Last night, former president Donald Trump accepted the Republican party’s nomination for president, and started his much-anticipated speech at the Republican National Convention by retelling the events of the attempt on his life at last Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. ‘I’ll tell you what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell’, he said.
As Trump walked through the events that day, attendees cried and laughed. He praised the crowd in Pennsylvania for their courage and calm amid the bullets, saying the lack of a stampede ‘saved many lives.’ The famous image of Trump raising his fist as blood ran down the side of his face flashed on the screen and the crowd chanted with him: ‘fight, fight, fight!’ Trump remembered the supporter, Corey Comperatore, who lost his life at the hands of the would-be assassin while shielding his family from bullets. Comperatore’s firefighter uniform and helmet were propped up on the stage behind Trump.
You got the sense that Trump was grateful to be in Milwaukee at all
Reports were that Trump completely rewrote his speech after the assassination attempt, in order to call for national unity. ‘In an age when our politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens,’ he said. He called on the Democrats to drop their legal battles against him. ‘I am the one saving democracy,’ he said.
Trump ran through his agenda: securing borders, getting tough on crime, revamping the economy, ending conflict, and restoring American energy dominance. ‘We will not let countries come and take our jobs and plunder our nation,’ Trump said to chants of ‘USA’.
As usual, Trump went off the teleprompter. He spoke about immigration and put up the famous chart that saved his life in Butler, as he turned his head at the last moment, causing the bullet to hit his ear. ‘Last time I put up that chart I didn’t really get to look at it,’ he said with a smile. ‘But without that chart I wouldn’t be here today.’
The speech was arguably 30 to 45 minutes too long, but that’s nothing new for Trump. You got the sense that Trump was grateful to be in Milwaukee at all. Republicans I spoke to described this week as a ‘vibe shift’ that warranted great optimism. Balloons came down over the Fiserv Forum, and the contrast with the chaos wracking the Democrats could not have been clearer.
This piece first appeared with The Spectator’s world edition.
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