Declaring America in crisis, Donald Trump pledged to cheering Republicans and still-skeptical voters Thursday night that as president he will restore the safety they fear they’re losing, strictly curb immigration and save the nation from Hillary Clinton’s record of “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness”.
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Speaking at the RNC on Wednesday, Cruz had declined to endorse Trump, instead urging delegates to vote their “conscience”.
“Who would have believed that when we started this journey on June 16th of last year we – and I say “we” because we are a team – would have received nearly 14 million votes, the most in the history of the Republican Party”, he said, “and that the Republican Party would get 60 percent more votes than it received four years ago”. Trump said. “We have to blame Mike”. No, he didn’t broaden the base of the party significantly though he did speak about minorities and the LGBTQ community in ways that he hadn’t done before.
“Unfortunately”, the statement added, “Senator Cruz has chosen to remain in his bunk below, a decision both regrettable and revealing”.
Republicans who have questioned Trump’s grasp of foreign policy reacted with indignation. Sen.
Taking the golden stage at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Trump led the crowd in chant of “USA!” He managed to make the argument, compellingly, that these challenges were the central ones America faced and that given the failures of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his way of change was the only way to go.
“Trump arrived atop a gold-plated elephant – firing bedazzled “Make America Great Again” T-shirts into the crowd”.
“I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father”, Cruz said. He then went on to say, “I am your voice”.
But many Americans showed their support for Mr Trump on Twitter, using the #MakeAmericaGreatAgain hashtag to congratulate him and praise him on his speech. Here’s what resonated most with the largest delegation in the country. “But most of all, I am proud to be an American”. It’s another reminder that Trump’s campaign looks very different depending on who you are. “But Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy”.
I have no idea which strategy is better, and I think there’s some risk to Clinton in getting caught in between them.
Why? Because Donald Trump delivered Thursday night and did what he needed to do.
That’s today’s fashionable term in political circles for a campaign strategy that President Richard Nixon used to describe as more of a pendulum: You swing toward your party’s base to win their nomination, then swing back to the center to attract the independent voters that decide general elections. “So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week”.
Mr Trump renewed his promise to “build a great border wall” along the frontier with Mexico and also said the USA should “immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place”.
But in the end, many of these points were made when Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, introduced her father.
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“I think he said the right things about protecting our country, investing in America first”, he said.
