Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort, meanwhile, dismissed complaints that the GOP nominee’s speech, which laid out a Richard Nixon-style law and order message, was overly threatening.
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In an appeal to Americans shaken by violence at home and around the world, Trump promised that under his presidency, “safety will be restored”. “This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness”, Trump said. He again blasted what he called the unfair trade tactics of competitors like China.
“Maybe he is “Lyin” Ted.’ Maybe he picks the Bible up and maybe he puts it down and then he lies, because any Christian would forgive, because the Bible says you know them by their fruits”.
Mr Trump also criticised the record of his rival Mrs Clinton from when she was in charge of foreign policy, and blamed her for the spread of Islamic State, the destabilisation of Libya and Egypt and the chaos in Iraq and Syria.
Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr.: “If Hillary Clinton is allowed to elect the next few Supreme Court justices, that in itself could be a fatal blow to our republic…”
“It’s going to be a really important speech because it’s part of the reintroduction of Donald Trump”, said Lanhee Chen, a Hoover Institution scholar and former aide to 2012 nominee Mitt Romney. “In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate”, he said. A protester from Code Pink briefly interrupted Trump’s speech Thursday night, unfurling a banner that read “Build bridges, not walls”.
Ever the showman, he fed off the energy of the crowd, stepping back to soak in applause and joining the delegates as they chanted: “U-S-A”. “But if he did, it’s fine”, Trump said. “Only my father will say, I’ll fight for you”, Ivanka Trump said. He then proclaimed that “I am your voice” to the American people. That the United States suffers from domestic disaster, and global humiliation.
Ivanka told the crowd that there were women working at her father’s company “long before it was commonplace” to see women in the workforce. Sanford said he was leaving Cleveland with the same reservations about Trump he had when he arrived.
Trump also got in to the disagreement which Cruz said prompted his non-endorsement.
While the real estate tycoon turned politician believes most of the convention attendees at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena were captivated by his lengthy oration, his youngest son, Barron, looked dreadfully bored.
And Trump, speaking the end of a week dedicated to unifying the party, once again revived the conspiracy theory published in the National Enquirer that linked Cruz’s father to John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald – an accusation that has no evidence behind it. If Trump wins the election – an increasing possibility based on recent polls – the speech will serve as proof that he did so as an explicitly nationalist and populist candidate, having stirred up support in a country that has historically resisted such movements.
“I wasn’t going to come like a servile puppy dog and say “Thank you very much” for maligning my wife and father”, Cruz told angry pro-Trump delegates.
“There are a lot of people that doubted us”, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams triumphantly declared at a Friday morning briefing after the convention wrapped up.
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As Trump prepared to close out the convention on Thursday, his remarks were vetted via software that ferrets out plagiarism, seeking to avoid the kinds of problems that followed wife Melania Trump’s speech on Monday. “Now I have guys like Mike Pence…” “They’re so honest… They’re such honorable people…”
