| MILWAUKEE — The Republican convention wrapped last night with a 90-minute, often-rambling acceptance speech from former president Donald Trump, who spoke in detail for the first time about the assassination attempt last weekend that left him injured. “I stand before you in this arena,” Trump said, after walking out onstage with his name displayed in large, bright lights, “only by the grace of Almighty God.”
After Trump acknowledged he was “not supposed to be here” had he not moved his head slightly, avoiding a gunman’s bullet, supporters in the arena chanted, “Yes you are!” Here are some of our observations after spending the week in Milwaukee: Trump’s good week This was an extremely good week for Trump and the Republican Party. Trump’s assassination attempt turned him into a Godlike figure for his most ardent supporters, who gathered here in Milwaukee. Delegates and elected officials told us it was the most unified they have seen the party since at least 2004, and some said since the Reagan era. Some of the speakers dug into hot-button topics, such as transgender rights and plans for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. And there was almost no mention of Republicans’ most controversial claims — for instance, that the 2020 election was stolen and that the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are political prisoners — until Trump mentioned off-script that “people” in the Biden administration are not “fierce” except when they are “cheating on elections.” Abortion was barely mentioned; the Republican Party has approved a new party platform that loosens its previous policy of stringent abortion restrictions. The good week for Republicans has caused even more anxiety among Democrats. The sanitizing of Trump’s party has made Democrats we spoke to even more nervous about their ability to beat Trump in November. (We’ll have more on the Democrats below.)
The well-polled convention Convention organizers appeared to have paid close attention to polling. They kept it tightly focused on all of the issues where Biden is weakest, including the economy, the border and crime, by using regular Americans to tell personal stories.
- A mom who lost her teenage son because of a pill laced with fentanyl spoke and blamed Biden for open borders.
- A single mother from Nevada, a swing state, spoke about how hard it is to afford groceries.
- The brother of a woman who was allegedly killed by an undocumented migrant also addressed the convention.
And Wednesday night’s lineup of speakers leaned heavily into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, one of the lowest points of Biden’s presidency. Family members of several of the 13 soldiers who were killed at Kabul airport during the chaotic withdrawal were featured in video and spoke onstage. Uniting the party After Trump’s apparent assassination attempt, he declared that the convention would be about unity. In his opening remarks, Trump said he was “running to be president for all of America, not half of America.” “I am here tonight to lay out a vision for the whole nation. To every citizen, whether you are young or old, man or woman, Democrat, Republican, or independent, Black or White, Asian or Hispanic, I extend to you a hand of loyalty and friendship,” Trump said.
But that was the only time Trump offered a fig leaf to Democrats. He only mentioned Biden once in his speech when blaming him directly for the “unthinkable” damage he has caused to the country. Unity in Milwaukee, instead, meant uniting and growing the GOP. Trump has remade the party as one of loyalty and fealty as nearly all of Trump’s critics in the party have been silenced at this point. The convention showed more diversity than usual for a Republican convention. The first night a Muslim woman closed with a prayer in Arabic. A Black pastor from Detroit praised the former president. Several Hispanic and Black lawmakers and Republican voters were given time to speak about their love for Trump. Trump’s former Republican foes, including his 2024 competitors, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged their support. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) gave a very different speech than he did eight years ago when he refused to endorse Trump. And the convention featured many former Never Trumpers or Democrats turned Trump voters, from former model Amber Rose to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). No one personified that change more than Trump’s vice-presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who was once one of Trump’s sharpest critics. But during his acceptance speech Wednesday, Vance praised Trump for being “right on all of these issues while Joe Biden was wrong.” Humanizing Trump Republicans spent all week wondering whether Trump would discuss surviving the assassination attempt and whether such an experience would soften the politician many respect for his “strong man” image. Many gathered in Fiserv were struck by the image of Trump looking visibly emotional, and grateful, on Monday before he made his first appearance since the shooting to a riled-up crowd. But on Thursday, Trump’s softer side wasn’t on display. Instead, he leaned into strong masculinity with Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock. He spoke about how he’d overturn a “tragedy of failures” by the Biden-Harris administration and launched into a rant about how murderers in South American countries are flooding through the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet throughout the week, many women in Trump’s life played a critical role in humanizing him. Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump, 17, spoke about how loving her grandfather is. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders recalled how Trump encouraged her when she was down. Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, spoke about how supportive her father-in-law is. As the camera panned to him, on cue he tilted his head to the side, smiled and mouthed “thank you.” It was an attempt to show a personal side of Trump; in the last election, Trump’s lack of support among women played a major role in his loss. |
