MILWAUKEE — Former President Trump closed out an emotionally charged Republican National Convention Thursday by urging the country to heal “difference and division” even as he mocked and attacked his opponents, days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt.
A large white bandage around Trump’s right ear was a reminder of the mass shooting that has energized the Republican Party this week and given Trump the lead in the presidential election with about 100 days to go until Election Day.
“I shouldn’t have been here tonight. I shouldn’t have been here,” Trump said, drawing chants of “Yeah right” from his supporters packed into the city’s Fiserv Forum.
Trump’s speech lasted more than 90 minutes, making it the longest acceptance speech ever given by a major party nominee.
Trump and his advisers have said all week that they had scrapped the draft of his convention speech in the wake of the shooting that killed one rally attendee, revising it to a more muted tone and presenting a more sympathetic portrayal of the controversial former president.
But Trump struggled to maintain that tone for much of the night, instead delivering a rally-like, solemn opening recounting the details of the assassination attempt while simultaneously urging Americans to stop fighting among themselves, criticizing Democrats and frequently going off-script.
He lambasted “Crazy Nancy Pelosi” and called CBS’s Sunday Morning Show a “stain on the nation.” He named Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán and joked that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might miss him. He claimed Democrats stole the election and branded President Biden the worst president the country has ever had, but said that was the only time he’d mentioned his successor by name.
Trump cited an “inflation crisis,” an “illegal immigration crisis,” and an “international crisis,” blaming the current administration for these. He called the country a “declining nation” after describing the state of affairs in the four years since he left office as dire.
And while he slammed what he saw as the Biden administration’s failures, he offered his cooperation to skeptical voters and encouraged them to join the administration.
“Tonight, whether you’ve supported me in the past or not, I hope you’ll support me in the future, because I’m going to bring back the American Dream. That’s what we’re going to do. You’ve never even heard of the American Dream,” Trump said. “With great humility, I’m asking you to be excited about the future of our country.”
Trump detailed the assassination attempt in his speech, saying he would only talk about it once because it was “too painful to talk about.”
He said turning his head slightly to see the video board probably saved his life. He praised the bravery of the Secret Service officers who rushed to protect him and expressed relief that his supporters did not become overrun in the chaos.
Trump paid tribute to rally attendee Corey Comperatore, who was killed in the shooting, by unveiling his fire department jacket and helmet onstage and holding a moment of silence.
Trump has vowed to be a president for all Americans, a move likely hard to persuade given the divisions of his first four years in office, and said the upcoming campaign should focus on issues — a bold declaration given his repeated attacks on Biden as “incompetent” and “stupid.”
“I’m here tonight to offer a vision for our nation,” Trump said, “to offer my loyalty and my friendship to all Americans, young or old, male or female, Democrat or Republican or independent, black or white, Asian or Hispanic.”
Trump said opening up drilling would lower prices, suggesting that lower energy costs would trickle down to lower other costs. He has vowed to block funding for environmentally friendly programs and said he would use tariffs to bring jobs back to the U.S., but experts say his tariffs on imports risk causing inflation to soar.
The president said he would complete construction of a border wall to curb immigration and promised to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, but gave no specifics.
While Trump rarely mentioned Biden by name in his speech, other speakers this week singled out the president for his criticisms of inflation, wars overseas and the surge of migrants at the southern border. Several speakers questioned whether Biden has the clarity to make decisions.
Just before Trump took the stage, his son Eric delivered a somber speech in which he repeated the theme of Trump’s 2016 Republican National Convention speech: “Only I can fix this.”
There has been a concerted effort to soften Trump’s image this week. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) and former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway praised Trump as a champion of women and working mothers. Trump’s granddaughter described him as a “regular grandpa.” And businessman Steve Witkoff spoke of the empathy he received from Trump when he lost his son to an opioid overdose.
This week’s convention couldn’t have gone better for Trump, with Saturday’s assassination attempt serving to unify and revitalize the party. Trump received a rapturous welcome as he entered the arena on Monday in his first public appearance since the shooting.
The president gave new energy to the campaign on Monday when he announced Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate.
Polls this week had shown Trump firmly ahead in battleground states and in some cases widening his lead over Biden. By Thursday, the Democratic Party was in disarray, with President Biden in quarantine after contracting COVID-19 and speculation swirling that he might withdraw from the 2024 presidential race under pressure from senior Democratic Party officials.
