Former President Trump's biggest Republican rivals lined up to endorse his 2024 presidential candidate on Tuesday, promising to “open” the southern border and “make America safe again” from violent criminals and dangerous illegal immigrants who are allegedly infiltrating the country.
After questioning Trump's competence and integrity during the primaries, they loudly endorsed the man they once loudly decried, saying uniting behind their former foe was crucial to the country's future. Trump entered the convention hall to thunderous applause and looked on with approval as his former opponents urged voters to return him to the White House.
“For over a year, I've said that a vote for Joe Biden is the same as a vote for Kamala Harris for president,” said Nikki Haley, Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations. “Everyone who watched the debates saw that to be true. Four more years of Biden, or one day of Harris, would leave our country in a terrible state of disrepair. For the sake of our country, you must vote for Donald Trump.”
But Haley said her message was aimed at voters who are anxious about the former president.
Former Ambassador Nikki Haley spoke at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)
“We have to acknowledge that there are Americans who don't agree 100 percent with Donald Trump. I know some of them,” said Haley, who was nicknamed “Birdbrain” by Trump during the 2024 primary. “My message to them is simple: You don't have to agree 100 percent to vote for Trump. Trust me, I haven't always agreed with President Trump, but I agree with him more than I disagree with him.”
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, entered the Milwaukee arena just before speeches from Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom Trump defeated in a hard-fought 2024 Republican primary, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of his opponents in the 2016 election.
“Let's send Joe Biden back to the basement and send Donald Trump back to the White House,” said DeSantis, who was given the nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious” by Trump. “The border was more secure under Trump and the country was respected when Donald Trump was commander in chief. Joe Biden has let this country down.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)
Haley and DeSantis appear to have learned a lesson from Cruz, aka “Lying Ted,” who was booed at that year's convention and antagonized by Trump supporters for not endorsing him after he lost the 2016 Republican primary. Cruz has since reverted to the views of the man who suggested his father may have been involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Praise for Trump was interspersed throughout speeches on crime and immigration, and some of the most moving and powerful moments of the night came from families of crime victims.
Senator Cruz on Tuesday listed the names of Americans allegedly killed by illegal immigrants, including Katherine Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who was shot while walking with her father on San Francisco's Embarcadero in 2015.
“With Joe Biden as president, your families are less safe. Your children are less safe. And your country is less safe. But the good news is, we can make this better. With Donald Trump as president, we will make this better,” Cruz said. “And we know this, because he's made this better before.”
The theme of Tuesday night's rally was “Make America Safe Again.”
Speaker after speaker, from politicians to law enforcement officials to so-called “ordinary Americans,” blamed crime in the United States in part on an “infiltration” of criminals crossing into the United States from the southern border with Mexico, even though years of research have shown that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes in the United States than native-born citizens.
Kali Lake, a prominent denier of the 2020 election who lost the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race and is now running for U.S. Senate, blamed the surge in deaths from fentanyl and other opioids across the country and along the southern border on “disastrous” Democratic policies and said President Trump would end them.
Kali Lake will speak at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Jason Almond/Los Angeles Times)
Lake said President Biden and the Democrats have “handed over control of my state's border, Arizona, to the drug cartels,” adding, “They're allowing criminals and deadly drugs into our state and our children are dying.”
Ann Fundner, a California mother, said her 15-year-old son Weston died from fentanyl in 2022 and blamed the “open border” policies of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom for the deaths.
“This wasn't an overdose, this was an addiction. His future, everything we hoped for him, was taken away in an instant. And Joe Biden is doing nothing about it,” Fundner said.
She said Trump must be elected to end the scourge of fentanyl on American families like hers. “This fight is not about me. My son is gone,” she said. “This fight is for your children.”
Crime and homelessness are regular campaign topics among Republicans, often seen as the result of liberal policies in states like California.
The Republican Party has claimed the title of “law and order” party, a title that has been particularly useful for Trump to pivot politically in recent years as he faces multiple criminal investigations and has been convicted of dozens of felonies.
Democrats dismiss the Republican criticism as inaccurate or exaggerated, saying cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco do suffer from crime and homelessness problems but not to the extent Republicans suggest, and that cities in Republican-leaning states suffer from similar problems.
Democrats also slammed Republicans for allowing an individual involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and riot on the U.S. Capitol to speak at the Republican National Convention.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)
Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone, who was injured in the attack, condemned the insurrectionists' attendance at the rally.
“What happened on January 6th nearly cost me my life and put our democracy at risk,” Fanone said in a statement. “Now is the time to unite and oppose those who call for violence in politics, but the Republican National Committee's decision to provide a platform for the same people who insurrectionistly attacked our democracy on January 6th does the opposite.”
Crime data varies across the country and by state.
But experts say the clearest trend in recent national crime data is a decline in violent crime — data that Republicans often dismiss as fabricated or the result of declining reporting rates.
