July 19, 2024
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Trump: ‘I'm not supposed to be here tonight, not supposed to be here.’ Former President shows strength and humility at RNC acceptance speech.
By Robert Romano
“I'm not supposed to be here tonight, not supposed to be here.”
That was former President Donald Trump’s assessment of the near-fatal assassination attempt against him on July 13 at his Butler, Pa. campaign rally, that it was a miracle he was still alive, as he accepted the Republican Party nomination on July 18 in Milwaukee, Wis.
As the crowd chanted, “Yes you are!” Trump insisted he should be dead: “But I'm not [supposed to be here] and I'll tell you. I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God. In watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment. Probably was.”
At his first speech since his brush with death, Trump recounted that but for referring to a chart on illegal immigration, where he turned his head at the last second, and “if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together.”
Trump’s humble retelling carried over into the rest of the speech as he softened his attacks on President Joe Biden and offered a less partisan style speech, stating, “I am running to be President for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”
That set the mood for the remainder of Trump’s speech: This is a man on a mission to finish what he started when he began running for President the first time in 2015 and won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, overcoming incredible odds.
Illegal immigration has never been worse, with 8.1 million southwest border encounters since Biden took office in Jan. 2021, the most in American history over comparable time intervals. In part, it is that stat that explains Trump’s decision to run for office again, and it is definitely that stat that saved his life.
To address it, Trump says he will finish the border wall that began under his watch. He will reinstitute the Remain in Mexico policy that Biden ended. And he plans to undertake a massive deportation operation.
To garner international support for the policies, Trump promised to once again leverage economic aid and tariff threats against countries that do not cooperate with U.S. policies on trade, immigration and fighting the drug cartels.
On foreign policy, Trump once again warned not just his supporters by all Americans and indeed the entire world that we are on the brink of nuclear war: “our planet is teetering on the edge of World War III. And this will be a war like no other war because of weaponry. The weapons are no longer army tanks going back and forth shooting at each other. These weapons are obliteration. It's time for a change. This administration can't come close to solving the problems.”
On the campaign trail, Trump has supported pursuing a diplomatic strategy specific to Ukraine to achieve peace — if possible — and to avoid the worst as the war there continues to escalate.
Trump also threatened Hamas to return all American hostages currently being held before he returns to office or “the entire world, I tell you this, we want our hostages back, and they better be back before I assume office… or you will be paying a very big price.”
On the economy, Trump referenced inflation 14 times, and promised to reduce costs on food and energy by boosting production, and also with tax relief including no tax on tips, regulation cuts and lower interest rates. On the latter, interest rates might come down all on their own as the economy overheats, Americans max out their credit cards and prices cool, with the unemployment rate already rising, from a low of 3.4 percent in April 2023 now up to 4.1 percent in June.
A lot of the speech was largely boilerplate from Trump campaign rallies as the former president occasionally broke into adlibbing, but the overall moment was well-crafted, including a touching tribute to Corey Comperatore who lost his life at the Butler, Pa. rally while he was heroically shielding his family.
Following the assassination attempt, Trump’s rhetorical challenge was to meet that moment, to relate what happened to him and to show that he was okay, and that he was back. As the tempo of the speech shifted to more upbeat and animated in the second half as Trump really got into the swing of it, the American people were treated to a candidate who is fully able and motivated to lead the country he loves.
Trump showed strength.
At Butler, Pa., Trump told the assembled crowd to “Fight!” and in Milwaukee, Wis. he started to show how he intends to do that on the campaign trail with a message that can resonate not just with Republicans, but also independents and Democrats who might be on the fence. America’s leadership is currently weak, but Trump is strong — and America needs to be strong.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
Video: Former President Donald Trump addresses 2024 RNC
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfz7p0Rv828
Lou Dobbs: A Pioneer in News Broadcasting
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uZS6FWpe0A
Trump Earns Big Bump from Young People and Independents as Biden Continues to Lose Support
By Manzanita Miller
The last three weeks have captured more shifts politically than possibly the entire first six months of the election year. On June 27, former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden faced off in a debate performance that sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party and led to an increase in support for Trump among swing voters.
On July 13th, an assassin attempted to take Former President Trump’s life at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and miraculously missed.
Within 48 hours, Trump emerged at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, and announced his running mate while welcoming speeches from unlikely sources including Teamsters union president Sean O'Brien.
In the latest round of polls released since Trump survived the assassination attempt, he is up against Biden in seven battleground states and has increased his favorable numbers with independents and young people significantly.
According to the latest Emerson College poll Trump leads Biden by three points in Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, by five points in Georgia, by six points in Pennsylvania, by nine points in North Carolina and by a full ten points in Arizona. These numbers are the same or higher for Trump in each state compared to March polling.
The poll also finds that Americans say Biden should withdraw from the race by a four-point margin, 52 percent to 48 percent, while Americans say Trump should not withdraw from the race by a twelve-point margin, 56 percent to 44 percent.
According to Emerson, a majority of swing voters including 54 percent of whites and 55 percent of Hispanics as well as 60 percent of voters under age 50 say Biden should exit the race.
Then there is the latest YouGov poll which has Trump leading Biden by two points nationally, 43 percent to 41 percent, a fractional change from polling conducted July 7th-9th by YouGov, prior to the assassination attempt against Trump. At that time, Trump led Biden by three points, 43 percent to 40 percent.
Trump has gained four points with voters under 30 since the first week of July, going from 27 percent to 31 percent now. Meanwhile, Biden has lost seven points in about a fortnight, going from 52 percent of the youth vote on July 7th-9th to 45 percent now.
The story is similar with Hispanics. According to the survey, Trump actually lost two percentage points with Hispanics since the first week of July, going from 37 percent to 35 percent today. Biden lost five points during that period, dropping from 48 percent the first week of July to 43 percent now.
Trump has also enjoyed a very modest two-point bump in his favorable rating since early July, with 43 percent of Americans holding a favorable view of him now, compared to 41 percent in early July. However, his favorable rating has risen substantially with two groups – young voters and independents.
According to the survey, Trump’s favorability rating has risen a full ten percentage points among voters under 30 since the first week of July. His favorable rating went from 30 percent the first week of July to 40 percent today. Trump made a less impressive gain in favorability with voters aged 30 to 44, going from 36 percent in early July to 39 percent today. Trump also gained eight percentage points among independent voters from the first week of July to today, going from 35 percent the first week of July to 40 percent today.
The past few weeks have captured a significant number of changes, and it may take a few more weeks for the events of the past month to fully sink in and be borne out in polls. However, what we know right now is that Trump has continued to make incremental gains over the past month, while Biden has lost ground.
Trump’s favorable rating has climbed substantially among young voters and independents since the first week of July as well. However, the share of younger voters who say they are planning to vote for Trump lags behind the share who hold a favorable view of him.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/07/trump-earns-big-bump-from-young-people-and-independents-as-biden-continues-to-lose-support/