Law and order take centre stage in subdued Trump convention speech

Trump’s speeches have been many things over the years but they were never what we saw last night, which was unexpectedly dull. Reading robotically from a teleprompter for over an hour, Trump gave a speech to a large unmasked crowd that, for once, sounded like something another Republican president could have conceivably given.

The steps of the White House where the speech took place, something the Democrats have decried as an illegal misuse of federal property, were undeniably a dramatic setting. Yet this did little to lift Trump who was noticeably unenthused by the bland tightly scripted, more traditional fare he was stuck with.

Trump is not a natural public speaker at the best of times but usually the strangeness or the sheer energy of his supporters creates a charged up, carnivalesque atmosphere. Now, even this was almost entirely absent. Notably, one of the few flickers of energy displayed by Trump came when he briefly veered of script to complain about one his favourite issues: that the Obama administration had spied on his 2016 campaign.

So, what filled the other slow sixty-seven and a half minutes? A good portion of the time was spent by Trump listing what be perceived to be his achievements, be it on the economy, immigration, China, the Middle East, or the coronavirus pandemic. Yet the slightly subdued cheers from the crowd offered a sharp contrast to the baying exaltation that usually greets Trump’s declarations.

Two aspects were worth nothing. Firstly, the Trump campaign seems to have settled on its main line of attack against Biden. Since trying to paint Biden –  of all people –  as a dangerous radical is unconvincing, Trump now claimed that he would be “a Trojan horse for socialism”. According to the President, Biden does not “have the strength to stand up to wild-eyed Marxists like Bernie Sanders and his fellow radicals”. This looks set to become a key line of attack in the coming campaign.

This was tied closely to the topic which seemed to take up the most time in Trump’s speech – law and order. “Make no mistake, if you give power to Joe Biden, the radical left will defund police departments all across America. […] No one will be safe in Biden’s America.” Trump declared.

The riots and general violence in US cities, which are currently happening on Trump’s watch, were cited as a vision of what was to come under a Biden presidency. Trump on the other hand promised safety and that he would always stand by the police.

Still, none of this was new. The metaphor that Biden is a “Trojan horse” for radicalism has already been trailed – first in an online ad and then on Wednesday night in Vice-President Mike Pence’s speech.

As for law and order, Trump has been banging that drum since the mass protests and riots first began months ago. The message might have some cut through with voters, despite Biden having been quick to condemn the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but it was delivered better by various speakers over the past four days of the Republican National Convention.

In an unexpected twist, the speakers that preceded Trump in the last night of the RNC were rather more interesting than expected. A number of black American speakers were featured, varying from the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, to Alice Johnson, a convict released after Trump commuted her sentence.

Still, getting tough on crime while pitching to black American voters is a tricky balancing act in the times of BLM. The best attempt at it was made by Ann Dorn, a police officer and widow of a retired black police officer who was killed defending his store during the recent riots.

Whether this is enough to make an impact on African-American voters remains to be seen but there is no denying the speech Dorn’s speech was moving.

Meanwhile, Trump in one striking moment, reminiscent of the bombast we are used to, declared: “I say very modestly that I have done more for the African-American community than any President since Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican President. And I have done more in three years for the black community than Joe Biden has done in forty-seven years.”

Indeed, if there was an obvious weakness at the convention it was the excessive emphasis on Trump himself throughout. The entire affair has taken place in his shadow featuring him, and his family, in some capacity every night.

On the last night, before Trump delivered the closing address, every speaker personally acquainted with Trump almost fell over themselves to be character witnesses for him. We were assured that Trump was compassionate, hardworking, and dedicated to the public good – never mind what we have seen over the past four years.

Putting Trump front and centre is unavoidable given the personalised nature of a presidential contest. But doing it to such an extent seems unwise, especially when the polls show that he is deeply unpopular with the wider electorate. The dull performance last night didn’t even seem able to enthuse his supporters that much.

Even fireworks going off around the Washington Monument, surely another misuse of federal property for a campaign event, after Trump finished his speech seemed to do little to lift spirits. The final touch – of opera singers on the White House balcony singing a mix of Nessun Dorma and Leonard Cohen – was a stunt mildly reminiscent of Evita Peron, but it merely added to the slight surrealism that had previously been untypically absent from the Trump campaign event.

Launching into a final God Bless America, the opera singers called upon the crowd to join in. Few seemed to.