In a speech filled with allusions to the shooting he survived last week and extended by spontaneous applause lines and riffs, Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination on Thursday night, capping a highly anticipated event that came only after a convoluted and dramatic campaign.
After being found guilty of felonies, Trump is the only major-party presidential candidate to have done so. He ascended the stage just days after a 20-year-old shooter shot and nearly killed him during a rally in Pennsylvania, cutting his right ear and leaving it bleeding. Over the course of the week-long convention, he covered his injured ear with a white square bandage, and several attendees donned their own in sympathy.
Near the beginning of his 93-minute speech, Trump remarked, “Let me start this evening by thanking the people of the United States for their love and support after my rally on Saturday, when there was an attempt on my life.” “As you are aware, the assassin’s bullet missed me by less than 1/4 of an inch.”
The gunman killed rallygoer Corey Comperatore, a former local fire chief, and wounded two more people. During his remarks, Trump observed a moment of quiet in his honor. During his remarks, Comperatore’s firefighter jacket and helmet were on display. Trump greeted him with applause and called him “a fine man” before reaching over to kiss his gear.
Even while Trump is well-known for his spontaneous social media posts and public statements, he has previously delivered carefully prepared speeches at conventions. That was how Thursday’s address began, but he quickly veered off course to thank the speakers and audience in detail before engaging the audience with asides, first impressions, and occasionally difficult-to-follow diversions.
The speech as prepared might have been given by any number of Republicans, but Trump’s delivery stuck to his rally speech script, which he and his allies had been repeating all week about how the shooting had changed him.
Nonetheless, the assassination attempt, which dominated the first sections of Trump’s speech, abruptly interrupted the speechwriting process.
Trump described the moment the bullet grazed his ear during the rally to a silent, choked audience as TV cameras focused on attendees wiping tears from their faces. “My right palm was covered in blood as I pulled it down to my ear after thinking to myself, “Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.”,” Trump said. “I knew right away that we were under attack and that it was extremely serious,” the speaker said, “and I immediately dropped to the ground.”
Trump considered the head movement he had made moments before.
“The incredible thing is that the assassin’s bullet would have hit its target exactly before the shot if I hadn’t moved my head at the last second,” he remarked. “And I wouldn’t spend the evening with you.”
After a near-tragic murder attempt a few days before the Republican convention, organizers and Trump advisors had to figure out how to pull off a long-planned party. Not only did Trump’s advisors rework his address in the final 48 hours before the convention started, but they also advised other speakers to temper some of their views.
Trump made over 40 references to President Joe Biden in his 2020 address receiving the Republican nomination, but he only referenced the former president once.
After around twenty minutes, the occurrence gave Trump’s speech more significance as it shifted to the central themes of his campaign. He declared, “This evening, we are more united than ever.”
Prior to focusing on policy, Trump defended himself against his legal problems, which had been the main talking point of the 2024 campaign prior to Biden’s advancing age and an assassin’s bullet drastically altering the outcome of the contest.
In recent weeks, Trump’s legal troubles have significantly decreased. He was facing four separate indictments, two federal and two state; his sentencing was postponed after he was found guilty in New York; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on presidential immunity, which has significant ramifications for his two election interference cases in Georgia and Washington, D.C.; and a federal judge appointed by Trump in Florida dismissed a case involving the handling and retention of classified documents after he left the White House in 2020.
Without providing any proof, Trump and his allies have long accused Biden and Democrats of “weaponizing” the legal system in order to get him into trouble with the law. He asserted that his rivals “used Covid to cheat” in the 2020 elections and connected the calls for a tempering of political discourse following the shooting to his legal actions.
In his convention speech, Trump declared, “Political disagreement must not be demonized or dissent must not be criminalized.” In that vein, the Democratic Party ought to cease weaponizing the legal system right away and stop calling their rivals in politics enemies of democracy, especially since that accusation is unfounded. Actually, I am the one preserving democracy for the citizens of our nation.
The second part of Trump’s address was devoted to highlighting the stark policy differences between him and Biden on matters ranging from immigration to energy policy to the state of the economy.
“I will immediately put an end to the terrible inflation crisis, lower interest rates, and lower the price of energy.” He declared, “We’re going to drill, baby, drill, which will cause a significant drop in pricing.
Trump covered his major policy concerns for years, including tax reform, immigration, foreign policy, and the economy, in his speech, speaking in general terms rather than going into great detail. He paid particular attention to the high rates of inflation that have plagued Biden for most of his presidency.
He declared, “Our people are being crushed by the inflation problem, which is destroying working-class and low-income families’ incomes and making living unaffordable.”
Inflation has decreased recently, and more employment has been generated under Biden’s administration (15 million) than under Trump’s. However, the economy has continued to be one of the most potent weapons in the Republican arsenal due to price increases and other problems.
As he gave examples of unauthorized immigrants committing crimes, Trump declared that there is a “illegal immigration crisis” in the country and promised to “launch the largest deportation operation in our country’s history.” Trump implemented the “stay in Mexico” policy while he was president, forcing asylum claimants to remain in Mexico while they awaited an immigration court. Biden terminated the policy during a legal battle, but Trump has promised to reinstate it.
Additionally, the former president has long supported a foreign policy agenda that is more isolationist and aims to reduce American influence abroad. It’s a component of his “America First” program, which essentially calls for sending more public funds domestically and fewer foreign.
“We are on the verge of a third world war as war rages throughout Europe and the Middle East, looming over Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, and all of Asia,” stated Trump.
Democrats have presented this election as a struggle for democracy’s survival rather than merely another presidential race. They have maintained that Trump’s return to the White House will fundamentally alter American institutions because he seeks to extend presidential power and replace long-standing non-political federal employees with his political cronies.
Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement, “He neglected to address how overturning Roe v Wade had caused suffering and cruelty to American women.” “He made no mention of his intentions to pardon the January 6th insurrectionists and assume control of the public service.”
Furthermore, Trump’s remarks coincided with a Democratic attempt to discredit Biden following a dreadful debate performance and multiple errors that highlighted the incumbent’s advanced age and limited skill set.
Trump presented the results as a shift in direction.
“Every disaster we are currently facing will be fixed, and it will be fixed very, very quickly, with proper leadership,” he declared.