By Tim Reid
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – For four nights at Donald Trump’s nominating convention in Milwaukee, a roster of speakers attempted to give one of the most divisive politicians in recent U.S. history a makeover, describing him as a loving and caring family man whose near-assassination at a rally on Saturday had changed him.
Early in his speech on Thursday night, as he accepted his party’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, it seemed Trump had bought into the carefully orchestrated effort to repackage him as a humbler, unifying figure, more palatable to swing voters who will be crucial to winning the Nov. 5 election.
Trump had told the Washington Examiner earlier in the week that he had torn up the original speech he planned to give in favor of one preaching national unity after his near brush with death.
And for the first few minutes of his speech, Trump sought to do that. He said he wanted to be a president for all Americans, including Democrats, and wanted to heal the divided country. He recounted in detail the attempt to assassinate him last Saturday, which he said deeply affected him, and spoke movingly of a supporter killed by the gunman.
“In an age when our politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens,” Trump said.
That new version of Trump lasted barely half an hour.
Then the Trump more familiar to Americans – the bombastic thrower of insults who revels in demonizing his opponents – re-emerged, trampling over the message of unity so painstakingly choreographed by the Republican National Committee this week.
In a rambling 92-minute address that broke the record for the longest convention speech in history, Trump called Democratic President Joe Biden the worst president in U.S. history and the former Democratic House Speaker “crazy Nancy Pelosi,” and accused Democrats of launching judicial witch hunts against him and creating a “planet of war.”
“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,” Trump said.
“In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country,” he said.
Using familiar hyperbolic and divisive language, he said illegal immigration to the United States was “the greatest invasion in history” and was leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, though neither claim is supported by any data.
He painted a dark picture of a crumbling America, a nation in decline, its cities crime-ridden and economically depressed, a staple image of his stump speech in which he presents himself as the country’s savior.
“We had been told this was going to be a different Trump, a softer side,” Mary Anna Mancuso, a Republican strategist and Trump critic, said afterward. “Trump’s speech was not about unifying the nation. It was the same Trump that we’ve seen and there was no difference.”
To be sure, Trump avoided some of the harshest language often deployed at his rallies. He usually relishes mocking Biden as an enfeebled president, but only mentioned him by name twice.
Frank Luntz, another Republican strategist, said the speech was so long and started so late that many viewers would only have seen the first 30 minutes, which Luntz described as “perfect.”
He thought some of roughest elements of Trump’s normal attacks were also toned down. “It was traditional, typical Trump without as many of the usual hard edges,” Luntz said.
Trump returns to the campaign trail on Saturday for a rally in Michigan with his newly anointed vice presidential pick, U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, at his side. Those skeptical of his makeover by the party this week will watch to see which Trump will appear and how long any push for unity will last.
Diehard supporters typically flock to his rallies to see Trump 1.0 – the man who mixes conspiracy theories with inflammatory rhetoric and threats of retribution against those he perceives to have wronged him.
(Reporting by Tim Reid in Milwaukee; Editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
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