Make America Mellow Again
We didn’t know what to expect from Donald Trump in his first public remarks since the Butler rally, but I’m not sure we were expecting that. In some ways he attempted to keep his promise of a unifying message – the declaration that he was “running to be president for all of America, not half of America” and that “we must now come together, rise above past differences and disagreements” was distinctly unTrumpian. He opened quietly, almost gently, and his description of the shooting – never to be repeated, he says – was powerful. He went out of his way to name President Biden only once (“we’ve had the worst inflation we’ve ever had under…that person” he said at one point).
But for much of the speech Trump seemed almost too mellow. One disconcerting feature of the convention is that the teleprompter text is not confined to monitors discreetly placed on the stage, but displayed on big screens around the arena where everyone can see them. This means you know immediately when the speaker departs from the script, and for how long. The first few times, Trump’s asides were short and sometimes funny, but they soon turned into long digressions – tributes, reminiscences and anecdotes, often of dubious relevance – which had the effect of continually stalling the momentum. He even interrupted his peroration to tell a story about Billy Graham.
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