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Donald Trump accepted his party’s nomination for president for the third time on Thursday night with the longest political convention speech in modern US history.
Here are five key takeaways from his 92-minute speech that capped a dramatic four-day Republican National Convention, coming just days after he narrowly avoided death by a would-be assassin’s bullet.
Trump made a pitch to the centre . . .
Trump opened and closed his address with appeals for national unity and healing, saying: “The discord and division in our society must be healed.”
“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” Trump said at the outset, in an apparent bid to win over not only the thousands of ardent supporters packing the arena in Milwaukee but also the millions of Americans who were expected to tune in to the primetime address from home.
. . . but also put the world on notice for an ‘America First’ agenda
Trump indicated that the trade fights that rattled markets and businesses around the world during his time in the White House would return if he were elected to another four years as president.
“We have long been taken advantage of by other countries . . . often times these other countries are considered so-called allies. They’ve taken advantage of us for years. We lose jobs, we lose revenue, and they gain everything and wipe out our businesses, wipe out our people. I stopped it for four years . . . and I will stop it again,” Trump said, in remarks that underscored the Republican party’s populist and protectionist shift under his leadership.
“We will not let countries come in, take our jobs and plunder our nation,” Trump added. “The way they will sell their product in America is to build it in America, and only in America.”
Trump invoked God as he recounted his near-assassination
Trump repeatedly invoked God on Thursday night as he recounted the attempt on his life last weekend and insisted that a higher power had saved him from a premature death.
“I’m not supposed to be here,” he said, before detailing what happened when a shooter attempted to kill him at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. That prompted cheers from the crowd: “Yes you are.”
“I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God,” added Trump.
Divine intervention was a perennial theme of the four-day Republican National Convention, with countless speakers crediting God with saving Trump’s life.
Before Trump’s keynote speech on Thursday night, Franklin Graham, the son of famed evangelical pastor Billy Graham, led the arena in a prayer for the Republican nominee.
Melania and Ivanka finally turned up
Trump was flanked by nearly all of his close family members as he formally accepted the Republican party’s nomination for president. That included a rare public appearance by his wife, Melania Trump, who has avoided the campaign trail since her husband launched his latest bid for the White House in November 2022.
Melania, who is Trump’s third wife, entered the convention arena on her own, while a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony blared over the loudspeakers.
Also notable was the appearance of Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner. The couple were fixtures of the Trump White House as senior advisers to the then president. But Ivanka had until Thursday elected not to appear publicly in support of her father’s latest White House bid.
She joined three of her four siblings — Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump — along with their partners and several of her nieces and nephews on stage with the family patriarch after his speech.
Trump’s delivery was flatter than usual
Trump’s delivery on Thursday night was in many instances more sombre than usual, an apparent reflection of the seriousness of the assassination attempt he survived just days earlier.
Trump nevertheless revived some of the jokes and one-liners he often invokes on the campaign trail, including: “The late, great, Hannibal Lecter. We’d love to have you for dinner.”
His energy level at times seemed low. His voice was muted and inaudible to some in the huge Milwaukee arena at some points.
Yet the crowd still cheered him on, and the display of stamina — Trump spoke for more than 90 minutes, often digressing from his prepared remarks — offered a contrast to Joe Biden’s recent struggles.
