A white fire helmet with the number 27, a brown fireproof jacket and Donald Trump at his side. The three were the only ones on the stage at the Fire Forum tonight at the close of the Republican Convention. Trump, who does not like to have his limelight stolen, shared the space with the memory of Corey Comperatore, the man who died in the shooting on Saturday in Butler and who was the target of the former president. With the air of a televangelist, he approached the helmet, kissed it and asked for a minute of silence. “I have God on my side,” Trump said, with the White House projected in the background.
“I am running to be president of all of the United States, not just half of it,” the tycoon said. Trump has preached unity, but with the small nuance that it was about the unity of his own people. The former president has arrived at his candidate speech with half the work done. On the shelves of merchandising T-shirts bearing the former president’s picture, raising his fist with his face covered in blood, and reading “fight back,” were already on sale since the convention. Trump supporters and senior party officials have spent the entire week hailing their leader as a “political victim” who has been “demonized” by the media.
On Thursday evening, the former president was already moving quite naturally within the framework into which the electoral campaign has been dragged: a resilient Trump who wants to reconcile the country, facing a Democratic Party that his own people hold responsible for the attack.
When Trump has appeared on stage to begin his speech, he has done so with a dramatic entrance that only a showman as he could do. After the band sang God Bless the USAthe stage curtain rose and Trump appeared with giant letters lit up with yellow bulbs that said “Trump.” From there, the former president explained his version of the attack in Butler. “I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump said, and the crowd responded: “Yes, you are here! Yes, you are here.”
The stadium vibrated with every word Trump said, and the use of music in the moments before the start of his speech had already prepared the audience for the climax of a speech that lasted almost an hour and a half. It was the longest speech the tycoon has ever given.
The story of the attack, that example of resilience, is what Trump has used to connect it with a country that is supposedly in a low period and that under his leadership will once again live a “golden age.” “Nothing will stop us. I will never stop fighting for everything and for our magnificent country,” Trump has promised. The harsh words have been for the leaders of the Democratic Party – he has called the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, “crazy” – while he has granted the party’s voters the opportunity to redeem themselves. “To every citizen, whether young or old, man or woman, Democrat, Republican or independent, black or white, Asian or Hispanic, I extend a hand of loyalty and friendship,” he said from the stage.
“The planet is on the brink of World War III”
Trump has not reached out to immigrants. The former president has repeatedly said that the country is experiencing an “invasion” and that a wall is necessary. Once again, he has made the great promise of his campaign and has assured that he will close the border with Mexico “from day one.” Trump, wanting to show a more “friendly” image to demonstrate that it is the media that has “demonized” him, has tried to moderate the use of adjectives to talk about migrants.
In a “softer” version of the statement he made at the beginning of the primaries, saying that migrants “poison the blood of this country,” Trump has said that the United States is more unsafe because other countries “are sending their murderers, drug dealers, terrorists and criminals of all kinds to the United States.” He has, however, reached out to those migrants who come in the “correct” way: “We want people to come to our country, but they must come legally.”
Without explicitly mentioning Joe Biden, he blamed him for the international conflicts that have broken out in recent years and that have coincided with his term in office. He mentioned Ukraine, Gaza and Taiwan, and then stated that: “Our planet is on the brink of World War III, and this will be a war like no other.” This idea resonates with Trump’s statement that if he were president he would end the war in Ukraine in a matter of days. It is an idea that the Republican’s supporters kept repeating throughout the convention: if Trump had been in power, Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have dared to attack Ukraine.
“Under President Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under President Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under the current administration, Russia is, after all, Ukraine. Under President Trump, Russia accepted nothing.” The crowd erupted in cheers and applause after Trump made this statement. It is remarkable that Trump dared to criticize Republican George W. Bush and is also symptomatic of how the Republican Party has evolved into Trump’s party.
Vance as an idol of the rust belt
Another person who has dared to take aim at Bush has been his newly appointed vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, who allowed himself to criticize Bush’s actions, calling the Iraq War (where he served as a marine between 2003 and 2007) a “misguided” war. Trump has made another reference that has also challenged his deputy’s speech, but in this case it has been in the opposite sense. Trump has said that the leader of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union, Shawn Fain, should be fired. Fain has been a key figure in giving new impetus to the organization of workers. Attacking a union leader does not fit well with the statement that Vance made about Trump: “President Trump’s vision is simple: we will not bend to Wall Street, we are committed to the working man.”
Trump is looking to use Vance as bait for white workers in the Midwest’s industrial belt. Especially since there are three states that will be key and where Biden won in 2020: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Ohio will also be key and is Vance’s homeland. “Don’t forget Ohio this November,” Trump said.
When the speech was finally over, Trump’s wife Melania appeared to congratulate him. The former president’s wife had been out of the spotlight for a long time and practically nothing had been heard of her until last Saturday, when she published a letter following the attack. The tension between the two could be seen in the lack of coordination that occurred when Trump went to kiss her (it seemed on the mouth) and Melania turned her cheek. Then it was time for the family photo, and it would have been a family photo if Vance and his wife had not come on stage. The absence of other presidents, such as Bush, supporting the candidate, is a sign of how Trump has completed his project of turning the Republican Party into his party.
Source: www.eldiario.es
