Tonight, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took the stage at a convention staged by the party he controls to soften his image, appearing mortified by the assassination attempt just five days earlier. “It is only by the grace of Almighty God that I am standing here before you on this stage,” he told an attentive audience.
But over the course of 92 minutes, the initial grace gave way to frustration, and the uplifting passages were replaced by personal attacks (“Crazy Nancy Pelosi”), praise for autocratic rulers, partisan hyperbole (“They're destroying our country”) and relentless self-congratulation.
Donald Trump is not a weirdo.
Democrats were in disarray as party officials and donors pressured Biden to give up reelection, taking fresh hope from Trump's speech.
“My takeaway from this speech is this guy can be defeated. We just need to come together,” Tommy Vieter, a speechwriter for former President Barack Obama, wrote on social media.
“Boring. Incoherent. Lying.” Those were the three-word comments made by California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose ex-wife Kimberly Guilfoyle, now romantically involved with Donald Trump Jr., delivered a fiery speech at the party convention.
Trump has begun to walk the noble path.
If he'd stopped speaking after 25 minutes, critics might have raved about how he looked like St. Paul fallen from his horse. “I offer my loyalty and friendship to all Americans,” he told his supporters, “young or old, male or female, Democrat or Republican or independent, black or white, Asian or Hispanic.”
But that was followed by comments calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus.”
The lie that the 2020 election was stolen was repeated: “They used COVID-19 to rig it.”
Immigrants “take jobs away from blacks and Hispanics.”
“We have become the garbage dump of the world,” Trump argued, using words reminiscent of his inaugural address nine years ago.
Speaking of the “greatest invasion in history,” Trump promised the largest deportation in American history, and also referenced Dr Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic psychiatrist villain from the film Silence of the Lambs.
“You can't demonize dissent,” Trump said, blasting the Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland, who claims to be a victim, faces federal charges for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and was recently convicted of falsifying business records to hide a bribe to former porn star Stormy Daniels.
“I am the one who will save democracy for the people of this country,” Trump claimed.
Yet at about the same time, he praised Hungary's authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and boasted about his close relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un: “I've gotten on very well with him… It's good to get on with someone who has a lot of nuclear weapons.”
The Republican National Convention was a beautiful mix of tolerance and discontent. Apart from a few conservative Never-Trumpers and conservative intellectuals, the GOP capitulated to Trump. Men like New York Congressman Mark Lawler spoke in interviews about his intention to vote for Trump. Gold Star Mothers, whose sons were killed in terrorist bombings during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, moved not only the convention but also viewers at home.
Trump played with his grandchildren in the VIP section and was briefly joined by Miriam Adelson, the billionaire widow of a casino magnate who has pledged as much as $100 million to the Republican Party's 2024 campaign.
His wife, Melania Trump, dubbed the “Slovenian Sphinx” by Maureen Dowd, was also introduced to the music of the third movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, making her first appearance on the 2024 campaign trail. She appeared onstage, seemingly to surprise her husband, as balloons fell on the stage after his speech.
Attempts to humanize Trump as a family man and defender of traditional values were aimed at late-night network viewers. In a well-received acceptance speech on the convention floor Wednesday night, Ohio's vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, promised to stand up for workers — union and non-union — against Wall Street bosses and spoke about his own family's struggles with violence and addiction.
But the rally was also designed to galvanize Trump supporters, and the afternoon was packed with partisan attacks. Eric Trump blasted “male athletes competing in women's sports” and claimed that immigrants live in New York's luxury hotels while homeless veterans live on the streets. Tucker Carlson, a Trump aide and FNC firebrand, joked about President Biden being a mannequin.
After a summer marked by record heat and violent storms in the U.S. and around the world, President Trump slammed the Biden-Harris administration's climate change efforts. He promised to end the electric vehicle “mandate” on “Day One” of a second Trump administration. On energy policy, he promised, “We're going to drill, baby, we're going to drill. And we're going to do it at a level people have never seen before.” (U.S. domestic energy production has reached record levels under Biden.)
Eight years ago at the Republican Convention, Mr. Trump declared that “I alone” could solve the problems that were holding the nation back. The self-satisfied celebration was renewed tonight. Russia's invasion of Ukraine “would never have happened if I was president.” Hamas' brutal invasion of Israel “would never have happened.”
After repeatedly demonstrating his narcissism, self-importance and belief that he is a privileged man (after claiming to have been hit by an assassin's bullet and then saying, “I felt very safe because I had God on my side”), Trump addressed the assembled MAGA faithful.
“This movement isn't about me. It's about you.”
Fact checkers are working to collect and compile the exaggerations and falsehoods in Trump's speeches, and they are likely to find a treasure trove of both.
But after a record-long string of attacks and complaints, one lie stands out above the rest: “I'm running to be President of all of America, not just half of America.”
