Second night of the 2024 Republican Convention featured more star power, greater applause lines
There weren’t as many breaking news headlines on Tuesday (except for maybe the story on
the Iranians plotting an assassination attempt of Trump themselves), but Republicans demonstrated, once again, that they’re amped up and more than prepared to carry their enthusiasm into this November’s presidential election.
If the national vote were tallied today, one thinks that Donald Trump would be a runaway winner.
Nominee Trump made his second appearance in two days at the Republican gathering, and while still somewhat “subdued” in demeanor, appeared to enjoy the program quite a bit more than the previous evening. It could have been the speakers brought out more emotion from the nominee, as they relentlessly praised him while hitting on the “Make America Safe Once Again” theme for the second night of the convention.
A highly animated Ron DeSantis delivered what was probably the best speech line of the evening, arguing “Our enemies do not confine their designs to between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. … America cannot afford another four years of a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ presidency’”. That one even got Trump to nod and laugh.
Where was this DeSantis during the primary campaign? It doesn’t matter. Conservatives got the nominee we wanted. The Florida governor certainly justified the invitation to speak at the convention.
Fellow 2024 presidential candidate and ardent Trump backer Vivek Ramaswamy also displayed his usual amount of passion in his brief address, engendering a number of ovations from the delegates.
A clearly trimmed-down Sarah Huckabee Sanders also appeared and did a terrific job of presenting the best arguments for electing her former boss in her typical folksy manner, portraying Trump’s human side that she witnessed during her White House days. Well done.
She was funny, too. Huckabee Sanders offered, “When I was President Trump's White House Press Secretary, I got the chance to take my four-year-old son Huck to 'bring your kid to work day'. Much like Jill now drags Joe to 'bring your husband to work day'.”
Lara Trump could easily be part of the GOP’s electoral future if she wants it
“I have seen this man dragged through hell and back. In and out of courtrooms, indictments, impeachments, mug shots, and even an assassination attempt. And yes, he has never backed down.” – Lara Trump
Republican Party co-chair and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump was the final speaker on Tuesday night, and for those who might’ve been asleep or have been in a dazed semi-stupor after two full days of floor activities, cheering, voting and… waiting for the biggest headliners to appear on Wednesday and Thursday.
It’s just my theory that planning for and speaking on Tuesday night could be the largest challenge in convention scheduling, since Monday usually features some sort of breaking news (as it did this year) and everybody’s still aware that the vice president nominee speaks on Wednesday and the head honcho takes up all the time on Thursday.
With these limitations in mind, Lara Trump did a fantastic job in Milwaukee. Lara has clearly benefited from her extensive experience as a Trump spokeswoman for going on nine years now, so playing the role in front of the who’s who in the Republican Party (of which she’s basically the face) and a national TV audience is old school by now.
As if anyone doubted her, Lara’s thorough command of the issues fuels her already stellar appearance and communications abilities. She’s spent the past several months resuscitating the party’s anemic fundraising under former chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, raising the GOP’s coffers to competitive levels with the always well-funded Democrats.
It can also be argued that Lara has become the second most famous Trump of them all, certainly surpassing husband Eric and rivaling Don Jr. and maybe even Ivanka. Lara’s being exudes positivity and her non-descript middle-class background lends her a sense of authenticity, even if she’s now one of the richest people in America.
Lara’s speech was pretty standard political speak, a blatant ploy to tout her father-in-law’s candidacy and her party. The highlights came toward the end of the address when she spoke personally about this “small town girl” who was welcomed by her wealthy and famous father-in-law. She thanked him for being so supportive. Were the 20-plus minutes memorable? I think people will remember her speaking at the convention and that she rounded out the Tuesday program, but it’s unlikely they’ll garner much from it a few weeks from now.
Lara Trump is a credit to herself, her family, her father-in-law and the Republican party. Here’s thinking she could easily have a political future herself if she wanted one. Another thing to watch for in the years to come.
Nikki Haley, auditioning for a place of influence in Trump’s Republican Party
At last, Nikki Haley discovered a way to draw thousands to one of her speeches.
Former Trump U.N. Ambassador (among other positions) Haley appeared on Tuesday night and received a warm greeting from the delegates despite what must have been fresh memories from the happenings of the 2024 GOP primary campaign and Haley’s stubborn refusal to exit the race when it was more than clear that it was time for her to depart and encourage party unity and reconciliation.
