The Republican National Convention celebrated former President Donald Trump not just as a party leader but a living martyr.
The Republican National Convention celebrated former President Donald Trump not just as a party leader but a living martyr who survived a would-be assassin’s bullet and is ready to work for everyday Americans after a sweeping victory in November.
The portrayals of unity, including in Trump’s first speech since he was injured in the assassination attempt last Saturday, sought to erase the image of a man whose presidency often swirled in chaos and infighting and ended with a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Democrats have repeatedly wielded images of that day to try to thwart his return and have spotlighted his recurring use of inflammatory and hardline rhetoric.
Inside the Milwaukee arena, he was “an American folk hero” and “strong commander in chief,” alive because of a “miracle.” To the left, he remains a threat to democracy, with authoritarian designs.
There’s plenty of campaigning left between now and the election, so the effectiveness of the competing messages remains to be seen. But it’s been a striking four days for a Republican Party that over three presidential elections has been reshaped by Trump’s personality and his politics.
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Trump, who has not won the popular vote in two tries, opened with the sweeping tone common to inaugural addresses.
“The discord and division in our society must be healed. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny,” he said. “I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”
It was a sharp departure from his first convention acceptance in Cleveland eight years ago, when he painted a dark portrait of American life and declared, “I alone can fix it.”
It seemed at first that Trump was trying to embody a less partisan, less caustic version of himself — still a giant personality, but one that uses his stature for the country’s benefit. Yet as quickly as he called for an end of the “demonization of political enemies,” he turned the issue exclusively toward Democrats. He reprised his accusations that his criminal conviction and other prosecutions were because of the weaponization of the justice system. And he answered the critique that he is upending democracy by insisting, “I am the one saving democracy.”
Republicans in the convention hall embraced the idea.
