MILWAUKEE– The Republican National Convention resumes Tuesday as the focus shifts to immigration, a central issue for the former president Donald Trump’s political brand that helped endear him to the Republican base when he launched his first campaign in 2015.
Two days after surviving an assassination attemptTrump appeared triumphantly at the opening night of the convention on Monday with a bandage over his right ear, the last convincing scene in a presidential campaign already defined by dramatic twists and turns.
GOP delegates cheered wildly as Trump appeared on screen backstage and then emerged into the arena, visibly emotional, as musician Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA.” This happened hours after the convention formally nominated the former president to lead the Republican ticket in November against the president. Joe Biden.
Trump, accompanied by a wall of Secret Service agents on Monday, did not address the ballroom — with his acceptance speech scheduled for Thursday — but smiled silently and occasionally waved as Greenwood sang. He finally joined his newly announced running mate Ohio Senator JD Vanceto listen to the evening’s remaining speeches, often with subdued expression and muted reactions, uncharacteristic of the brazen showman.
The raucous welcome underscored the depth of the crowd’s affection for the man who won the 2016 nomination as an outsider, at odds with the party establishment, but who defeated all Republican rivals, silenced most conservative critics and now commands the loyalty at all levels of the party. .
“We must come together as a party and we must come together as a nation,” said Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley, Trump’s handpicked party leader, as he opened Monday’s prime-time national convention session. “We must show the same strength and resilience as President Trump and lead this nation to a better future.”
But Whatley and other Republican leaders made clear that their calls for harmony did not extend to Biden and Democrats, who are still divided by concerns that the 81-year-old is not up to the task of defeating Trump.
“His policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people,” said Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, welcoming the party to its battleground state, that Trump won in 2016 but lost to Biden four years ago. .
Trump’s campaign managers designed the convention to present a softer, more upbeat message, focusing on themes that would help a divisive leader expand his appeal among moderate voters It is people of color.
On Monday, on a night devoted to the economy, delegates and a national television audience heard from speakers as the Trump campaign cast “ordinary Americans” — a single mother talking about inflation, a union member who identified as a longtime Democrat who now supports Trump, a small business owner, among others.
Featured speakers also included black Republicans who have been at the forefront of the Trump campaign’s effort to win more votes from a core Democratic electorate.
U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas said rising food and energy prices were hurting Americans’ wallets.
“We can solve this disaster,” Hunt said, electing Trump and sending him “back where he belongs, the White House.”
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