And I doubt anyone had forgotten or overlooked the fact that Nikki, to my knowledge, still hasn’t uttered the “e” (endorsement) word in regards to Trump, instead stopping way short by admitting that she’ll “vote” for him in November because senile Joe Biden is so awful.
Nikki fixed that issue on Tuesday, declaring that she “strongly endorses” Trump this year.
It’s all well and good with most people already having moved on seeing Nikki’s stubbornness as water under the proverbial bridge or deciding to let bygones be bygones or (insert your cliché here), Haley’s challenge to Trump being so yesterday to the point where hardly anyone thinks about her – or what she’d said – anymore. Time and events have a way of healing politics-inflicted wounds where ambitious pols say and do things that they may not have thought about in the spur of the moment. Or heat of the battle.
Donald Trump certainly isn’t immune to this kind of reflection.
Abraham Lincoln said it himself in the Gettysburg Address: “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”
Haley may have seen her 11th hour invitation to the Republican convention as a sign that Trump isn’t/wasn’t mad at her any longer or she’d belatedly wised-up and understood that her political future is tied to Trump whether she likes it or not. Therefore, Haley’s passionate words reinforcing the evening’s theme of immigration and crime were well taken by the delegates, who didn’t betray any ill residual feelings from months ago.
Nikki hasn’t outright declared that she’s planning to run in 2028, and the fact that Trump now has a young up-and-comer in J.D. Vance as his potential vice president likely doesn’t alter her future plans much. Haley knows that, to have a chance in 2028 as this cycle’s next-in-line second place finisher, she will need to get on the good side of the MAGA base. And maybe hope that Vance messes up somehow in Trump’s estimation.
Nikki will have the support of the stodgy establishment who will no doubt, even four years from now, claim that the world needs a “different tone” and someone who’s more “unifying” than Trump was. The question is whether there’ll be enough hot air left in the establishment’s balloon to make a difference for her against what promises to be a solid stable of conservative runners against her including Ron DeSantis and maybe Vivek Ramaswamy as well as J.D. Vance.
But let the future be the future. For now, Nikki Haley should feel good about her performance on Tuesday night. She got in her points about illegal immigration and crime as well as some barbs about neoconservative foreign policy that were the hallmarks of her campaign. And defending Israel, where she rates pretty well for her views.
Will it be Nikki in 2028? Will Trump include her as part of his cabinet? Time will tell.
The thought of losing Trump led to impossible “What if?” scenarios
Saturday’s world-altering event was one of those “nothing happens by coincidence” occurrences where it was evident we witnessed the hand of God at work. By all accounts, the “experts” say the rifle shot undertaken by Donald Trump’s would-be assassin wouldn’t have been a difficult one for an average marksman, and there had to be some explanation for Trump somehow managing to emerge from the assault relatively unscathed. Afterwards, Trump said it was a miracle he is still alive. I agree.
The hypothetical “What if?” topic didn’t come up last night at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, and it would’ve been weird if it had, but what would’ve happened this week and in the near future if President Trump hadn’t impulsively turned his head just prior to the moment of impact and he’d sustained a much more severe or fatal wound on Saturday evening in Pennsylvania instead of commenting on it to journalists?
I’d be lying if I claimed my mind didn’t approach the “what happens next?” subject while trying to make sense of what was transpiring in real time the other night. I wasn’t watching the news at the minute of the actual crime, and after having received a text from my wife (about some sort of shooting at the Trump event), I surmised some wacko leftist nutjob like James Hodkinson had gone postal on the patriotic, Trump-backing spectators and created a mass casualty event the establishment media would somehow exploit.
A nightmare, to be sure, but upon switching the channel to MSNBC (of all places) and then Fox News, I quickly grasped that it was Trump himself who’d been the target and primary victim.
Viewing the first fifteen minutes of coverage, it looked as though Trump was injured in the melee but not seriously, the fist pumps and “Fight! Fight! Fight!” exhortation from the 2024 Republican nominee-to-be heavily suggesting that he was not only alive – he was spared from serious wounding. At least hopefully that was the impression, though minds wander in such instances, especially remembering that gunshot wounds are very often much more serious than first glances would indicate.
