The Remarkable GOP Convention

By Matthew Continetti

Saturday, July 20, 2024

 

There’s never been a political speech like Donald Trump’s address to the 2024 Republican National Convention. The former president’s narration of the attempt on his life was gripping television. When he kissed the fireman’s helmet of Corey Comperatore, the husband and father who was killed during the shooting in Butler, Pa., last weekend, he created an indelible image. The Trump who appeared on stage was humble, gracious, contemplative.

 

Then, a half hour into the speech, Trump began to improvise. He talked. And talked. He was the Trump we are used to seeing on the campaign trail: garrulous and sarcastic, cracking jokes, championing his record, describing goals for a second term. At length. The speech must have set a record for longest convention address. If Trump wanted to prove he could speak with greater passion and for a longer period of time than President Biden, he did so. He also left this television viewer exhausted.

 

The Trump who spoke for 91 minutes on Thursday evening was a slightly more subdued version of the man who has been at the center of politics for almost a decade. Yet much of the convention was spent trying to convince Americans that Trump is more than the person they’ve watched on the news since 2015.

 

For example, one day after an assassin’s bullet narrowly missed Donald Trump, Trump’s wife Melania released a letter to the American public. In an appeal to our shared humanity, the former first lady described a side of her husband that is often hidden from the outside world.

 

“A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion—his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” she wrote. “The core facets of my husband’s life—his human side—were buried below the political machine.”

 

Melania’s words set the tone for the Republican convention. Her distinction between Trump the “political machine” and Trump the human being framed the week’s proceedings. For the past nine years, America and the world have become well acquainted with the machine: Trump’s strong rhetoric, his mean tweets, his combativeness, his insults and sarcasm. The convention showcased, in the aftermath of the assassination attempt, a new dimension to Trump’s personality: his friendliness, paternal manner, emotion, vulnerability.

 

I wasn’t the only person who noticed that, as he sat watching speeches from the presidential box, Trump seemed calmer, more serene than ever before. His expression embodied what we kept hearing from the rostrum. Political figures such as Nikki Haley, Kellyanne Conway, and Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R., Ark.) described Donald Trump behind the scenes. They mentioned his kindness, generosity, and grit.

 

Trump’s friend and fellow real-estate developer Steve Witkoff described how Trump reassured him after one of his sons died of a drug overdose. UFC head honcho Dana White read a portion from a text message that Trump sent him recently expressing regret that the RNC overlapped with a White family vacation. And Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter Kai won the audience over with her line, “To me, he’s just a normal grandpa. He gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking. He always wants to know how we’re doing in school.”

 

Not only was Trump different this week. The Republican Party was, too. The previous conventions at which Trump was nominated were marred by division and distraction. Four years ago, the pandemic scrambled both party conventions. Eight years ago, the Republican Party remained divided over Trump. Not anymore. This was the most unified, energetic GOP convention in 20 years, maybe longer.

 

Trump overhauled the Republican National Committee, installing his daughter-in-law and two key operatives. He wrote and edited the party platform, boiling down a lengthy consensus document into 16 pages and 20 bullet points laying out his goals and aligning the party infrastructure with his views on immigration, trade, Social Security and Medicare, and abortion. He chose a running mate, Senator J. D. Vance (Ohio), who has done more than anyone to provide policy substance to “Trumpism” and who, at age 39, will play a role in American politics for many years to come. And he’s brought into the party more non-college-educated voters of every race and ethnicity, diversifying the GOP in ways his opponents never thought possible.

 

By the time the red, white, blue, and gold balloons fell from the rafters of the Fiserv Forum, there was no doubt that Donald Trump has revamped the Republican Party in his image. This united and energetic party believes that it is on the verge of a great victory. It left Milwaukee in a state of excitement. While, in a basement in Delaware, the Democratic Party is in a state of crisis.