Fact check: Trump energy claim misleading
Donald Trump also claimed tonight that the Biden administration “took our energy policies and destroyed them, and then they immediately went back to them”.
This claim is misleading. Under Joe Biden, the United States is actually producing more crude oil than any country ever. Trump’s record was an average of 12.3m barrels per-day in 2019. Biden set a new world record of 12.9m daily barrels in 2023.
And between the lines of Trump’s assertion was the suggestion that Biden was trying to stop fossil fuel production, which is not accurate. Biden has approved some large and controversial projects, including the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska:
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Donald Trump has made several more false or misleading claims in his convention speech, including that the United States has had the worst inflation ever while Joe Biden was in office.
During Biden’s presidency in June 2022, consumer prices rose by an annual rate of 9.1% – its highest level since 1981, but not of all time. Additionally, inflation has dropped in the two years since. In June, consumer prices rose by 3% annually:
Trump is getting into fertile territory, by promising to lower prices for Americans after a historic period of inflation under Joe Biden.
Polls have repeatedly shown Trump has the edge with voters most concerned about the economy, and the former president is vowing: “We must get economic relief to our citizens. Starting on day one, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again.”
He went on to say:
Republicans have a plan to bring down prices and bring them down very, very rapidly. By slashing energy costs, we will, in turn, reduce the cost of transportation, manufacturing and all household goods. So much starts with energy. And remember, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country.
Before Trump took the stage, it was reported by multiple outlets that he would not say Joe Biden’s name.
Well, he just did.
“And I say it often, if you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States – think of it, the 10 worst – added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done,” Trump said
He then seemed to catch himself: “Only going to use the term once, Biden, I’m not going to use the name anymore, just one time”.
Fact check: Referring to 2020 election, Trump says 'they used Covid to cheat'
Trump just made his first foray into the well-trodden path of 2020 election denialism.
As he recited a long list of policy proposals, the former president let slip: “And then we had that horrible, horrible result that we’ll never let happen again, the election result. We’re never going to let that happen again. They used Covid to cheat. You’re never going to let it happen again.”
The evidence that the 2020 election was not marred by fraud is overwhelming. Just ask Trump’s own people:
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Overheard in the floor section where the Wisconsin delegation is sitting, as Trump talked about the Green Bay Packers having a good season:
“I love this man, my god.”
Trump loves to joke – it’s just that sometimes he jokes about things that are a bit fraught for someone seeking the highest office in the land.
“A very special thank you to the extraordinary people of Milwaukee and the great state of – there they are,” Trump said, referring to swing state Wisconsin.
He then said he was “spending over $250m here”, then remarked in jest: “I hope you will remember this in November and give us your vote. I am trying to buy your vote. I’ll be honest about that, and I promise we will make Wisconsin great again.”
Trump went back on script to introduce his running mate JD Vance, albeit briefly.
Then he riffed for a little while longer, calling Vance a “great, great student at Yale, his wife was a great student at Yale, they met at Yale. These are two smart people”.
When he was off script earlier, he went after one of his favorite targets: Democratic former House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Crazy Nancy Pelosi, the whole thing, just, boom, boom, boom. They’ve got to stop that, because they’re destroying our country. We have to work on making America great again, not on beating people. And we won. We beat them and all we beat them on the impeachments. We beat them on indictments.”
It’s unclear what he means here. Trump has been criminally indicted four times, and impeached twice. If there is anything he beat, it’s conviction in the Senate, which would have stopped him from running for office again.
The tone of Trump’s speech has changed markedly, and he’s sounding quite a lot like his old self.
He’s engaging in one of his freewheeling riffs, referencing previous speakers like Hulk Hogan and attacking Democrats.
The teleprompter he is supposed to be following is frozen on a passage where he seems set to talk about his running mate, JD Vance. He hasn’t brought him up yet.
Trump celebrated that federal judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case on Monday, “finding that the prosecutor and the fake documents case against me were totally unconstitutional and the entire case was thrown out”.
In her 93-page ruling, Cannon found that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully serving in his role, because he had not been appointed by the president or confirmed by the US Senate.
But the special counsel formally filed notice yesterday that they will challenge the ruling at the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit. If the appeals court overturns the ruling, it would reinstate the case, and return it to Cannon.
Here’s more about that:
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'I am the one saving democracy', Trump claims
Trump is now shifting away from his message of unity and his recitation of the details of his shooting, and back to the partisan attacks for which he is so well known.
He began by attacking Democrats for “weaponizing the justice system”, and insisting that he, despite his well-documented attempts to overturn the 2020 election, is a defender of democracy.