What if Trump wasn’t okay? What happens now? Would the RNC be cancelled? Do the party rules cover such contingencies for a replacement? It goes without saying that Republicans and conservatives would be devastated almost to the point of giving up if Trump were somehow to disappear in an unanticipated manner, but this election is MUCH too important to simply walk away without challenging the current incompetent/harmful president and his fellow Democrats in Congress.
In other words, it may not be overly sensitive to state, but these times aren’t all about Donald Trump. I’ve forgiven myself for thinking it, but life, and the election, would go on. Of course, chaos would ensue. Anxiety would dominate the proceedings for weeks and months. The world would change, and not for the better.
But who would/could fill the leadership vacuum in the Republican Party in Trump’s absence?
The fact that a Trump vice president hadn’t yet been named or voted on complicated the matter even further. Even if such person had been specified, the delegates wouldn’t have been obligated to anoint that person Trump’s successor. Nor would the non-Trump leftovers from the 2024 Republican primaries constitute the field of potential new nominees in a Trump-less GOP, and being close to Trump or being on his short-list wouldn’t grant special status to the person.
In my opinion, if Trump had been incapacitated (temporarily or otherwise), the Republican party would’ve undergone the most furious of deliberations, arguments, rhetorical brawls, accusations, back-and-forth denunciations, backbiting, infighting, insults and bruised egos. It would’ve been like multiple siblings going at it as though battling over possession of the TV remote after dinner.
Why? Because a political party is a lot like a family. And when the head of the faction is suddenly taken away, there’s nothing left to dampen the raw feelings of those who were left behind. It’s testimony to Trump’s near-complete takeover of the GOP that most people probably felt the same sense of panic that I did.
Or was it horror? For if Trump were to exit the American political scene, the GOP establishment would sense weakness and a new opportunity to fill the power vacuum. Here’s thinking that if Trump actually was killed in northeastern Pennsylvania that many, many voices would call for Nikki Haley to reenter the fray and assume her place as the “next-in-line” candidate since she finished second in the 2024 primaries.
Recall how it used to be a Republican tradition to anoint the second-place finishers from the previous national party campaign. That’s how John McCain and Mitt Romney ascended in the next nominating cycle after coming up short, and there’s no need to rehash the examples of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Countering the push for Haley would be the entirety of the Trump MAGA coalition. Now that J.D. Vance has been tapped to fill Trump’s second V.P. slot, the Ohioan vaults to the front of the line. But as of Saturday night, there was no one. If Trump kept the secret locked as tightly as he maintained, who would’ve elaborated on who Trump intended to choose?
Would there have been calls for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis? Or would a good many Trump loyalists have insisted that someone like Vivek Ramaswamy be awarded the podium, since many have called Ramaswamy “Trump-ier” than Trump.
Vivek would’ve commanded dedication from the populist wing of the MAGA coalition, but conservatives would’ve likely gone with DeSantis as the most proven warrior. DeSantis has work to do to compete with Trump on the charisma level, but Gov. Ron also displays a “been there, done that” aura of confidence.
Luckily, however, no one will ever have to make that choice. With chance, fate – and God’s will – having shined on Trump a few days ago, Trump himself will be in position to call all the shots. Trump’s political skills are no longer in question, and with his newfound wisdom and life’s perspective from his brush with death, we very well could see a “new” Trump that a lot of people have waited for.
The 2024 campaign will probably calm down for a while, and the establishment media will talk about the assassination attempt and Trump’s (and J.D. Vance’s) speech for a period of time. Additionally, the Democrats may put their “Biden has to go” urges to the side – until the next Biden missteps set off panic reflexes ahead of their own national convention in Chicago in a month.
It's practically impossible to imagine a world without Donald Trump and even more arduous to conceive of a Republican Party without its leader heading into the 2024 campaign. Thankfully, kind providence saved us from needing to confront the inconceivable. Trump is very much alive, and will no doubt make a heck of a speech tomorrow night.
Republicans are marching united
After two days of the 2024 Republican convention, it’s clear that the GOP is as united as it’s been since the days of Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s. Will there be a similar landslide victory for Donald Trump this year? Positive signs are everywhere, but the Democrats and the forces of the left will never give up or back down. Victory must be earned, vote by vote.
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