US campaign - Trump remains Trump - Republicans celebrate themselves in Milwaukee
Those who are familiar with a Trump speech, do they all know it? No, this time it should be different. Just a few days after the attack on the Republican, the grand finale of the freshly anointed Republican presidential candidate at the Republican Convention in Milwaukee should set a new tone. At least that's what Trump's campaign team of the 78-year-old was announcing. But the circumstances and the framework in Milwaukee were - balloons, appearances by former wrestler Hulk Hogan or musician Kid Rock included: Donald Trump remains Donald Trump.
Even during his speech at the convention, where Trump officially accepts the nomination for the election in November, Trump wears his white bandage on his ear again. The bandage has already found imitators in the audience. Even his wife Melania made a rare appearance, which resulted in an awkward kiss on the cheek.
The Republicans celebrated Trump frenetically in Milwaukee for four days. The grand finale on the last evening of the convention is not just any performance. It's Trump's first public speech since the shooting at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where he was injured in the ear.
Trump talks about the shooting
Trump describes what happened last weekend in Butler, where a shooter opened fire, a supporter died, and two others were seriously injured. "Blood was flowing everywhere, and yet I felt somehow safe, because I had God on my side," says the Republican. He will only tell this story once, he stresses. The deadly shooting incident in the already heated US presidential campaign was an escalation, a turning point.
And Trump's warm-up speakers in the past few days - for example, the anointed vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance - painted the following picture: Trump is courageous, strong, a fighter. And: Trump is a man of political moderation in the face of terror. "In a moment, he can stand defiantly against an assassin and call for national healing in the next," Vance said.
And in this tone, Trump begins his speech and reads from the teleprompter: "The discord and division in our society must be healed." He wants to be a president for all of America.
Slip-up into old tone
But the longer the 78-year-old speaks, the less he sticks to the text. The lines on the prompter stop, while Trump improvises wide sections of his speech. Trump paints - as usual - the picture of a dark America, a "Nation in Decline." He refers indirectly to migrants as "garbage." If you were to count the ten worst presidents of the USA, they wouldn't have caused as much damage as the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden has, Trump oracles.
Crime in the USA is so high that the next Republican convention would take place in Venezuela if the Democrats win, Trump predicts, because it would be safer there. The rest of the world laughs at the USA. The solution: Trump.
Trump's 1.5-hour long speech differs little from the lengthy speeches he gives at his campaign rallies. At the very end, he calls for unity once again, to overcome disagreements.
Who believes that the attack has muffled Trump's rhetoric is mistaken. This was not only true for Trump's speech, but the Republican convention in Milwaukee itself. Singer Kid Rock performs a song with the crowd shouting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" - so "Fight! Fight! Fight!". The audience echoes back in unison - an unsettling atmosphere. These words that Trump called out after the attack are, in fact, the motto of the massive party convention with tens of thousands of attendees and visitors - they are constantly repeated.
Trump, the Savior
The spectacle resembles a creepy carnival in many ways: people with orange Trump wigs, Trump hats, Trump earrings, Trump shirts, of course... Trump, Trump, Trump. And along with the political messages of the party, which Trump has complete control over: signs describing "Mass Deportations Now", speeches about the supposedly corrupt justice system, about lying media, and America-First politics.
This is a party that rallies around Trump without resistance. Even Trump's former rivals in the primary campaign, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, have given in and supported Trump in Milwaukee.
"We need to return to Donald Trump if we want to keep our rights and the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed," says Delegate Shelley Cygan from the state of Nebraska, speaking to the Presidential candidate. Trump stirs up fears to catch voters - and it's working.
There's an invasion at the US southern border, warns Trump. It brings "poverty, crime, poverty, sickness, and destruction" to communities across the country. "Nobody has ever seen anything like this." And then there's also "an international crisis, unlike any the world has ever seen before". Nobody can believe what's happening.
Triumphant in Milwaukee
The Republicans celebrate themselves at the convention as if they have already won the November election. The euphoria is not only due to the alcohol that flows in large quantities. Biden is a weak opponent in the TV debate. And possibly, the 81-year-old is no longer even the candidate of his party - in the debate about his mental fitness, he has his back to the wall.
According to the "Washington Post", Trump is in a stronger political position than at any time during this campaign - or even during any of the three campaigns he has led since his first campaign in 2016. The "New York Times" concludes that Trump has promised to bridge political divides in his speech, "only to then deepen them again".
As the balloons traditionally drift from the ceiling at the end of the convention, Trump stands on stage with his family and lets himself be cheered on. Besides Melania, his daughter Ivanka has also come, who has been very scarce lately. Trump smiles, waves, poses for the cameras. Just before that, he had kissed the firefighter's helmet of the man who was shot during the attack the previous week. US media report that Trump gave the longest televised party convention speech in US history. He broke his own record.
- Despite the shooting incident in Pennsylvania, the Republicans continued to celebrate Donald Trump fervently during the convention in Milwaukee.
- Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock made appearances during Trump's grand finale speech at the Republican Convention.
- Despite the announcement of a new tone, Trump's speech at the convention still contained his usual rhetoric, including criticisms of Joe Biden.
- Trump's vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance praised Trump as courageous, strong, and a man of political moderation in the face of terror.
- In his speech, Trump emphasized the need for national healing and his desire to be a president for all of America.
- Trump's opponents in the primary campaign, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, also gave their support to Trump during the convention in Milwaukee.
- Some activists at the Republican convention called for "Mass Deportations Now," reflecting Trump's tough stance on immigration.
- According to some news outlets, Trump's political position was stronger than ever during the US Election 2024 campaign following his speech at the convention.
