“I will be your champion”, Trump said to rapturous applause.
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Referring to a series of recent controversies involving allegations of police brutality, including this summer’s shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La., he vowed to protect law enforcement officers and claimed that the Obama administration had hitherto ignored the families of fallen policemen.
He continued down the unorthodox path he has taken in his year-long campaign by refusing to pivot to the centre with a traditional softer speech that might have won over new supporters.
His speech comes a day after party discord was laid bare. But what Republicans in Cleveland expressed was confidence that Trump will actually deliver for them in a way that other Republicans have not.
He pledged to stick to his most controversial proposals, which include building a wall along the entire US-Mexico border and suspending immigration from nations “compromised by terrorism”.
Chants of “Build the wall!” punctuated his speech as he talked about the economy and security.
Trump also boasted of his TV ratings, his primary victories and other achievements, including winning over his wife, Melania, in a stream-of-consciousness delivery with his vice presidential nominee, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, standing quietly nearby.
“The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end”, the businessman will tell the party’s convention in Cleveland.
In a direct appeal to Americans shaken by a summer of violence at home and around the world, Trump promised that if he takes office in January, “safety will be restored”.
Donald Trump faces a rockier election landscape and a tougher and more unified Democratic party as he puts his chaotic convention behind him and hurtles toward a one-on-one battle with Hillary Clinton.
As the crowd chanted: “Lock her up” for her handling of US foreign policy, Trump waved them off and said: “Let’s defeat her in November”.
“I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves”, Trump said.
The troubled country he described could only be repaired by him, he said. The co-founder of PayPal said: “Every American has a unique identity”.
He set out his vision for a more inward-looking United States, framing his economic and foreign policies around a domestic focus in an age of globalisation.
Nixon said: “And to those who say that law and order is the code word for racism, there and here is a reply: Our goal is justice for every American”.
He sought common ground with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders – a candidate who, like Mr Trump, shook up the political establishment, but on the Democratic side – saying that he had seen how the system was “rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders”. “That is not the case this time“, she said.
His address on the closing night of the convention marked his highest-profile opportunity yet to heal Republican divisions and show voters he’s prepared for the presidency.
John Weaver, a senior adviser to Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, a former presidential rival to Mr Trump, said in a tweet that Mr Trump had delivered the “saddest, darkest, most depressing acceptance speech in modern history”. Thank you.” It’s true: “this sort of response from delegates at the RNC would’ve been unthinkable even four years ago, and it’s evidence of the growing faction of Republicans that support LGBTQ equality. Donald Trump “will fight for equal pay for equal work, and I will fight for this too, right alongside him”, Ivanka Trump said.
“I think she’s unbelievable”. Now I’m going to make our country rich again…
Both men said their plans would help people of all races.
But who Trump was running against in the general election was clearly an animating force, and a point of unity for a fragmented party.
“He sure doesn’t speak for me, because I know we are stronger together and that’s what we’re going to be next year”, she said. “Something has gone terribly wrong when one speaker says “vote your conscience” and gets booed”, she said.
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But the win had come at the cost of a seriously divided Republican Party, where many prominent figures of the party, including two previous Republican presidents and two previous Republican presidential nominees refused to attend his crowning party. As a writer, I find plagiarism to be pretty offensive, but I can also understand how this particular mistake might have happened to her – not by her. If only the Trump campaign were savvy and canny enough to realize they could have ended the media frenzy that followed days earlier by admitting her speech writer lifted the lines, the ensuing days might have been dominated by more pleasing headlines.
