On Thursday, five days after a would-be assassin’s bullet injured the former president, Trump accepted the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. His acceptance speech oscillated between an emotional dirge and a classic, rambling Trump address based largely on a nonfactual sense of reality.
But he began on a personal note.
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight. I’m not supposed to be here,” Trump told the audience, which started chanting that, yes, he was supposed to be there. “Thank you, but I’m not. I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.”
In that same arena were some of Trump's most devoted worshippers: More than a dozen fake electors served as delegates to the convention and nominated Trump, including three from Arizona who have been indicted by an Arizona grand jury: Nancy Cottle and state Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern. Kern is even selling T-shirts with his mugshot on them.
Drunk Hulk Hogan was a brilliant idea by the Trump campaign. He really convinced those swing voters. pic.twitter.com/tdE0APVq8J
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 19, 2024
The main event was preceded by a circuslike slate of opening acts that more closely resembled a wrestling extravaganza than a typical political convention. Kid Rock performed a song he recently wrote for Trump. Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance awkwardly nodded to the rhythm, squinting and sometimes forcing a smile, while his wife, Usha, stood arms crossed by his side. Hulk Hogan ripped his American flag shirt in half to reveal a Trump shirt beneath it, a potent and unintentional metaphor for where a second Trump presidency may take the country.
When Trump was introduced, bright lights spelled out his last name before transitioning to a projection of the White House. The former president paced oddly around the stage, arms held at his sides, to Lee Greenwood’s full rendition of “God Bless the U.S.A.”
Kind of Broadway…Kind of Gay. pic.twitter.com/iVClDpRsvK
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 19, 2024
Trump began reading from the teleprompter solemnly and with uncharacteristically low energy. The speech, which Trump’s advisors told the press all week would be a powerful call for unity, clung to that track at least to start. But after an emotional, 15-minute recounting of his brush with death, Trump reverted to his bread and butter: making petty, divisive comments about Democrats.
He said it was up to Democrats to “unify our country” by dropping “these partisan witch hunts.” He said he, the man whose lawyers argued should have complete immunity as president, is “the one saving democracy.” Trump — so fond of starting “Lock her up!” chants and a president who pushed his Department of Justice to interfere with the 2020 election — demanded that Democrats “immediately stop weaponizing the justice system.”
“We don’t have fierce people” currently leading the country, Trump said at one point during a droning 93-minute speech. “We have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections and a couple of other things. Then they’re fierce.”
People hold signs that read "Mass Deportation Now" and "Make America Strong Again" on the third day of the Republican National Convention.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
‘Our vision is righteous’
The longer Trump spoke, the more his speech devolved into an increasingly delusional farce.He hit on the economy, decrying rising inflation that has been ticking steadily downward for two years. “They’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said, promising to “drive down prices” on his first day back in office.
Standing in front of an audience gleefully waving “Mass Deportation Now” signs, he blamed immigrants for spreading “misery, poverty, disease and destruction” and “killing hundreds of thousands of people a year.” Once again: “No one’s ever seen anything like it.”
Those immigrants, he went on, were taking “107%” of jobs from American citizens. Trump didn’t explain his math or how that could be possible when currently there are more jobs openings than available workers in the U.S. The solution was to close the border and finish his beloved border wall — “most of which,” he added, “I have already built.”
In reality, the Trump administration added only 80 miles of border fencing that wasn’t already in place. Out of those, 33 miles were secondary reinforcement for existing fencing. The border with Mexico is 1,954 miles long, though you could have driven the entirety of it before Trump's speech was over.
I’m standing 10 feet from the stage, in a sea of diehards, and some are getting restless. Checking phones, stealing glances at the teleprompter, whispering about when it will be over. pic.twitter.com/7Y7qDfH5fs
— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) July 19, 2024
After the speech finished, CNN’s Daniel Dale did a quick accounting of 22 untrue statements from Trump. The tally seemed low and also, sadly, old hat. The level of disinformation churned out by the leader of a major American political party is just par for the course now, the culmination of a once-unthinkable spiral into dysfunction.
That’s the essence of Trump’s GOP: If Trump says it, the party agrees. Even those who at first challenged Trump have now kissed the ring as the former president reconsolidated power. Some delegates at the convention wore ear bandages to mimic their king.
It’s catching on, especially in the Arizona delegation. pic.twitter.com/SFjIfQbWPf
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) July 17, 2024
The entire ultraconservative apparatus is mobilizing behind Trump with Project 2025, which provides a framework to dismantle the U.S. government and sell it piecemeal while banning abortion nationally and establishing an authoritarian, Christian nationalist order. And while Trump has tried to distance himself from that extremist plan, his rhetoric during his supposedly unifying speech Thursday night certainly echoed it.
“Our vision is righteous, and our cause is pure. No matter what obstacle comes our way, we will not break, we will not bend,” Trump said. “Gonna turn our nation around, and we’re gonna do it very quickly.”
