“Two nights before Thanksgiving last year, President Donald Trump called House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to say, ‘Mike, we’ve got to do a midterm convention,’ the speaker recounted at a campaign event last month, faintly impersonating the president,” the Washington Post reports.

“That’s not a thing,’ Johnson recalled replying. Trump responded: ‘Make it a thing.’”

”The thing comes into being on Wednesday in Dallas, where the Republican Party will throw a two-day, Trump-centered pep rally to kick off the peak campaign season. The whole affair is being staged at Trump’s instigation and to his specifications, the latest expression of a party he remade to revolve around him.”

CNN: After a decade as GOP’s main character, Trump gets one more starring role at midterm convention.

“Republican strategist Karl Rove said Tuesday he is ‘a little bit nervous’ about the GOP’s unprecedented midterm convention, warning that Republicans are making a late and risky bet on President Donald Trump with control of Congress on the line,” Mediaite reports.

Said Rove: “I’m a little bit nervous about it because, look, we’re in the final stages of the campaign. I’d be more comfortable if this had been held in June and July and set a thematic that could be pursued for four or five months rather than for 56 days.”

He added: “The White House is pushing a big bet, it’s like we’re at the tables, they’re pushing all the chips on saying if we make this about Donald Trump and if we make this about Donald Trump’s record and put him at the centre of this then we have a shot to pull this thing off.”

“President Donald Trump is embracing his inner cowboy, seeking to gallop into this week’s Republican convention in Dallas and save the midterm elections for his party just in the nick of time,” the Associated Press reports.

“As first-of-their-kind festivities open Wednesday, Trump wants to stoke his core supporters’ enthusiasm by making Election Day on Nov. 3 all about himself — a referendum on his record at an event he conceived to help his party, even if he’s not actually on the ballot.”

“The question is whether he’ll do more to fire up Republicans or Democrats at a moment when his popularity has reached historic lows.”

“President Donald Trump will be at the center of this week’s GOP midterm convention. Many of his fellow Republicans are hoping he doesn’t make it all about him,” Politico reports.

”The parade of lawmakers, candidates, donors and party officials now headed to Dallas for the two-day spectacle are counting on Trump to make a compelling pitch on the national stage before voters hit the polls.”

NPR: Republicans hope unconventional convention will rally voters ahead of midterms.

“As the unofficial start of the campaign sprint kicks off on Labor Day Monday, President Donald Trump’s deep unpopularity is imperiling Republican chances of maintaining their narrow majorities in Congress with just two months before ​November’s midterm elections,” Reuters reports.

“Midterm elections, above all, are a referendum on the occupant of the White House, according to election experts. That is even more of a truism in the era of Trump, ‌who has spent the better part of a decade as the country’s dominant political figure and could face stiff political headwinds in his final two years in office.”

Associated Press: Whiplash election year enters final stretch as Trump holds wild cards.

“President Trump is hitting the campaign trail and doing the last thing many Republicans want: making the 59 days to the Nov. 3 midterms a referendum on him,” Axios reports.

“At the same time, they know it’s inevitable.”

“Most Republicans are too scared to bluntly tell Trump how unpopular he is. And Trump wants an unprecedented convention next week, ads and events to focus on him.”

New York Magazine: Trump’s GOP midterm convention has a crowd size problem.

“Ahead of next week’s Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, which is set to tout President Donald Trump’s record at a time when he still faces low approval ratings and a negative political environment, several battleground Republicans said that they either aren’t going to the convention or are still undecided,” ABC News reports.

“Congressional Republican leaders are putting President Trump front and center in their campaign to keep control of the House and Senate, even as some in the party say the strategy could increase the likelihood of a drubbing in the midterms,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“While many GOP lawmakers are embracing the president, others have started to sound the alarm publicly and privately that Trump’s low approval ratings could drag the party down in November. They say resentment is building as Trump focuses more on legacy construction projects and fights with allies than on helping Republicans keep control of Congress.”

“Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) whined about President Donald Trump throwing his support behind Darline Graham (R-SC) in her victorious Republican primary bid in South Carolina, with the conservative lawmaker griping four times about the president’s ‘shocking’ involvement in the race,” Mediaite reports.

Said Norman: “It’s his right to do that, but as many places as we’re in trouble with liberals, he comes to South Carolina. Ronald Reagan would not do that.”