Former United States President and Republican Party presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has predicted an “incredible victory” ahead of the November presidential election and called for national unity among Americans.
Trump officially accepted the party’s presidential nomination, describing the upcoming election as a “historical election” and expressing his desire to be the president for all Americans.
“Tonight, with faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States,” Trump declared during his acceptance speech at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, concluding the four-day event.
This speech was his first since surviving an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. The attack left him bloodied after a gunman shot in his direction.
The energy among delegates sagged as Trump discussed his policy proposals and asked for their votes, promising not to disappoint them.
“Tonight for your partnership, for your support, and I am humbly asking for your vote,” he said. He emphasized his commitment to making America great again and not letting down his supporters.
“Make our country great again. Every day, I will strive to honor the trust you have placed in me, and I will never, ever let you down. I promise that I will never let you down. To all of the forgotten men and women who have been neglected, abandoned and left behind, you will be forgotten no longer. We will press forward and together we will win, win, win,” Trump asserted.
In his speech, which lasted more than an hour and a half, Trump concluded with a promise to ‘very quickly make America great again.’
“We will save this country. We will restore the Republic, and we will usher in the rich and wonderful tomorrows that our people so truly deserve. America’s future will be bigger, better, bolder, brighter, happier, stronger, freer, greater and more united than ever before and quite simply put, we will very quickly make America great again,” he proclaimed, to which the crowd erupted into applause. Melania Trump and the rest of his family then joined him on stage.
Earlier, the 78-year-old former president detailed the failed assassination attempt, stating he heard a loud sound hitting him “hard” on his right ear, adding that “it can only be a bullet.”
He attributed his survival to divine grace. “As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. So many people have asked me what happened, tell us what happened, please. And, therefore I will tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s actually too painful to tell,” he said.
Trump described the critical moment before the shot: “The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together. I’m only standing here by the grace of Almighty God,”
Referring to the Secret Service, he said, “They’re incredible people. Bullets were flying over us, yet I felt serene, but now the Secret Service agents were putting themselves in peril. They were in very dangerous territory. Bullets were flying right over them, missing them by a very small amount of inches, and then it all stopped. Our Secret Service sniper, from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used, took the assassin’s life, took them out,”
Trump showcased a chart titled “Illegal immigration into the US,” which had been displayed at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, just before the assassination attempt.
“That was the chart that saved my life,” Trump remarked onstage at the convention five days later.
“You know the chart? Oh, there it is. That’s pretty good. Wow. Last time I put up that chart, I never really got to look at it. But without that chart, I would not be here today,”
Trump honored the man killed in the failed assassination attempt by briefly stepping away from the podium to kiss the helmet of Corey Comperatore, which, along with his firefighter’s jacket, stood behind him.
The speech also included attacks on Democrats for “weaponizing the justice system,” despite his well-documented attempts to overturn the 2020 election, insisting he is a defender of democracy.
“We are one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what’s been happening in our country lately at a level that nobody has ever seen before.
“In that spirit, the Democrat party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy. Especially since that is not true. In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country,” Trump stated.
Introducing his running mate, JD Vance, Trump briefly described him as a “great, great student at Yale, his wife was a great student at Yale, they met at Yale. These are two smart people,”
He also attacked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, describing her as “crazy Nancy.”
“Crazy Nancy Pelosi, the whole thing, just, boom, boom, boom. They’ve got to stop that, because they’re destroying our country. We have to work on making America great again, not on beating people. And we won. We beat them and all we beat them on the impeachments. We beat them on indictments,” he said.
Referring to the 2020 election, Trump claimed ‘they use Covid to cheat.’
As he recited a long list of policy proposals, the former president said: “And then we had that horrible, horrible result that we’ll never let happen again, the election result. We’re never going to let that happen again. They use Covid to cheat. You’re never going to let it happen again,”
Before Trump took the stage, it was reported by multiple outlets that he would not say Joe Biden’s name.
“And I say it often, if you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States think of it, the 10 worst added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done. Only going to use the term once, Biden, I’m not going to use the name anymore, just one time,” he said.
Trump promised to lower prices for Americans after a historic period of inflation under Joe Biden.
“We must get economic relief to our citizens. Starting on day one, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again. Republicans have a plan to bring down prices and bring them down very, very rapidly. By slashing energy costs, we will, in turn, reduce the cost of transportation, manufacturing and all household goods. So much starts with energy. And remember, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country,” he said.
Describing the migration of other nations to the United States as an “invasion”, Trump promised to drill and close the borders on his first day in office.
“At the heart of the Republican platform is our pledge to end this border nightmare and fully restore the sacred and sovereign borders of the United States of America. We’re going to do that on day one. That means two things on day one, right: drill, baby, drill and close our borders,“Drill, baby, drill. Close our borders. Tonight, this is my vow, I will not allow these criminals into our country,”
Trump also vowed to have “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country,” hypothesising that crime is dropping in Central American countries like El Salvador because “they’re sending their murders to the United States of America.”
He noted that his deportations would be “even larger than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower from many years ago. You know, he was a moderate but he believed very strongly in borders. He had the largest deportation operation we’ve ever had,”
Trump concluded by telling voters ‘your expectations are not big enough’ and centering on the promise of better days ahead.
“For too long, our nation has settled for too little. We settle for too little. We’ve given everything to other nations, to other people. You have been told to lower your expectations and to accept less for your families. I am here tonight with the opposite message. Your expectations are not big enough.
“The assassin in Pennsylvania wanted to stop our movement. But the truth is, the movement has never been about me. It has always been about you. It’s your movement. The biggest movement in the history of our country, by far, can’t be stopped.”