The former president’s address was the longest convention speech in modern history at just under 93 minutes and marked the climax and conclusion of a massive four-day Republican pep rally.
Sombre and bandaged, Donald Trump has officially accepted the Republican presidential nomination.
He spoke at the Republican National Convention and talked about the assassination attempt that could have ended his life just five days earlier before laying out a sweeping populist agenda, particularly on immigration.
The 78-year-old former president described standing onstage in Butler, Pennsylvania, with his head turned to look at a chart on display when he felt something hit his ear. He raised his hand to his head and saw immediately that it was covered in blood.
“If I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark,” Trump said. “And I would not be here tonight. We would not be together.”
Trump’s address was the longest convention speech in modern history at just under 93 minutes. It marked the climax and conclusion of the massive four-day Republican event which drew thousands of conservative activists and elected officials to swing-state Wisconsin.
Sensing political opportunity in the wake of his near-death experience, the often bombastic Republican leader embraced a new tone he hopes will help generate even more momentum in an election that appears to be shifting in his favour.
“The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” Trump said, wearing a large white bandage on his right ear, as he has all week, to cover a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting. “I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”
While he spoke in a gentler tone than at his usual rallies, Trump also outlined an agenda led by what he promised would be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. He repeatedly accused people crossing the US-Mexico border illegally of staging an “invasion.” Additionally, he teased new tariffs on trade and an “America first” foreign policy.
Trump also falsely suggested Democrats had cheated during the 2020 election he lost – despite a raft of federal and state investigations proving there was no systemic fraud.
He did not mention abortion rights, an issue that has bedevilled Republicans ever since the US Supreme Court struck down a federally guaranteed right to abortion two years ago. Trump nominated three of the six justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. Trump at his rallies often takes credit for Roe being overturned and argues states should have the right to institute their own abortion laws.
Nor did he mention the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, in which Trump supporters tried to stop the certification of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump has long referred to the people jailed in the riot as “hostages.”
At the RNC, Trump barely mentioned Biden, often referring only to the “current administration.”
With less than four months to go in the contest, major changes in the race are very much possible.
Trump’s appearance came as Biden, the 81-year-old Democratic incumbent, clings to his party’s presumptive nomination in the face of unrelenting pressure from key congressional allies, donors and even former President Barack Obama, who fear he may be unable to win reelection after his disastrous debate.
Long pressed by allies to campaign more vigorously, Biden is instead in isolation at his beach home in Delaware after having been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Hours before the balloons were scheduled to rain down on Trump and his family inside the convention hall, Biden deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks appeared nearby in Milwaukee and insisted over and over that Biden would not step aside.
“I do not want to be rude, but I don’t know how many more times I can answer that,” Fulks told reporters. “There are no plans being made to replace Biden on the ballot.”
Meanwhile, Trump and his campaign have not released information about his injury or the treatment he received. The former president on Thursday described his story of surviving the attack – and vowed he would not talk about it again.
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump told the packed convention hall. The crowd of thousands, which was listening in silence, shouted back, “Yes, you are.”
