WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday will head to a Republican midterm convention that will offer clues about the message he intends to deliver when he hits the campaign trail for a 30-day October blitz before Election Day.

The GOP leader is set to address the party faithful Wednesday and Thursday nights, including prime-time remarks on the second evening from the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The midterm convention begins this election cycle’s homestretch, which will kick into high gear when Congress adjourns later this month for its pre-election recess.

While several vulnerable Republican lawmakers are staying home to campaign, Trump and his team are hopeful that the Dallas gathering, which will feature over 100 speakers, will help break what polls show is some momentum for Democratic candidates. The president could also signal how active he will be in the cycle’s final weeks — and just where he intends to campaign.

During a Sept. 2 Rose Garden dinner with a group of vulnerable House Republicans, Trump said the fight for the chamber boiled down to “about 35 races.”

“If you’re leading by 40 points and you’ve been there for 25 years … please don’t ask me to come to your area and make a speech,” he added. “I’m going to go to every one of those 35 places, and we’re going to see if we can get everyone elected.”

His focus, he said, would be on the “final 30 days. You don’t want to go too much before that because people forget.”

“I will be with you 100% all the way to November,” Trump also said that night — though he did not disclose when he would start spending funds from his MAGA Inc. super PAC.

“We’re going to do something like I did for myself in the last presidential election. Four months out, I said, ‘OK, no days off.’ If I didn’t make four or five speeches a day, it was very bad, and I just went around and really campaigned,” he said. “I just said for four months there’ll be no pleasure. I’m not going to go out and play golf. I’m not going to do anything.”

“All I’m going to do is work, work, work, and fight, fight, fight, win, win, win,” he added.

If he had specific House races in mind, he did not reveal them. Instead, he said he would depend on Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to send him lists of GOP incumbents and candidates for whom he should hit the trail.

Over the weekend, a filing with the Federal Election Commission revealed that MAGA Inc. plans to spend $10 million on the Senate race in Texas, where Trump has endorsed state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Michael Bitzer, a politics and history professor at North Carolina’s Catawba College, said Trump’s 30-day campaign plan would likely be a “double-edged sword” for Republicans.

“Trump’s presence on the campaign trail may turn out to be a blessing and a curse. A blessing that he could certainly try to generate energy and enthusiasm on the campaign trail and try and fire up the Republican base voters to get out to vote,” Bitzer said in a Monday email. “But there is a flip side. Having Trump so visibly involved also puts the president himself at the center of the campaign.”

“His approval ratings are currently quite weak, and his involvement could energize not only Republican voters but also Democratic and anti-Trump voters. That makes his presence a double-edged sword: He can potentially mobilize the Republican base while simultaneously reinforcing the opposition,” Bitzer added. “Thirty days out may seem like a long stretch, but in electoral terms, it is a relatively short window.”

‘Temper tantrum’

Republican strategist Doug Heye wrote last week on X that some GOP candidates do not want a presidential campaign stop in their districts.

“This is completely normal. Rs didn’t want [George W.] Bush campaigning with them in 2006. What’s different is that the Bush wouldn’t then call you out publicly because of a temper tantrum,” he wrote, referring to the 2006 midterms, when Republicans lost both chambers of Congress. Trump has at times turned to social media or public remarks to lambaste fellow Republicans, even vulnerable ones seeking to establish some distance from the president in battleground districts and states.

And as he gets ready to depart for Dallas, Trump continues to be plagued by rough polling numbers, which could be a drag on GOP candidates in November.

An NBC News Decision Desk poll released last week found that 64% of Americans “strongly” or “somewhat” disapproved of Trump’s performance as president. Just 36% either “strongly” or “somewhat” approved.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., last week offered a window into Democrats’ likely counter-messaging this week to Republicans’ midterm convention.

“Donald Trump promised to lower costs on Day One. But under Donald Trump and Republican control of government, costs in the United States of America haven’t gone down, they’ve gone up. Life has gotten far too expensive in this country, and Republicans don’t give a damn about it,” Jeffries, who could become speaker if his party takes the House this fall, told reporters Thursday.

“We need a dramatic change in direction,” he added. “House Democrats will continue to focus on fighting for an affordable America, lowering the high cost of groceries, gas and housing.”

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