CNN
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On a night when Republicans were making bravado about their 2024 presidential bid, Donald Trump showed a rare display of vulnerability in a prime-time speech.
Trump spoke Thursday night about the assassination attempt that took place five days earlier at a rally in Pennsylvania, during a speech concluding the Republican National Convention and accepting his party’s nomination for a third consecutive election.
“I wasn’t supposed to be here tonight,” he told the crowd at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
As the crowd chanted “yes,” Trump shook his head.
“Thanks,” he said, “but I’m not.”
And then it was back to the usual Trump.
He frequently went off script to attack political opponents, praise the dismissal of indictments and recite supporters in the audience during the longest acceptance speech in modern American history.
Trump boasted that the economy had been strong and there had been no new foreign conflicts during his presidency, and he slammed President Joe Biden’s administration for its handling of border security, energy, foreign policy and other issues.
Reading from a script meant to convey a message of unity, Trump said he would only use Biden’s name once, but he said he did so to say the Democratic incumbent is a worse president than the nation’s 10 worst presidents ever combined.
As much as Republicans tried to play up the theme of unity, Thursday’s speech featured firebrands like far-right media personality Tucker Carlson and plenty of criticism of Democrats. The former president’s son, Eric Trump, delivered a blistering attack on conservatives, as did his brother, Donald Trump Jr., the night before. The 45th president then lamented a politicized justice system and what he called a “partisan witch hunt.” He falsely accused Democrats of “stealing the election.”
Here are five lessons learned from the final night of the RNC.
Ahead of Thursday’s speech, Trump’s supporters said the weekend assassination attempt had changed the former president.
Trump, who accepted his party’s nomination, appeared more emotional and solemn than Americans are used to seeing as he recounted the “harrowing” events at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
The former president recounted the attack, describing how he heard the would-be assassin’s bullet whizz by his ear as photos of the moment flashed on a screen behind him. The screen then showed him, blood coming from his ear, pumping his fist to let the crowd know he was safe. He praised the Pennsylvania crowd for not stampeding out of the rally area, attributing it to their courage and concern for themselves.
Despite the shouts from the audience, Trump maintained he was never supposed to be at the convention. “It is only by the grace of Almighty God that I stand before you on this stage,” he told the crowd.
President Trump also paid tribute to Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief and Butler rally attendee who was shot and killed while protecting his family at the Butler rally. The former president walked across the stage where Comperatore’s protective gear was on display and kissed his helmet. President Trump announced that more than $6.3 million had been raised in a fundraiser for Comperatore’s family and those injured at the rally, and asked for a moment of silence in Comperatore’s memory.
The tribute to Comperatore builds on a theme of empathy that the Trump campaign has cultivated all week, recounting stories of the former president reaching out to families of Gold Star recipients and showing compassion to staffers in private.
Trump said Thursday night that he’s only used Biden’s name once (he’s used Biden’s name twice — once when he called Biden the worst president in history and a second time when he said that was the only time he’s used it).
One reason is that the Trump campaign wanted to portray the Republican Party as united and positive, in stark contrast to the situation Democrats will face when they gather in Chicago next month.
But it’s also because, in the end, Trump may not face Biden again.
As Republicans rallied around Trump, Democrats increasingly sought to oust Biden, and a string of reports from CNN and other outlets grew louder throughout the week that Democratic Party officials were urging Biden to give up on reelection amid voter concerns about Biden’s age.
On Thursday night, CNN reported that many White House and campaign officials now privately believe Biden will have to quickly abandon his bid for a second term.
For Trump, the standard speech will focus on where his campaign wants him: Biden.
01:31 – Source: CNN
Axelrod: Trump speech is first good thing for Democrats in weeks
Melania Trump has kept a low profile since the end of the Trump administration. She did not attend the former president’s hush money trial or the first general election debate of the term between Trump and Biden.
The former first lady made appearances at her husband’s 2022 campaign announcements and was a featured speaker at fundraisers, but her presence on the campaign trail has been much more subdued than usual for the spouse of a presidential candidate. Campaign aides said in March that Melania Trump Several It is not yet clear what role she will play in her husband’s 2024 presidential campaign.
In previous elections, Melania Trump has spoken at the Republican National Convention. She didn’t do so this year, instead making her first appearance on Thursday night, with a lengthy classical music soundtrack playing as she entered the arena.
Trump seemed to understand the importance of his wife’s presence at the Republican National Convention: “I’m honored to have my incredible wife with me,” he said during his speech, adding that the two-page letter she wrote to the nation following the assassination attempt “touched many people.”
01:42 – Source: CNN
Donald Trump praises wife Melania in Republican National Convention speech
Testosterone was the theme at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night ahead of President Trump’s speech.
If that wasn’t already clear when Hulk Hogan took the stage, the professional wrestler left no doubt when he ditched his blazer, slid off his T-shirt and proclaimed Trump a “true American hero.”
The night included introductions for Trump by Kid Rock and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, a band playing 1980s hits and a speech from the manager of Trump’s golf courses. There was a strategic reason for this: Republicans have long won over male voters, and the Trump campaign has been particularly focused on narrowing the Democratic Party’s huge lead among non-white men.
But Hogan’s speech may have been one of the most memorable moments of the entire convention, in part because it perfectly embodied the story Trump has been selling for years: Hogan briefly stepped out of character, revealed his real name (Terry Bollea) to the crowd, and described himself, like Trump, as a professional entertainer who couldn’t stay on the political sidelines.
“I’ve known him for over 35 years and he’s always been the biggest patriot, and he still is,” he said of Trump. “He’s always said exactly what he thinks, and he still is, brother.”
Then, back in character, Hogan finished the match with his signature flourish.
“All of you criminals, all of you scumbags, all of you scumbags, all of you drug dealers, and all of you corrupt politicians, you need to answer one question, brother,” he said. “When Donald Trump and all of the Trump fanatics go on a rampage against you, what are you going to do, brother?”
Political conventions rarely mix with executive sessions, so it’s not surprising that Milwaukee Republicans steered clear of technical discussions of policy this week.
But even by the usual standards of acknowledging a problem and then succinctly offering a solution, the 2024 Republican National Convention was puzzling, especially on its final night, when politicians mostly gave way to prominent figures on the right.
Hogan, for example, was never expected to bring a ton of white papers to the stage, but one of his remarks that didn’t get much attention actually summed up the Republican National Convention quite well.
“The economy was thriving. The border was strong. Our streets were safe. There was peace and respect around the world,” Hogan said, optimistically looking back on Trump’s time in office. “But in an instant, we lost it all. Crime was out of control. The border was out of control. Food prices were out of control. Gas prices were out of control. Housing prices were out of control. And only Donald Trump can clean this up.”
In that respect, despite the talk of a “new tone” and calls for unity around very real problems, this Republican National Convention felt a lot like the 2016 convention, where, on every single one of the country’s problems, Trump memorably declared, “I alone can fix it.”
How to bring down grocery bills, home prices, interest rates, gasoline and food prices (which are already falling in some ways) is left to the imagination.
To the extent that the Republican Party’s political manifesto for 2024, known as “Project 2025,” exists, Trump, his campaign staff and most of the rank-and-file party are running screaming about it.
A nearly 900-page wish list for Trump’s second term, “Project Trump” seeks to further restrict abortion and gut climate action while giving the president near-total control of the government bureaucracy, making it a convenient political cudgel for Democrats, while Trump says he knows “nothing” about it.
If last week’s events in Milwaukee are any indication, he may be telling the truth.
