Two messages I heard from Trump and the GOP convention
Republican presidential candidate and former president, Donald Trump speaks on the final day of the Republican National Convention Thursday in Milwaukee. Credit: AP/Paul Sancya
The show millions of Americans watched last week had pomp, music, and talk of unity and hope. Promises of strength abroad, an improved economy, safer cities and suburbs. A message that could last.
But underneath the TV performances was a Republican National Convention deeply tailored to Donald Trump’s faithful. The loudest applause in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum often went to the most alienating rhetoric — about an “invasion” on the southern border, about men participating in women’s sports, and about “feckless” President Joe Biden and “border czar” Kamala Harris, about whom Nikki Haley delivered a warning that now seems prescient after Biden’s withdrawal from the race: “Imagine her in charge of the entire country.”
Delegates joyfully waved placards calling for “Mass Deportation Now!”, chanted “Send them back,” and echoed Sarah Palin’s famous cry of “Drill, baby, drill.” During commercial breaks, the audience saw videos bashing Democrats and showing Biden faltering.
Now that Republicans have left that protective mesh, can they maintain the unifying outer image even as the darker undercurrents seep through? Will that passion abate with the change at the top of the Democratic ticket? The challenge was evident during Trump’s acceptance speech, framed by emotion at the start, optimism at the end, but steeped in between in hostility and peril.
A fervent energy engulfed thousands of delegates and other attendees from the start, reaching a crescendo when Trump entered the arena Monday evening. And it never let up. Over and over, they raised their fists, chanting “Fight!”, an army ready to battle on behalf of the man they worship.
The surrounding scene was a Trumpfest of merchandise, signage and imagery. Tables of official and unofficial souvenirs offered Trump’s famous high-top gold sneakers for $600 — until they sold out. Also available: Trump bobbleheads, stickers saying “Rigged 2020,” and shirts that advertised “I’m Voting for the Felon 2024.”
A self-published book of the “Collected Poems of Donald J. Trump” — basically, his tweets — sold for $45, a price chosen “for the 45th president,” the publisher told me. People wore dresses and suits covered with Trump’s face.
But Trump’s biggest critics, who also hear what they want to hear, would be wise to pay attention to the simpler moments that galvanized the party and resonated deeply inside the arena — and likely outside, too. When Gold Star families emerged on stage, the audience showered them with support, repeating each service member’s name. Hamas hostage Omer Neutra’s parents were serenaded with chants of “Bring them home!” Just before Trump’s speech, attendees loudly sang “I’m Proud to be an American” in a single voice — a full sound TV didn’t capture.
Republican electricity rippled in smaller ways, too — in conversations with young delegates at their first convention and Long Island attendees excited about the region’s growing role in national politics, in speeches by “everyday Americans,” and in vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s mom, featured on arena screens mouthing, “That’s my boy,” as he spoke about her.
But always, the incendiary commentary returned, illustrating the enormous stakes ahead.
“We no longer trust our elections, we no longer trust our judicial system, and we no longer believe that government is working in our best interests,” Eric Trump said shortly before his father took the stage.
For RNC attendees, Donald Trump’s rambling speech and its disturbing sentiments won’t derail a party now squarely behind the man Hulk Hogan called his hero. They’re all in.
The challenge for Trump lies in what the rest of America heard and will continue to hear — and which message will endure.
Columnist Randi F. Marshall's opinions are her own.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
