This is a solemn American moment — marking one day from our 25th remembrance of the 9/11 attacks and one year from the assassination of Charlie Kirk — so it’s fair to ask ourselves: What was the meaning of Donald Trump’s stemwinder last night in Dallas?

Trump was there to headline Day One of a unique two-day midterm convention, there in an effort to defy the history of the party in power nearly always getting thumped in the midterm elections.

But I think Trump was also there, whether knowingly or not, to defend the country he loves against the two anti-Western, anti-American forces that were responsible for those two awful aforementioned events: leftism and Islamism.

Oh, sure, Trump was promoting himself and his fellow Republicans last night as only Trump can. As I mentioned yesterday, he’s the animating force in the Republican Party, an animating force unlike any in its history or in our nation’s history. “Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em,” we used to say in the military. Similarly, with Trump: Enjoy him while you’ve got him because his like will not pass this way again.

Last night’s warm-up act was one Republican speaker after another, and the recurring theme was “Common Sense vs. Crazy.” That’s a clever contrast between the Republicans and the Democrats, and we can expect to see it hammered home between now and November 3.

As for the 80-year-old president, he weaved away for nearly two hours, steering off script and then ultimately returning to it, tirelessly promoting his administration’s achievements and relentlessly attacking the Democrats.

Trump didn’t shy away from his ability to mobilize not only the Republican base but the Democrat base. In fact, he stressed it. “I’m asking you,” he yelled, “to pretend that I’m on the ballot. I’m on the ballot. I’m on the ballot. Just one more time.”

He added, “We have a very short period of time. And we really have 35 races. They all count, but we have 35 races that are, I guess you’d call swings, right?”

Republican strategist Reince Priebus said it felt “just like a presidential nominating convention,” but he also called this “a mobilization rather than a coronation.” Priebus said that if you move a thousand people in 20 different districts, that’s enough to alter the course of the election, and the course of history.

Trump went on to say that he’s going to campaign in every one of those 35 important races, and in some cases more than once. So by the time November 3 rolls around, the American electorate — both those who love Trump and those who loathe him — will know that this midterm election is a referendum on Trump.

The president’s best turn of phrase was toward the end, when he said, “On election night, we’re going to prove that America does not belong to the those who hate it; America belongs to those who love it.” That, too, will be seen and heard a lot between now and November.

But everyone knew, as soon as they heard him say it, what last night’s big buzz would be about:

I can make this promise to you, and here is my promise: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them ... because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000 — very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders.

It was a brilliant promise, a check for $5,000 — and only spendable in America, and only payable if the Republicans hold both houses.

I have no doubt that the Democrats are already pulling together their best legal minds to argue that what he’s proposing is somehow illegal or unconstitutional, that it constitutes a bribe, an attempt to buy votes. To this I would ask: What do they think ObamaCare was?

The difference here, though, is that Trump’s transfer payment would go from the U.S. Treasury to all adult Americans, whereas Barack Obama’s transfer payment simply robbed a bunch of Peters to pay a bunch of Pauls.

Besides, what’s a measly $1.3 trillion to a fisc that’s already $40 trillion in arrears? I mean, we’ve got a country to save.

And double besides, if the legality of the “Trump Dividend” check were to somehow be fast-tracked to the Supreme Court before November 3, it seems to me that all Trump’s legal team would need to do is tell John Roberts ... that it’s a tax.

Trump’s backdrop was brilliant, too: all women, and all different colors. Because it’s women who typically side disproportionately with the Democrats on Election Day, and women who will thus decide whether Trump and his fellow Republicans pop the champagne corks on November 3, or gird themselves for articles of impeachment and endless investigations beginning on January 3, as soon as a new Democrat-controlled Congress is sworn in.

Trump also singled out the “fake news” for opprobrium, pausing on occasion to point them out way in the back, then marveling at the jam-packed venue, and then predicting that they’d find a few empty seats and write that there was no one there. And sure enough: “If Trump Can’t Fill a Dallas Arena, Can He Turn Out a November Vote?”

That was the headline of a Wall Street Journal piece, and it accompanied a deeply dishonest image of a sparsely populated arena. But the image wasn’t taken when Trump was speaking. How do I know it wasn’t taken when Trump was speaking, even if he’s too small to identify in the image? Because Trump’s backdrop for the entire speech was, as I noted above, a bunch of smiling and cheering women directly behind him.

Sadly, that’s the sort of reporting we can expect to see between now and November.

Toward the end of his speech, Trump paid tribute to his fallen friend and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and to his wife, Erika, who was in attendance last night. Kirk was a champion of the free speech that Trump exercised last night, and he went out of his way to be courteous and respectful to his critics. Those who say Charlie Kirk was a hater are themselves haters. Either that, or they’re simply misinformed about who Kirk was and what he stood for.

I suspect there’ll be a more significant tribute to Charlie Kirk tonight, and that’s entirely fitting. Think about it: Did anyone work harder than him to promote and defend Christian and American principles, and to warn against the evils of leftism and the encroachment of Islam on Western Civilization? And did anyone besides Donald Trump himself work harder to ensure Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in 2024?

There are now just 54 days until Election Day. Between now and then, make sure everyone you know knows Trump is on the ballot — and so is that $5,000 Trump Dividend check.

Editor’s note: The Patriot Post’s editors do not endorse President Trump’s $5,000 payout.