MILWAUKEE — The economy was the focus on the first night of the Republican National Convention, but it was Donald Trump’s business. public speaking for the first time He stole the show since the assassination attempt at Saturday’s rally.
Fiserv Forum was electrified when Trump, wearing a large white bandage over his right ear, entered the venue. Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA,” the song played at every Trump rally, to a standing ovation from the crowd.
Trump did not say anything other than to say “thank you” to the participants before taking the chair next to the senator. JD Vance of Ohiowho he announced himself as his running mate before noon and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla. The participants of the rally imitated what Trump said after he was shot and stood up, “Fight! Battle! Battle!”
Most of the speakers stuck to the night’s theme of “Make America Great Again,” but throughout the night there was talk of gunfire and rhetoric at odds with Trump’s own calls for unity.
High inflation and what speakers say is a weak economy under President Joe Biden were the main topics of discussion throughout the night.
“A lot of families today are going through the same experience,” said North Carolina Lt. Mark Robinson, speaking of his experience growing up poor. “Food prices have skyrocketed and gas in North Carolina factories has nearly doubled.”
A defiant tone from Robinson, who is running for governor, was particularly striking because he is well known. pugilistic performances sometimes filled with violent expressions, including this month’s “Some people need to be killed.”
Inflation and the subject of Biden’s economy – even as inflation cooled and that the unemployment rate remains low – has been a consistent target throughout a fractious campaign When on Saturday night A 20-year-old gunman disappeared after taking aim at Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania and shooting him in the head, leaving his ear bleeding in the process. An armed person killed by law enforcement agencies killed a rally participant and injured two people.
Trump said after the shooting he rewrote his speech at the congress focus more on unity theme and the need to turn down the heat on the kind of political rhetoric that has marked much of the election to date.
The fallout from the attempted assassination of the Republican presidential nominee was felt at the convention, but it was not the main topic on the first night. The Trump campaign strategically chosen Which speakers would discuss to prevent the issue from coming up in every speech, and it only came on a few Monday nights.
“On Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania with a rifle in his hand,” said Sen. Tim Scott of the RSC. “But the American lion stood up and roared!”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said: “Unfortunately, this is also a sad moment for our nation. Two days ago, evil happened to the person we admired and loved very much. I think God had his hand on President Trump.”
But the convention was not about unifying the country; There was still plenty of red meat for the base going after Democrats and other groups.
For example, Greene pursued transgender rights. The night’s second speaker, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., also delivered a fiery speech about what he saw as the failure of the “Democratic agenda.”
“Today’s Democratic agenda — their policies — are a clear and present danger to America,” Johnson said. “They abandoned the hardworking middle class. But with President Trump…those forgotten Americans are no longer forgotten.”
After Johnson He told PBS about it not that the wrong speech was loaded into the teleprompter, not that he wanted to give it. A spokesman for Johnson told NBC News that the speech was to begin by noting that the convention was meeting at a “sad moment in history” and that Americans “should all heed President Trump’s call for unity, strength and resolve.”
“He also didn’t have ‘Today’s Democratic Party is a clear and present danger to America,'” the spokesman said.
Tech investor David Sacks began adding a spin to the evening, blasting Democrats “in disarray,” saying he was spending time “lighting up the country” about Biden’s impeachment and calling the party a “must-have” in San Francisco, once a “beautiful city.” accused of turning it into a den of crime”.
Trump’s outspoken ally Charlie Kirk called on Republicans to “fire the Biden-Harris regime.”
“Our current state of slow-motion national recession is a choice,” he said.
A few minutes later, Trump used a recorded video insulting the Democrats, whom he accused of rigging the elections.
“Frankly, that’s the only thing they do well,” Trump said.
But there were lighter moments. When the convention’s programming ended, a priest took the stage to give a blessing, impersonating Trump so forcefully that Trump himself laughed.
The evening’s headliner was Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. While he did not support Trump, calling him a “tough SOB,” O’Brien supported Democrats in the last presidential election, but not this time. O’Brien was the first Teamsters president to address the GOP convention.
He urged the party to end its opposition to unions and praised Vance and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., for their proposals for organized labor.
“We need corporate welfare reform,” he said. “Under our current system, giant companies like Amazon, Uber, Lyft, and Walmart…rely on government-funded aid to offer no real health care, no retirement benefits, no paid time off, and who’s footing the bill? Individual taxpayer.”
Some conservatives were not big fans of the speech. A man near the media area in the convention hall yelled at O’Brien repeatedly during his speech.
In the lead-up to the convention’s opening night, keeping the temperature down was a theme at downtown Milwaukee ballrooms and event venues, where many groups began hosting convention-themed events.
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, opened his talk at the think tank’s Politics Fest with a clear reference, perhaps jokingly, to the need for less heated political rhetoric.
“How many of you are ready to take back our country in a very stable, calm, peaceful way?” he said. However, earlier this month he said the country was on the brink of a “second American Revolution.”
Shortly after Roberts’ remarks, right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson, who is scheduled to address the convention later this week, took to the stage to describe the assassination attempt against Trump as part of a “moral battle.”
“There is no logical way to understand what we are seeing from a technical point of view. … These are not political divisions,” he said. “There are forces and they are very obvious. Now, for whatever reason, they decided to take off the mask. [Their] the only goal is chaos, violence, destruction.”
Carlson, who was seated next to Trump and Vence in their private boxes later Monday night, went further, saying that Trump’s opponents “don’t care if our country is colonized.”
“They want the power to kill,” he said, noting the bloodlust for war in particular. “That’s it.”