Fear-mongering over “open borders,” dog-whistling about crime-ridden cities run by Democrats, cop fetishization.
Haven’t we heard all this before?
President Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention speech Thursday was supposed to be a show-stopping spectacle, one he was so desperate for everyone to see that he forced the GOP to relocate the convention to another state so he could flout social distancing mandates and potentially expose attendees to COVID-19.
But you wouldn’t know it if you listened the speech, which sounded virtually identically to the rants he’s given in countless press briefings, Fox News interviews and rallies.
The one difference was that he used the White House, a site for all Americans, including ones who didn’t vote for him, as a backdrop for his partisan rants. Critics assailed Trump for the unprecedented move, and he openly reveled in the outrage as he accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for president.
“What’s the name of that building?” Trump asked while gesturing behind him, an “own the libs”-style dig we’ve come to expect from him.
“The fact is, we’re here and they’re not,” Trump said of his political opponents.
Trump sums up his whole presidency: "We're here, and they're not" pic.twitter.com/JyaJqLUwxN
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 28, 2020
In his remarks, the President vowed to “defeat” COVID-19 “and emerge better than ever before.” He bragged about tax cuts. Supreme Court justices. “The best unemployment numbers for African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans ever recorded.”
Even his jaw-dropping and patently false claim that he’s done more for Black people since Abraham Lincoln wasn’t new.
Trump also regurgitated his attacks on China (who are “robbing our country blind” and who also caused “the China virus”), Biden (“Nobody will be safe in Biden’s America”) and cities lead by Democrats (“There’s violence and danger in the streets of in Democrat-run cities throughout America”).
“Gathered here at our beautiful and majestic White House, known all over the world is the people’s house, we cannot help but marvel at the miracle that is our great American story,” Trump said in the beginning of his speech.
But that night, it wasn’t the people’s house. It was a prop for Trump’s partisan attacks on his political enemies and yet another opportunity for him to shatter norms for his own self-aggrandizement.
Fireworks over the National Mall spell out "TRUMP" and "2020" after the President finishes his RNC speech pic.twitter.com/Syieo2laho
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 28, 2020
