Donald Trump has gone from an insurrection to a resurrection.
The searing image of a nation in dystopian decline that defines the former president’s politics was largely absent on the first night of the Republican National Convention.
In its place was a sense of the divine – a pulsing belief in miracles among thousands of Republican delegates and a feeling that God spared their hero after he was nearly killed in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Thousands of Trump supporters in Milwaukee hailed their leader on Monday night, elevating him from MAGA (Make America Great Again) superhero to saint status.
Trump, with a white bandage on his injured right ear, stood below the stands of the Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA arena, like a heavyweight boxer waiting to step into the ring in a title fight. The crowd cheered when his face suddenly appeared on a giant screen. Then he deliberately walked into the spotlight – raising his fist in an electrifying political moment before slowly ascending to the VIP box to greet his new vice-presidential pick, Senator JD Vance of Ohio. Trump did not speak to the crowd, but he mouthed “thank you” repeatedly.
Typically, Trump’s face projects anger or sarcasm. But on Monday night, there was unusual excitement. It looked like tears welled up in Trump’s eyes. A man who normally projects strength and seeks to dominate every room he enters betrayed a streak of melancholy and vulnerability, as would befit someone who accepts that his life was saved by a stroke of luck and a turn of the head.
‘The devil… holding a rifle’
Trump supporters have long seen him as a god-like figure, and his own campaign has contributed. He calls himself the secular prophet who leads a populist movement. For Trump’s millions of American fans, Monday night was a validation of his faith in God and in the former president and the righteousness of his mission.
“On Saturday the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle. But an American lion stood up and roared!” said South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who achieved a preacher’s cadence and was one of many speakers who argued that Providence saved Trump so he could save America.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem also sanctified the former president after his brush with death. “We already knew that President Donald Trump is a fighter. He is the toughest man I have ever met,” she said. “No one endured more than what he went through. They attacked his reputation, accused him, tried to bankrupt him and unfairly prosecuted him. But even in the most dangerous moment this week, his instinct was to resist and fight.”
Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene – one of the rare speakers who broke with the message of unity – said: “I thank God that His hand was on President Trump.”
The ex-president’s escape spared the country another one of the unfathomable political tragedies that have haunted its history.
Two photos of Trump
But while some voters see Trump as a messiah-like figure, others see a cult. Where some see inspiration, others feel demagoguery. And the veneration of Trump as a kind of quasi-religious figure will cause deep fear, given that he has made no secret of his authoritarian tendencies and desire for revenge against his enemies if he wins a second term. This threat has taken on new relevance following the recent Supreme Court ruling that expanded presidential immunity.
This insurmountable national estrangement from the 45th president epitomizes the political divide that is deepening in America, meaning that calls for unity and a cooling of political rhetoric, while welcome, are unlikely to be sustained in the long term.
After all, Trump’s triumphant appearance on the day the Republican convention nominated him marked the official embrace of a figure who tried to destroy American democracy to stay in office after losing the 2020 election. to Washington on January 6, 2021 and told supporters to “fight to the end” before storming the US Capitol, beating police and trying to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
These dissonant and conflicting perspectives on Trump are one reason why it will be difficult for many Americans to accept Trump’s assurance that he will now try to heal a polarized nation.
The former president insisted, in an interview with the Washington Examiner, on Sunday (14), that his perspective changed after surviving the shooting, implying that he would give up using a political technique that is based on destroying social, cultural divisions and racial. “This is an opportunity to bring the whole country together, even the whole world.”
Several times during his administration, experts declared, in a time of national emergency, that Trump had “moved on” to being a presidential figure. But the former president did as much as anyone to foment the toxic political culture that is more intense now than at any time since the 1960s and that many political leaders blame for Saturday’s assassination attempt and other types of political violence. .
Until he proves otherwise, voters may give the former president the opportunity to strike any moderate tone, given the horror of what unfolded in Pennsylvania, when Trump survived but one rally attendee – father, fisherman and firefighter Corey Comperatore – was killed while protecting his family.
Old habits die hard
Nearly every Republican speaker got the memo on Monday — that instead of Trump’s normal characterization of a nation besieged by rampant crime, invading migrants and far-left ideology, the prime-time image was one of unity. and inclusion. A slate of black Republican lawmakers and Republican women gave speeches, offering a somewhat misleading perception that the Republican Party has a deep and diverse caucus.
A GOP source said convention speechwriters threw out all the pre-written material for the week’s keynote speakers and started over. Only Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson sounded a dissenting note when his old speech was loaded onto the teleprompter and he began crying about how “today’s Democratic agenda, their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, to our values and our people.”
But there have been earlier signs that the new, cheerful face of the Republican Party post-Trump’s assassination has only gone so far.
The former president’s selection of Vance elevated one of the most ardent supporters of MAGA rhetoric. The Ohio senator responded after Saturday’s shooting with one of the most discordant statements at a time when politicians on all sides were trying to calm a traumatized nation. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote on X.
“This rhetoric led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump.”
The assassination attempt aside, Trump entered the convention with a bang, leading in most polls, well-positioned in a battleground state and cashing in on the fallout from Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month.
He scored another monumental victory on Monday when Florida Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Special Counsel Jack Smith’s confidential documents case in a move that cemented the emerging reality that the former president can never be held accountable for his multiple alleged transgressions against the rule of law, in addition to his conviction at his trial in New York.
The reaction from Trump and his allies was as deceitful, angry, and damaging to vital democratic institutions of accountability as it has always been.
“As we move forward in uniting our nation in the wake of Saturday’s horrific events, this rejection of the Florida lawlessness charge should be just the first step, followed quickly by the rejection of ALL witch hunts – the January 6th hoax in Washington, DC,…” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Democratic Department of Justice coordinated ALL of these political attacks, which are an election interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s political opponent, US.”
New York Representative Elise Stefanik, one of Trump’s main supporters on Capitol Hill, accused the Justice Department of trying to “destroy the Constitution.”
The rhetoric was a signal from some sectors of the Republican Party that national unity is only possible if Trump is granted the right to govern unrestrictedly, protected from any criminal consequences of his actions.
So while Trump is promising change and a new tone, some old habits die hard.
The former president has a new chance in politics and life after his assassination attempt. This week will begin to show how he uses it.
Other US presidents and presidential candidates have been shot
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