argue they simply extend the kind of identification already required for banking, air travel and other everyday transactions. Critics, including several Democratic-aligned outlets in this survey, call such measures unnecessary given the absence of proven large-scale voter fraud. Neither side's claim about actual fraud levels was resolved on stage in Dallas.

"He Should Be Shot"

Earlier in the evening, according to Democracy Now!, Cruz delivered a speech condemning the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk one year earlier and past assassination attempts on Trump, then pivoted to naming Democratic politicians. As Cruz named New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and Texas congressional candidate James Talarico, attendees in the crowd shouted "he should be shot" after each name, according to audio captured by Democracy Now!. None of the other sources reviewed for this article reported that exchange. ZeroHedge's account of the convention, sourced through The Epoch Times, covered Trump's policy agenda in detail but did not mention either the crowd's shouted threats during Cruz's speech or the "cheat like hell" pledge, focusing instead on the SAVE Act, drug pricing and the "No Invasion of Our Country Act."

No law enforcement response or RNC condemnation of the shouted threats has been reported by any source reviewed here.

Other Flashpoints From the Night

Vice President JD Vance delivered a nearly 40-minute keynote before Trump spoke, according to latintimes, during which the crowd repeatedly chanted "48" in reference to a potential Vance 2028 presidential run. Vance brushed off the chants each time. When a protester interrupted his remarks waving a Mexican flag, Vance responded, "If you love Mexico so much, then get your a over there," according to Peruvian outlet El Comercio, cited by latintimes, prompting the crowd to chant "USA."

Earlier Thursday, ABC's Rachel Scott asked Trump directly why his administration needed to offer a $5,000 payment to every adult if his economic policies were working, given the federal government remains roughly $40 trillion in debt. The New Republic reported Trump responding that the payment was "a reward for people having to put up with" unspecified hardship, though the full quote was not captured in the available transcript. Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan criticized the proposal on social media, asking what happened to the DOGE rebate checks Trump had previously floated, according to Democracy Now!.

The midterm elections are 53 days away, according to latintimes' count as of the convention's close. Whether the SAVE Act, the $5,000 payment proposal, or any of Thursday night's rhetoric factors into that vote remains to be seen. None of the three had cleared Congress as of the convention's close.