‘The party of hatred’ vs. ‘a lot of fun’: The stark contrast of the GOP’s final midterm message

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance closed out the Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention on Thursday evening, issuing a stark warning about the stakes of the November elections.

“The Democrats are the party of hatred. They're the party that despises America and the people who built it,” Vance declared. “So I'm asking you, my fellow Republicans, to remember that this November is so much more than red team versus blue team … It's about sending a message to the Democratic Party that if you send your crazies, we're going to send you packing.”

While Trump delivered the keynote speech of Wednesday evening, he returned to give the closing remarks of the entire convention after Vance himself spoke. Trump’s own remarks presented a stunning contrast in tone to Vance’s signoff.

Whereas Trump’s Wednesday evening speech saw him spend an hour touting his accomplishments and vision for the remainder of his term, Trump was relatively brief and chose to “have a lot of fun” with the audience to end the convention.

“So we're going to have a lot of fun,” Trump said.

“So what I'm going to do tonight is a little bit different. We all love music, right? We're gonna get a little music,” he said. “I'm gonna stand on the stage at the end with our great opera star Christopher Macchio, and he's going to sing ‘America the Beautiful,’ ‘Nessun Dorma,’ and ‘All I Ask of You’ from the Phantom of the Opera, and we're gonna have a good time listening to music because I'm getting a little bit tired of politics now.”

Trump then proceeded to spend several minutes reiterating his key points from the previous evening.

The contrast between Vance’s stern warnings and Trump’s light-hearted time on the stage reflected the same themes of Trump’s Wednesday speech. In that address, he portrayed the elections as a choice between the “disaster, bedlam, and death” of the Democrats and a chance to “leave the world in our dust.”

The convention itself was a first-of-its-kind event for the Republican Party and comes ahead of what is expected to be a close midterm contest. Democrats currently lead the polls for control of the House of Representatives, though the Senate is an even toss-up.

Trump closed by saying, “[i]t's going to be one of the most important elections,” which he said was evident by the packed crowd at the convention itself.

The convention then closed with opera singer Christopher Macchio singing "America the Beautiful," "Nessun Dorma," and "All I Ask of You."

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.