March 28, 2024

TRUMP ACCEPTS GOP NOMINATION AND PROMISES TO RESTORE SAFETY

TRUMP 37/21/16 Updated.  Donald Trump promises to protect the country from foreign and domestic threats and by putting “America First” in his address Thursday evening formally accepting the GOP nomination for president.

“Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities,” Trump will say, according to excerpts of prepared remarks released by the Trump campaign. “Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims. I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored.”

The billionaire real estate mogul will also cast himself as a champion for blue-collar workers and the middle class, arguing that by putting presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the White House, economic strife would grow.

“The problems we face now — poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad — will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them,” Trump will say.

“As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect. This will all change when I take office,” he will continue. “My message is that things have to change — and they have to change right now. Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored and abandoned.”

Trump will also double down on his promises to provide tax relief for business and renegotiate trade deals, ushering in more protectionist policies that are not typically hallmarks of the GOP platform — and that his own running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, has opposed.

“Middle-income Americans and businesses will experience profound relief, and taxes will be greatly simplified for everyone. America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world,” Trump will continue. “Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country. Then we are going to deal with the issue of regulation, one of the greatest job-killers of them all.”

“With these new economic policies, trillions of dollars will start flowing into
our country,” the newly minted Republican nominee will promise. “This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans. We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow.”

Trump will end his speech with an emotional appeal to parents, casting himself as the champion of future generations. He will be introduced by his daughter Ivanka, and all of his other children, except for his 10-year-old son, Barron, have also spoken at the convention.

“So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams
for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I’m with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you.”

The billionaire businessman’s address comes after three days of a chaotic Republican National Convention to officially launch his general election, where he trails rival Hillary Clinton in polls. On Day 1, anti-Trump delegates caused a commotion when they tried to force a roll call vote to try to unbind delegates. And on Wednesday, Trump’s former rival Ted Cruz took the stage, only to be booed off after the Texas senator still declined to endorse Trump.

Thursday’s festivities kicked off with a more energized mood. Though some seats in the Quicken Loans Arena were still empty, it was far fuller than it had been earlier this week.

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio both spoke early on.

Falwell, an influential evangelical voice who gave Trump his blessing early on, praised Trump as “America’s blue-collar billionaire.”

Arpaio, a famed immigration hard-liner, praised Trump’s border wall, telling the crowd that, “we need a leader who will protect our border and enforce our laws because a nation without borders is a nation without laws is no nation at all.”

But it was South Carolina African-American Pastor Mark Burns who turned the decibel level up in the arena, leading the crowd in chants of “All Lives Matter!”

“Even though I disagree with the tactics and the divisive rhetoric of the Black Lives Matter movement, I do understand that hopelessness and lack of opportunity breeds this type of desperation,” Burns said, explaining what he believes is responsible for the current unrest in the country after police shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, along with the deaths of young black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Source: NHPR

UPDATE:

Trump: Americanism not globalism will be our credo

Accepting the Republican nomination in Cleveland, the billionaire twice pledged to be a “voice” for working Americans, restore law and order and to confound elites and doubters by winning the White House in November.

“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,” Trump said. “My message is that things have to change — and they have to change right now.”

Trump, whose unpredictable campaign has broken every rule of politics, will portray America as a broken nation that only he can fix.

“I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end,” he said. “Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored.”

Trump’s address was the most crucial moment yet in his transformation from a brash tycoon and reality star with a sometimes vulgar tongue to a politician with an expansive vision of disruptive change who could become President. It offered him a chance to soothe divisions in both the country as a whole and his party, where tensions were exposed Wednesday by Ted Cruz’s refusal to endorse Trump.

“Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life,” he said. “Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.”

Updated from Stephen Collinson, WMTW.com

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