In Dallas, before a convention crowd whose energy was beginning to wane, Donald Trump made a promise that would cost more than a trillion dollars — $5,000 to every American citizen if Republicans prevailed in November's midterms. He offered no mechanism, no funding source, no implementation plan. It was a moment that revealed something larger than policy: a leader reaching for spectacle at a time when approval ratings are low, inflation lingers, and the midterms loom as an implicit verdict on his presidency.