Trump “humbly and gratefully” accepted the nomination before 2,000 raucous Republican Party activists in Cleveland, in a strikingly populist speech that offered a dark view of the American condition.
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“To every American listening tonight, I am with you, I will fight for you and I will win for you”, Trump said.
“I am your voice”, he declared pointing into the cameras, promising a return to more secure times with “millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth”.
It was simply a recycled version of every Donald Trump speech over the a year ago, focused on Hillary Clinton, with plenty of red meat for Republicans, but not necessarily people of color or independent voters.
And he connected his story of the past year with his promises: “Remember, all of the people telling you that you can’t have the country you want are the same people” who told you that Trump could never make it to this point.
But with one sentence right at the top, Trump ensured his place in every US history textbook for generations to come. It’s yet to be seen whether Trump can incorporate his daughter’s softer approach and new emphasis on women into his own agenda. He wasn’t specific, beyond appointing “the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country”.
He said Mrs Clinton’s legacy of her time as secretary of state was “death” and “destruction”. The speech was not a compilation, a mixtape or even a “greatest hits”.
“How great are our police?”
Trump assailed political correctness, the stifling of a society he said can no longer adequately describe its problems out of polite constraint, let alone begin to tackle them.
As he moves into the general election campaign, he’s sticking to the controversial proposals of his primary campaign, including building a wall along the entire U.S. -Mexico border and suspending immigration from nations “compromised by terrorism”.
He will face likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election on November 8.
In his acceptance speech, which was leaked to the media early Thursday, Trump outlined a lengthy list of policy priorities that would guide his presidency.
“I had people gnashing their teeth in my face”, said Mathis, who voted for Rand Paul in the Texas primary.
Trump accused the former secretary of state as being a political insider with “bad instincts” and “bad judgment”.
“This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness”, he said.
This week in Cleveland she has been everywhere, lobbying for her father with delegates and donors, appearing in television interviews and leaving a trail of picture-taking fans in her wake. Though Unruh said she was still bewildered that Trump would be her party’s nominee, she dropped her plan to watch the NY billionaire’s address in silent protest with her Colorado delegation. “She is their puppet, and they pull the strings”.
Trump’s speech included acknowledgments to all factions of the Republican Party and olive branches to independents and Democrats, pledging to create a society that benefits ordinary citizens, many who have been left behind by a swift-moving global economy.
The crowd’s enthusiasm in the hall occasionally boiled over, interrupting the real-estate magnate.
Trump’s promise to force every federal agency to provide him with a list of wasteful spending projects for elimination within his first 100 days in office prompted loud chants of “Yes you will” from the audience.
Trump boasted that he would defeat ISIS “fast” and that crime and violence would come to an end.
Clinton’s campaign criticized the speech as relentlessly negative and promised a “positive vision for the future” at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
“The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and colour, has made America a more risky environment for everyone”, he said.
“And his answer – more fear, more division, more anger, more hate – was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States”.
Podesta continued, “He offered no real solutions to help working families get ahead or to keep our country safe, just more prejudice and paranoia”. America is better than this.
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Trump said his plan will put America First.
