"Nation in decline": Trump, promising unity, delivers divisive address at RNC

Donald Trump delivered his first public speech since he was struck in the ear in an assassination attempt last Saturday, promising unity and seeding division in the same address.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed, and we must heal it quickly,” Trump said, despite his violent rhetoric throughout the presidential campaign, dating back to his first run and presidential term.

Accepting his official nomination, the former president shared the stage with the firefighter’s uniform of Corey Comperatore, a rally attendee who he called a “serious Trumpster… [in] the past tense,” who was killed by Trump's shooter. Following this moment, many on social media were quick to point out that the firefighter’s name was misspelled on the back of the jacket.

The speech, apparently re-written to support “unity” after being grazed by a bullet, which he purported “came within a quarter of an inch” of taking his life, began with a 15-minute recap of the event that took a chunk out of his ear, causing him to wear a bandage — quickly adapted by his fans as a new fashion trend.

Trump, who revisited the day of the shooting for the “only time,” recalled speaking “strongly, powerfully, and happily” about the U.S. border when he was shot. He recalled a loyal crowd who waited to see if he had died, noting that he was “not supposed to be here tonight.”

“Many people say it was a providential moment. Probably was,” Trump said. “I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands of thousands of people who were breathlessly waiting, and started shouting, ‘fight, fight, fight.’”

Here, Trump quickly pivoted his attempts to garner sympathy into jabs at the judicial system and his political opponents.

“We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement,” Trump said, despite his calls to deport student protestors earlier this year. “In that spirit, the Democrat party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and stop labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy.”

Trump, who led boos against “Crazy” Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats, said “They’ve gotta stop that,” because “they’re destroying our country,” undermining the unifying message he promised.

The president announced Ohio Senator JD Vance as his vice presidential nominee on-stage, declaring that the heir-apparent of the MAGA movement would be “doing this for a long time.”

Vowing lower taxes, more patriotic schools, and less war, Trump promised to only say “Biden” once, but went on to blast the incumbent.

“To achieve this future, we must rescue our nation from failed, and even incompetent, leadership,” he said. “We are indeed a nation in decline.”

The former president doubled down on election lies, accusing the Democrats of cheating in his 2020 loss.

“They used COVID to cheat. We’re never gonna let that happen again,” Trump said. His attempts to overturn the results of that race earned him a House impeachment and multiple state inquiries into the illegal scheme he participated in.

Trump, who started his first presidential run with the infamous “they’re sending rapists” speech, repeated his classic attacks on immigrants.

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“It’s a massive invasion that is taking place at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease, and destruction to communities all across our land,” he said, before baselessly blaming as many deaths as car accidents and gun violence combined on immigration. “We have to stop the invasion into our country that’s killing hundreds of thousands of people a year.”

The Republican convention, which passed around signs reading “mass deportation now” on Wednesday, centered on the former president’s scheme to militaristically deport up to 20 million immigrants.

Trump, who walked out to “Proud to be an American,” was less than patriotic about the state of the country, citing “a state of depression and despair” under the Biden administration. Attacking the United Auto Workers union, U.S. allies, and federal officials, he frequently led boos and jeers in the crowd.

But even before the former president’s speech, the Republican National Convention’s pivot to unity didn’t seem to be going so well.

Former wrestler Hulk Hogan, who spoke moments before Trump, referred to the former president's shooter in a rather vague way, suggesting that Thomas Matthew Crooks wasn’t a lone actor.

“They tried to kill the next President of the United States,” Hogan said, referring to Trump’s would-be assassin as “they” several times, despite the FBI’s finding that Crooks, a 20-year-old male, acted alone in his attempt on the former president’s life.

Similarly, Eric Trump suggested that Democrats tried to “take his life” in his own RNC address, despite no evidence to suggest that the shooter’s motivations were political at all. On the contrary, Crooks was a registered Republican who former classmates and neighbors described as conservative.

Trump talked policy in the speech, too. Blasting environmental policy and calling for increased oil production, he vowed to "drill, baby, drill." The candidate, who demonized inflation under Biden, also shared his inflationary plan to put massive tariffs on imported goods.

But Trump was sure to circle back to his original anti-immigrant rhetoric.

"At the heart of the Republican platform is our pledge to end this border nightmare," Trump said, showing "the chart that saved my life" of undocumented border crossings. "They are coming in from every corner of the earth, not just from South America, but from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, they're coming from everywhere. They're coming at levels we've never seen before. It's an invasion, indeed."