Milwaukee: Donald Trump will make America safe again. He is also the most compassionate “grandpa” and Dad and friend. Donald Trump will seal the border and deport illegal immigrants. He is also the man who calls up those affected by crimes and cares for them. Donald Trump is the fighter who will take a bullet and yet show strength. He is also the man who doesn’t need to be in the race for fame or money, but is doing so because he cares for America and Americans.
This was the twin message that Republican delegates, and millions who watched the proceedings, heard repeatedly, from a variety of sources, through Tuesday’s evening speeches at the party convention in Milwaukee. The objective appeared to project Trump as strong but also human, a recalibration of the message after the assassination bid on Saturday to expand his appeal to swing voters.
As the last speaker of the evening, Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law and the articulate co-chair of the Republican National Committee, distilled this twin message. She spoke of him as her children, Luke and Carolina’s “grandpa” who relished time with them, of how he encouraged her after her television appearances and saw potential in her that she couldn’t see in herself, of how the family was shaken and scarred after Saturday, and how she wished that more people could see the side of Trump that she had access to. “Trump didn’t need to run for president for fame or money. Trust me. He is running because he loves this country,” she said, even as she recited a range of Trump’s wins while in office from securing the border, cutting taxes, signing peace deals in Middle East, lifting the economy and reducing prices, and fighting crime.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s press secretary and now Arkansas governor, spoke of the day she had brought her son to the White House, who ran past the President who was greeting him to his mother but Trump didn’t mind, for he was a father of five and grandfather of ten. She spoke of Trump as the leader who stood by her even as the “Left” attacked her. And she spoke, like many others, of how God had saved Trump on Saturday, because “God isn’t done with Donald Trump yet”.
{{/usCountry}}Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s press secretary and now Arkansas governor, spoke of the day she had brought her son to the White House, who ran past the President who was greeting him to his mother but Trump didn’t mind, for he was a father of five and grandfather of ten. She spoke of Trump as the leader who stood by her even as the “Left” attacked her. And she spoke, like many others, of how God had saved Trump on Saturday, because “God isn’t done with Donald Trump yet”.
{{/usCountry}}But all of this messaging was juxtaposed with testimonies of “everyday Americans” and other elected officials who railed against a “Third World Invasion”, in the words of Senator Tom Cotton, from the southern border, how Joe Biden had presided over lawless and how only Trump could secure America.
A mother from California spoke of how her son was among those killed by the flow of fentanyl, for which she held Biden and Kamala Harris responsible. A Black mother from New York railed against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who led the prosecution of Trump, for being soft on crime and letting go of her son’s killers with lenient punishment. A Maryland brother spoke of how an illegal immigrant had raped and murdered his sister, and while he hadn’t heard from Biden yet, Trump had called him. An activist in Pennsylvania spoke of the drug abuse in his neighbourhood, while a former policeman spoke of how Trump stood for those who served to protect communities, as the delegates chanted, “Back the Blue”.
As Trump and his running mate JD Vance sat and listened, with Trump repeatedly standing up to applaud the speakers and thank them, the twin Republican message relied on Trump’s supposed USP — of securing American borders — with a twist — of a man who cares. Whether it works to attract newer voters will be clear on November 5.