RNC Locks In the Dallas Convention Rundown: Trump Both Nights, a Kirk Hour, and 109 Segments

The Republican National Committee published the full speaker roster Saturday for the two nights at American Airlines Center, and the picture is now specific enough to report as a rundown rather than a save-the-date. President Donald Trump will give the Wednesday keynote and Thursday’s closing remarks. Vice President JD Vance will keynote Thursday. The rest of the bill is Cabinet, House leadership, Texas officials, and a long candidate list from the races that decide Congress on Nov. 3.

That speaking order is the Saturday list. An earlier hour-by-hour grid at gopconvention.com, posted in late August, still showed Vance closing Wednesday and Trump only on Thursday. Party officials told Reuters on Sept. 2 that Trump wanted to “set the tone for the entire convention” and would take opening night as well. Individual times for anyone below the two headliners have not been posted. The thematic blocks on that grid are what the nights are built around.

There are still no delegates and no floor votes. The RNC changed its rules in January to allow Chairman Joe Gruters to call a midterm convention; Trump set the Dallas dates June 30. Organizers are planning for about 20,000 people a night at 2500 Victory Avenue. White House aide John Hiller is CEO of the convention board. Dallas developer and former RNC finance chairman Ray Washburne is co-chairing with his wife. The city expects to spend nearly $2 million on security and logistics, with the Secret Service, Dallas Police, Dallas Fire-Rescue, and DART Police in the plan and the emergency operations center stood up. Protest groups have said they will march near the arena. Some nearby businesses told the Dallas Morning News they intend to close both nights.

The hourly grid

Each night is scheduled for six hours, 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Central. The RNC counts 53 segments Wednesday and 56 Thursday, 109 in all. The copy on the party’s own schedule page frames the week as America 250 and as a contrast between “mainstream Republican solutions” and “extreme liberal Democrat policies.”

Wednesday’s published blocks, in order: working-families tax relief — the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, a doubled standard deduction, Trump Accounts, and the Child Tax Credit — plus a HUD waste-and-fraud segment and the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program; a “Two Visions for America” hour that puts the SAVE America Act and mandatory voter ID next to border security; a candidate showcase with No Tax on Tips and a claim of sixteen straight months of zero interior releases; America First trade and school choice, including a segment on gender ideology in sports; public safety, No Tax on Social Security, TrumpRx, and a ban on members of Congress trading stock; then domestic manufacturing and the night’s principal address.

Thursday’s published blocks: families drawing No Tax on Tips, Overtime, and Social Security, the stock-trading ban, school choice, and a “Promises Made, Promises Kept” piece on more than 100 hostages brought home; small business, food-supply security, SNAP oversight, sports as civic glue, and deportations; a second candidate showcase, a Charlie Kirk tribute aimed at youth turnout, and TrumpRx price transparency; prescription-drug costs, a clemency story, Angel Parents from the border, and a 25th-anniversary 9/11 remembrance with children and families of first responders; Make America Healthy Again, energy dominance, and the sharpest contrast hour against Democrats; then the presidential close.

Speakers are expected to lean on the One Big Beautiful Bill and on SAVE America. Johnson, Cruz, and others are also expected to name New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as the face of the other party. Gruters, in the Saturday release: “This election comes down to one simple choice: lower costs, lower taxes, secure borders, and common sense versus higher taxes, wide open borders, and the radical liberal agenda the Democrat Party has fully embraced.”

On the list, and off it

Besides Trump and Vance, the Saturday keynote tier lists Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, HUD Secretary Scott Turner, former press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and Donald Trump Jr. House leadership is on the bill: Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Conference Chair Lisa McClain, and NRCC Chair Richard Hudson. From the Senate: Majority Whip John Barrasso and NRSC Chair Tim Scott. Gruters will speak.

Texas is heavily represented: Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Sen. Ted Cruz, Attorney General and Senate nominee Ken Paxton, Reps. Monica De La Cruz and Brandon Gill, House candidates Eric Flores, Carlos De La Cruz, and Tano Tijerina, and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. Other elected officials on the list include Sens. Jon Husted of Ohio and Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and Reps. Byron Donalds — running for governor of Florida — Anna Paulina Luna, Mike Lawler, Derrick Van Orden, Rob Bresnahan, Ryan Mackenzie, Jason Smith, Brian Jack, and Mike Collins, who is running for Senate in Georgia.

The candidate block adds Senate nominees Mike Rogers in Michigan and Michael Whatley in North Carolina and House candidates Mike Bouchard in Michigan, Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina, Greg Cunningham in New Mexico, Jay Feely in Arizona, Mike LiPetri in New York, Derek Merrin in Ohio, and Marty O’Donnell in Nevada. Axios reported that non-politicians will also speak; those names have not been released.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is not on the speaker list. Trump has spent weeks attacking him for not moving SAVE America. CBS News reported Thune will be in Dallas for fundraisers during the week. Also absent from the published roster: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Melania Trump will not attend. Weekend reporting put at least 45 House and Senate Republicans on the skip list, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. The RNC said more names may be added.

From the floor

RWT News will be in the building both nights from the Creator’s Deck, front and center on the stage. One camera on a tripod will record the program; we will post clips as we can cut them and go live in short bursts when the floor and the connection allow. This is the first event of this size we have covered in person and a one-person shoot, so treat what goes up as a window into the hall — including some behind-the-scenes — not a six-hour show. Follow RWT News on the usual channels.