The searing picture of a nation in dystopian decline that defines the ex-president’s politics was largely missing on the first night of the Republican National Convention.
In its place was a sense of the divine — a pulsating belief in miracles among thousands of Republican delegates and a feeling that God spared their hero after he was nearly killed in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Trump, a white bandage over his wounded right ear, stood below the stands of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA arena, like a heavyweight boxer waiting to climb into the ring in a title fight. The crowd cheered as his face suddenly appeared on a giant screen. Then he walked deliberately into the spotlight — raising his fist, in an electric political moment before slowly ascending to the VIP box to greet his new vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. Trump didn’t speak to the crowd, but mouthed “thank you” over and over again.
Usually, Trump’s face projects anger or rage or sarcasm. But on Monday night, it wore unusual emotion. It looked as if tears welled in Trump’s eyes. A man who normally projects strength and seeks to dominant every room he enters betrayed a trace of wistfulness and vulnerability, as might befit someone coming to terms with their life being saved by a stroke of luck and a turn of the head.
‘The devil … holding a rifle’
Trump’s supporters have long seen him as a God-like figure and his own campaign has played into the trope with advertising. He’s styled himself as the secular prophet who leads a populist movement. For Trump’s millions of American fans, Monday night was a validation of their faith in God and the ex-president and the righteousness of his mission.
“On Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle. But an American lion got back on his feet and he roared!” said South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who reached for a preacher’s cadence and was among many speakers who argued that Providence had saved Trump so he could save America.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem also sanctified the ex-president following his brush with death. “We already knew that President Donald Trump is fighter. He is the toughest man that I have ever met,” she said. “Nobody has endured more than what he has gone through. They’ve attacked his reputation, they impeached him, they tried to bankrupt him, and they unjustly prosecuted him. But even in the most perilous moment this week, his instinct was to stand and to fight.”
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene – one of the rare speakers who broke from the unity message – said, “I thank God that his hand was on President Trump.”
The ex-president’s escape spared the country another of the unfathomable political tragedies that have scared its history.
Two pictures of Trump
But where some voters see Trump as a messiah-like figure, others see a cult. Where some see inspiration, others sense demagoguery. And the veneration of Trump as a sort-of quasi-religious figure will cause deep fear given that he has made no secret of his authoritarian streak and a desire for retribution against his enemies if he wins a second term. That threat has taken on new relevance in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that expanded presidential immunity.
This unbridgeable national estrangement over the 45th president encapsulates the political divide that is deepening in America, which means calls for unity and a cooling of political rhetoric, while welcome, are unlikely to be sustained in the long term.
After all, Trump’s triumphant appearance on the day the Republican convention made him its nominee marked the official embrace of a figure who tried to destroy American democracy to stay in office after losing the 2020 election. This was the same man who summoned a mob to Washington on January 6, 2021, and told supporters to “fight like Hell” before they invaded the US Capitol, beat up police and tried to thwart the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.
These jarring and dueling perspectives toward Trump are one reason why it will be hard for many Americans to buy into Trump’s assurance about he’d now try to heal a polarized nation.
The former president insisted in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Sunday that his perspective had changed after he survived the shooting, implying that he’d desist from using a political technique that relies on tearing at societal, cultural and racial divides. “This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together.”
Multiple times during his administration, pundits declared at a moment of national emergency that Trump had changed and “pivoted” to being presidential. But the ex-president did as much as anyone to foment the toxic political culture that is more intense now than at any time since the 1960s and which many political leaders blame for Saturday’s assassination attempt and other political violence.
Until he proves otherwise, voters might give the ex-president a hearing for any tempered tone given the horror of what unfolded in Pennsylvania, when Trump survived but a rally goer — father, fisherman and fireman Corey Comperatore — was killed while shielding his family.
Old habits die hard
Almost every Republican speaker got the memo Monday — that instead of Trump’s normal characterization of a nation under siege from rampant crime, invading migrants and far left ideology, the prime-time picture was one of unity and inclusion. A list of Black Republican and female Republican lawmakers gave speeches, offering a somewhat misleading perception that the GOP has a deep and diverse bench.
One GOP source said speechwriters at the convention had thrown out all their pre-written material for the week’s top speakers and started again. Only Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson struck a discordant note as his old speech was loaded into the teleprompter and he went on a tear about how “today’s Democrat agenda, their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, to our values and our people.”
But there were earlier signs that the new sunny face of Trump’s post-assassination GOP went only so far.
The president’s selection of Vance elevated one of the most fervent proponents of MAGA rhetoric. The Ohio senator responded in the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting with one of the most discordant statements at a time when politicians on all sides were trying to calm a traumatized nation. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote on X. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
The assassination attempt aside, Trump came into the convention on a roll, leading in most of the polls, well positioned in battleground state and profiting from the aftermath of Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month.
He got another monumental win on Monday when Florida Judge Aileen Cannon threw out special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case in a move that cemented the emerging reality that the ex-president may never be held accountable for his multiple alleged transgressions against the rule of law, apart from in his conviction in his hush money trial in New York.
The reaction of Trump and his allies was just as misleading, angry and injurious to vital democratic institutions of accountability as it has always been.
“As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts — The January 6th Hoax in Washington, D.C., …” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME.”
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, one of Trump’s top supporters on Capitol Hill, accused the Justice Department of trying to “shred the Constitution.”
The rhetoric was a sign from some corners of the GOP that national unity is possible only if Trump is handed the right to rule in an unfettered manner shielded from any criminal consequences for his actions.
So, while Trump is promising change and a new tone, some old habits die hard.
The ex-president has a new chance at politics and life in the wake of his assassination attempt. This week will begin to show how he uses it.
