The Lord Almighty
Donald Trump and Joe Biden compete for martyrdom as the Republican convention heads to its finale Thursday
MILWAUKEE — In a chaotic election marked by historic firsts, and endless twists, a consistent theme of martyrdom has emerged.
On the third night of the Republican convention in Milwaukee, former President Donald Trump watched from his convention box seat, sedate, smiling and nodding, as the crowd heard his ideological successor, nominee for vice president Sen. J.D. Vance praise his divine protection in last Saturday’s attempted assassination.
In the wake of the assassination attempt on the former president last Saturday, with a country terrified of falling into civil war, the official messaging from his campaign team was that they would calm things down by promoting “unity”. But the message from Trump’s social media site to his adherents’ ears was that he was finally martyred, as he had been predicting for eight years.
And Vance, in his introduction to the nation, hammered it home for him, saying an amorphous “they” had come to kill their champion but failed: “I want all Americans to watch the video of a would-be assassin coming a quarter of an inch from taking his life. Consider the lies they told you about Donald Trump. And then look at that photo of him defiant — fist in the air.”
Trump, with his now iconic white gauze covering his right ear, nodded.
America’s premier journalists, packed into the Fi-Serv Arena in Milwaukee, dug into political crucifixion with abandon — just not Trump’s.
The feeble, embattled, stumbling, gaffing president of the United States, Joe Biden, had contracted Covid-19, potentially fatal for someone as vulnerable as him. And he wasn’t wearing a mask. Then came ABC News’ stunning revelation that Biden had opened the door to leaving the race in a private talk with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Biden overshadowed Trump’s God-like ascension with the ongoing crucifixion by his own tribe.
THE COLD WARRIORS
The image of the strong politician beset by shadow outside forces has long been powerful and one Trump used to great effect in his nearly decade-long power grab. He drove it into the fabric of his new Republican Party with shorthand: “witch hunt” and “hoax”.
When he accepted the Republican nomination the first time, eight years ago in Cleveland, Trump alleged the nation was a hellscape of “carnage” and said he alone could save it. When he took office in 2017 under the cloud of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sophisticated campaign supporting him, Trump fought back against America’s intelligence leaders, painting them as shadowy traitors out to get him.
A generation of loyalists grew inside the Republican Party, going to jail to protect him. But Trump and his various campaign teams always held a sensitivity to questions of Russia’s behind-the-scenes support.
For his third run for office, under the cloud of his failed attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, Trump assembled an extremely tight-knit and cautious group of veteran Republican operatives to build a polished image to counter his chaotic nature.
Throughout the week in Milwaukee they painted a picture of inevitability and invincibility.
When Biden ousted Trump from office four years ago, he did so with his own version of fear and strength — uniting Democrats, moderates and conservatives exorcized from the GOP with the promise that he alone could stop the threat of Trump.
Biden also promised that, given his advanced age and the fire circumstance, he would serve a single term as a transitional figure pulling the nation back from the brink of authoritarianism.
ONLY GOD
Trump entered this week as the martyr he has been campaigning as for years now. Trump-aligned delegates in Milwaukee slapped on DIY ear patches in solidarity with their leader. An air of celebration and relief permeated the secured convention area around the Fi-Serv Arena.
Trump himself seemed the product of divine providence — invincible in his march back to the White House.
On the sidelines of the convention, one adviser noted this supreme confidence helped shift the selection of a running mate in Vance’s favor after the assassination attempt. Candidates like North Dakota Gov. Burgum and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who could have bridged the divide between Trump’s nationalists and the old factions of the GOP, were eschewed.
And people who had been political liabilities just a few months earlier reclaimed the spotlight. One time “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani, disgraced and disbarred for his efforts to overturn the last election, walked the floor of the convention arena.
Paul Manafort, who spent the past year working behind the scenes advising Trump’s top campaign aides, re-emerged publicly and told reporters, “It’s great to be back.”
One-time House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, who rose in Trump’s orbit helping him beat back the Trump-Russia investigation, sat by his boss’s side in the coveted box seats by the stage.
But on Wednesday night Biden, a foreign policy hawk trained in the ways of America’s long-running global brinksmanship with superpowers like Russia, wrested back the nation’s attention with rumors of his likely political demise.
Biden struggled for weeks, defiantly saying he wasn’t leaving, but now seemed open to leaving the race — the same night that Trump locked in his 2024 ticket, the Democrats appeared like they may get a new contender to fight him.
In the long run to Thursday, Biden cast himself as the victim of powerful forces — media, donors, even the leaders of his own party.
But he insisted only God could push him aside.
"If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race,” he told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos two weeks ago. “The Lord Almighty’s not coming down.”
At the start of the final day of the convention, the nation watched for a sign.
I wish JRB well. He will be a great campaigner for the Dems should he choose that. But, he needs to get past Covid first.