Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has officially accepted his party’s backing to take on presumptive rival Hillary Clinton.
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Trump’s speech will close out a four-day conclave in Cleveland that exposed continuing divisions among Republicans over their nominee at a time when they need to unite for a looming battle against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the November 8 election. Le Monde also considered Trump to be more like Richard Nixon than Ronald Reagan and his “City Upon a Hill” optimism.
“Beginning on 20 January, 2017, safety will be restored”.
“My pledge reads: “‘I’m with you” ― the American people!” “I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance”, Trump said.
Trump’s final address, a seminal moment for the nominee and the Republican Party that he now leads, could act to counter some of the negative narrative from the convention.
So far the RNC has been all about heated attacks on Hillary Clinton. Just like you’re bound by the pledge.
Between defining chants of “U.S.A” and “Trump, Trump, Trump” the mogul-turned-TV-star-turned-politico cast himself as the “law and order candidate” and vowed to champion “people who work hard but no longer have a voice”.
“Democrats will focus on issues, not anger”, Podesta said. He was scripted, self-contained and made no mention of Ted Cruz. Eileen Collins, a former astronaut and the first female commander of a space shuttle flight, was supposed to end her speech with, “We need leadership that will make America first again”.
He notably vowed to protect the Lesbian, Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer community following an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando that was the worst terror attack on American soil since September 11, 2001. The crowd ate up everything Donald Trump had to say and it felt like, for the first time all week, that the convention was an organized place instead of a series of disjointed speeches at a shotgun wedding. He also disavowed America’s foreign policy posture under both Democratic and Republican presidents, criticizing “fifteen years of wars in the Middle East” and declaring that “Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo”.
He had promised to describe “major, major” tax cuts.
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Clinton senior adviser John Podesta dismissed the speech as painting “a dark picture of an America in decline” and called it a reminder that Trump “is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States”. But his economic proposals Thursday night were vague, centering on unspecified plans to create millions of jobs. Trump has yet to show how he can appeal to the broader general election audience, particularly women, by proving that he would be a reliable president. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine has emerged as her top choice.
