Thousands of supporters chanted “fight, fight, fight” and raised their fists Thursday night as Donald Trump basked in the love of the new Republican Party he built and which hails him as a touched superhero. for God.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, is isolated and ill at his Delaware beach house as the party he led to victory just four years ago turns on the 81-year-old president and the possibility grows that a humiliating final chapter could be opening up to a life dedicated to politics.
Trump and Biden have been locked in a bitter political confrontation since Biden vowed to launch a battle for the soul of the nation when white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, seven years ago.
Their fates diverged drastically on Thursday. Trump accepted the nomination from a united party convinced it is heading for victory in November, while Democrats were divided, with some fearing their president could lead them to a crushing defeat after a cataclysmic debate performance launched the his re-election campaign in freefall for three weeks.
Trump spoke on the final night of the Republican National Convention, at the end of a week he may not have lived to see, after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt – the second surprising turn of events in three weeks in a suddenly transformed election campaign.
“A few days ago, my journey with you almost ended, we know that,” Trump said. “And yet here we are tonight, all gathered together, talking about the future promise and total renewal of something we love dearly, called America,” he declared.
“We live in a world of miracles.”
As the former president wistfully told the story of the horrific moment he was attacked in a Pennsylvania park on Saturday, he demonstrated rare vulnerability and reflection. “I shouldn’t be here tonight,” Trump told the crowd, which broke into a spontaneous chant of “yes you are, yes you are!”
The eyes of people in the stands at the Milwaukee Bucks arena glistened with tears as Trump described hearing a “loud buzzing sound” and feeling something hit him “very, very hard in (his) right ear.” He survived, he said, because he had “God on (his) side.”
Trump’s advisors promised too much
All week, Republicans carved out the narrative of an iron man who would drag a wounded America out of the abyss, just as he rose bloodied from his brush with death and raised his fist in defiance.
But Trump’s advisers promised that their candidate had also changed in the wake of a shooting that injured him in his right ear – and would respond to his new lease on life with a message of reconciliation and national unity. And early in his remarks, Trump reached for a vision of national renewal. “The discord and division in our society must be healed. As Americans, we are united by a single destiny and a shared destiny. We went up together. Or we will fall apart.”
But the new Trump only lasted a few minutes before the old version returned. Before long, the former president began complaining about the justice system, falsely claiming that foreign nations were sending people from their mental hospitals across the U.S. border and accusing Democrats of cheating in the elections.
The former president then tried to recreate the dystopian atmosphere of his searing 2016 convention speech – although the comparison with the intense night in Cleveland eight years ago served to underline that Trump is eight years older and doesn’t exactly have the strength fierce rhetoric that once was.
In the end, it was the same old speech full of untruths and rhetoric that alienates moderates that left Trump deeply unpopular with half of America.
The once and possibly future president painted a nostalgic and idealized vision of his presidency and accused Biden of leading a country into a ditch that he himself left deeply divided and economically diminished. And he warned that the perception of weakness abroad created a great danger. “Our planet is on the brink of World War III and this will be a war like no other,” Trump said.
Conflicting political messages
On a night dedicated to unity, Trump’s divisive warm-up acts undermined the message, suggesting the hard-line authoritarian strain of the “Make America Great Again” movement that could characterize the second term of a former president who thinks he has the right to unchecked power. Wrestler Hulk Hogan painted Trump in the light of a budding third-world dictator who wields inexplicable power.
“All you criminals, all you, all you scumbags…what will you do when Donald Trump and all the Trumper maniacs attack you, brother?” Hogan roared.
In an election that could be won by reinvigorating the Republican base – with the help of new MAGA favorite JD Vance as his vice presidential nominee – Trump’s blunt speech could serve its purpose. But it was difficult to imagine how it would please undecided voters, and its tedious 1 hour and 32 minute runtime extended well beyond prime time. And for Americans wondering how to pay for health care, buy a house or send their kids to college, Trump offered no new details about what he would actually do in a second term.
Trump’s low-energy performance in the vast arena was far less convincing than many of his campaign rallies and represented the most unruly and off-script moments of the entire convention. To be fair, he did survive an assassination attempt. But at times, in an election that is increasingly activating the vulnerabilities of Biden’s age, Trump looked all 78 years old — and his incoherent remarks could serve to embolden Democrats who believe a more vigorous candidate of his age side could dash the former president’s hopes of becoming only the second defeated single-term president to return to office.
And combined with Biden’s problems, Trump’s speech may have better served to illustrate one of the defining characteristics of the election: the fact that Americans were not deeply impressed by either option.
Biden’s campaign tips for the deepening of the crisis
The speech followed a day of extraordinary developments in Biden’s struggling re-election campaign, which has foundered since his poor debate performance validated the concerns of millions of voters who doubt he is fully fit to serve a second term that it would end when he was 86 years old.
Compounding his political problems, Biden was forced this week to retreat to his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with a case of Covid-19, at a time when many senior White House and campaign officials have come to believe that the president should abandon his campaign for a second term.
“The next 72 hours will be important,” a Democratic governor in close contact with party officials told aides on Thursday. “This cannot go on much longer.”
“People see and feel the walls closing in,” one senior Democrat told CNN.
Another prominent Democrat close to the White House described Biden as having become “exceptionally isolated” since the debate in CNN in Atlanta on June 27.
In a critical sign of the party’s negative concerns, Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who faces the toughest re-election of any incumbent, became the latest senior Democrat to say Biden should step aside.
“I worked with President Biden when it made Montana stronger, and I was never afraid to stand up to him when he was wrong. And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election for another term.”
Biden has argued that he is still the Democrats’ best hope for defeating Trump — and, based on evidence from Thursday’s convention keynote address, the former president does indeed appear “beatable.”
But, increasingly, events suggest that the mission may be entrusted to another Democrat, yet to be identified.
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