Trump Recounts Assassination Attempt in Rambling Milwaukee Acceptance Speech
Trump accepted his third presidential nomination, arguing that the way to end violence and chaos was to vote for him
MILWAUKEE — Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party nomination for president Thursday night, recounting the terrifying moment when a 20-year-old assailant allegedly shot his right ear and meandering through a familiar airing of grievances that flew in the face of campaign reports that he’d focus on trying to unify our wildly polarized nation.
Over more than 90 minutes, slogging through a stream-of-consciousness speech attacking his Democratic opponents and glossing over his second term plans, Trump promised to make Republicans proud.
“I am more determined than ever,” the emboldened former president said of his resolve following the failed attempt on his life last weekend in Butler, Pennsylvania, adding “nothing will stop me.”
After taking the stage triumphantly, bearing a white gauze bandage over his right ear, Trump delivered a more soft-spoken version of his standard campaign rally speeches — avoiding overt threats that he would imprison political opponents but still launching broadsides against immigrants, electric vehicles, foreign wars and a host of other issues he loathes.
The newly-anointed Republican nominee kept up his attacks on Democratic critics, including incumbent President Joe Biden and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, accusing them of orchestrating a deep-state conspiracy to deny him a second term.
“They used Covid to cheat,” he said, reviving his baseless claims of election fraud to explain his embarrassing 2020 loss to Biden.
Trump bounced from a harrowing story about feeling the blood gush into his ear and dropping to the ground during last week’s deadly campaign rally to accusing migrants of taking jobs from Blacks, Latinos and union workers without offering any corroborating evidence. He also said his two “Day One” priorities include blocking asylum-seeking migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and expanding domestic energy production wherever possible.
“We’re going to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!” he pledged, recycling a campaign promise popularized by 2008 GOP vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin.
At times Trump slurred his words, as he has throughout his third race for the White House. And his tempo vacillated between comedian-style delivery and rapid-fire monotone as he deviated from the TelePrompter text.
It capped a monster truck jam-style of a nominating convention, a carefully choreographed performance punctuated by singer Kid Rock rapping his new Trump campaign song, and former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan ripping a t-shirt in two to reveal a Trump-Vance campaign tank top underneath.
The former president mostly avoided the violent rhetoric that has played a huge part of his messaging to date. But also veered wildly from the spin of his campaign team, which promised a coherent call for the end to all the division and chaos he has personally sowed over the past decade.
“Any disagreements have to be put aside,” Trump said towards the end of his wide-ranging speech, zigging back to the promised “unity” theme after zagging for most of the night.
Left unstated through the finale of the otherwise uneventful Republican National Convention were Trump’s historic felony convictions and the horrors of the attack on the U.S. Capitol instigated by the single-term president and three-time Republican nominee — with his fiercest allies painting him as a survivor without ever mentioning January 6th.
JAN 6TH
Four years ago, Trump left Washington, D.C., in disgrace after the deadly attack on Congress. The former president was sidelined as top Congressional Republicans — who voted to acquit him of charges that he stoked the violent insurrection — eyed federal and state criminal investigations which would potentially remove Trump from power for them.
The former Trump administration officials who broke with him after the 2021 siege at the U.S. Capitol cautioned repeatedly that Trump would return to the White House as the nation’s first SCOTUS-enabled dictator were nowhere to be found in Brew City.
And Trump, who has campaigned by painting the insurrectionists who brutally attacked U.S. Capitol Police officers to help him cling to power as “political prisoners,” avoided the violent rhetoric and threats which he campaigned on for more than a year until he was shot by a would-be assassin who came within inches of murdering him.
A series of bruising losses in the 2022 midterms led by Trump’s personal recruits who ran on the lies which undergirded the insurrection and wild conspiracy theories pushed by QAnon and militia groups, elevated Republican presidential hopefuls including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg’s resurrection of a 2016 investigation, historic indictment and equally historic criminal conviction of a former president helped rally Republicans to Trump’s side.
Top Republicans quickly flocked back to his side. House Speaker Mike Johnson, newly minted vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, 2016 rivals turned Trump defenders Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and everyone else who traveled to this Rust Belt town sang his praises throughout the week.
Democrats watching the convention through the week called it proof that Trump had moved the GOP so far to the nationalist right that it left key factions of the old Reagan-era party in the dust.
“Tonight, the American people were reminded that there are no more moderates left among House Republicans. Tonight, they all ‘bent the knee’ to their criminally convicted leader and his extreme agenda,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Suzan DelBene said in an official statement after Trump wrapped his speech.
Stagecraft
Trump put on a show of exaggerated might, relying on the creators of the World Wrestling Entertainment, with a lighter touch than the hyperbole of their rise in the ‘80s. Linda McMahon, the wife of WWE founder Vince McMahon and former Trump administration official, talked about Trump being a doting grandfather.
Terry Bollea, better known as iconic ‘80s wrestler Hulk Hogan, dusted off some signature moves while on stage — hyping up the crowd with fighting words before ripping off a branded T-shirt bearing his own image to reveal a bright red Trump/Vance campaign tank top beneath.
“Whatcha gonna do when Donald Trump and all the Trumpamaniacs run wild on you, brother!” Bollea growled to the delight of the crowd.
Bollea, who parted ways with the WWE in 2015 due to a scandal involving his alleged use of racist language, also called Trump his “hero” for surviving an attempt on the former president’s life last week in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Say ‘Fight! Fight!” conservative rock-rap singer Kid Rock commanded rallygoers as he ran through a medley of songs modified to glorify the former president.
As Trump flexed his performance muscles of exaggerated domination and humiliation for all opponents, President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party appeared to be splitting apart at the seams as reports swirled of the incumbent president preparing to leave the race after a disastrous few weeks — opening the possibility for Vice President Kamala Harris or another top Democrat to step in to face Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance in the election.
“I better finish strong, otherwise we’ll blow it — and I can’t let that happen,” Trump told the adoring crowd.
Good recap. I’m glad I didn’t watch even one second of this shit show of losers and suckers. Now on to Chicago!