“We are one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what’s been happening in our country lately at a level that nobody has ever seen before. In that spirit, the Democrat party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy,” Trump said.
“Especially since that is not true. In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.”
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Trump stepped away from the podium briefly to kiss the helmet of Corey Comperatore, which, along with his firefighter’s jacket, is standing up behind him.
Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter, was killed in the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
At one point, Trump said, “I’m only standing here by the grace of almighty God.”
I just turned around to look at the teleprompter to see the remarks as prepared for delivery. That line was not scripted.
Trump has always had a knack for making an audience laugh, and displayed that tonight, even as he recalled the grim details of his assassination attempt.
He was talking about how surprised he was by the amount of blood that came out of his ear after being shot.
“There’s an interesting statistic, the ears are the bloodiest part. If something happens with the ears, they bleed more than any other part of the body, for whatever reason, the doctors told me that,” Trump said.
“So we learn something,” he continued, drawing a laugh from the crowd.
'I'm not supposed to be here tonight', Trump says, as he recount assassination attempt
Trump is going through the details of his assassination attempt, saying that only because he happened to move his head did he survive.
“The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, 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 said.
Referring to the Secret Service, he said, “They’re incredible people. Bullets were flying over us, yet I felt serene, but now the Secret Service agents were putting themselves in peril. They were in very dangerous territory. Bullets were flying right over them, missing them by a very small amount of inches, and then it all stopped. Our Secret Service sniper, from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used, took the assassin’s life, took them out.
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump said. At that, the crowd began chanting, “Yes you are!”
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Trump will lean into the assassination attempt in his speech, per people familiar.
The helmet and jacket of the firefighter who died at the rally is displayed to the side behind him.
7.18.24 pic.twitter.com/D6RJkCu78T
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 19, 2024
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Before Donald Trump’s speech tonight, the convention saw a video montage that contained several false or misleading statements.
The video suggested Trump oversaw the largest tax cuts in US history.
That claim is generally considered false. Analysts have found for instance that Trump’s 2017 tax cuts was not the largest in history either by inflation-adjusted dollars or percentage of GDP.
The nonpartisan congressional budget office found that two other tax cuts were bigger: Ronald Reagan’s 1981 package and Barack Obama’s measure to extend tax cuts signed by George W Bush.
The video also attacked Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, saying his policies caused wages to drop.
That claim needs more context. One of the three years that wages fell was in 2020 during the Covid pandemic, when Trump was president.
Trump is now saying that he will describe the assassination attempt that targeted him on Saturday – but only this one time.
“As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. So many people have asked me what happened, tell us what happened, please. And, therefore I will tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s actually too painful to tell,” Trump said.
Trump formally accepts GOP presidential nomination
Trump has officially accepted the Republican party’s presidential nomination.
“Tonight, with faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States,” Trump said.
Trump predicts 'incredible victory' in November election
Donald Trump began his speech on a note of unity, while also predicting he will win the November election.
“I stand before you this evening with a message of confidence, strength and hope. Four months from now, we will have an incredible victory, and we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country,” Trump said.
“We rise together, or we fall apart. 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.”
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After walking back and forth onstage mouthing “thank you”, while the crowd chanted “USA! USA!”, Donald Trump is now at the podium.
“Thank you very much. Thank you very very much,” he began.
Trump takes stage to accept Republican presidential nomination
Donald Trump is now on stage, where he is poised to accept the Republican party’s presidential nomination in his first speech since being wounded by an assassin’s bullet during his weekend rally in Pennsylvania.
He was revealed by a screen onstage that raised up to show him standing there, in front of big letters that read “TRUMP”.
His right ear remains bandaged.
We haven’t sighted Donald Trump yet, but country singer Lee Greenwood is onstage, singing his hit God Bless the USA.
Greenwood has performed this song at least once previously before the convention, over the past four days.
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Donald Trump’s supporters like to mention that he has no material reason to run for president.
He was already known for being wealthy and successful before his 2016 campaign, so they argue that he’s pursuing political power for altruistic reasons. Dana White was among those hitting that note:
I know why he’s running for president again. Why else would he put himself through everything he’s dealt with just to get back here?
We all know he doesn’t need this. This guy’s got a great life. He has a beautiful family, and he has achieved everything that you could possibly achieve in life. I know president Trump is literally putting his life on the line for something bigger than himself, and he’s willing to risk it all because he loves this country, and I know he wants what’s best for the American people.
Not long after, White welcomed Trump to the stage.
Speakers at this convention have devoted a lot of time to praising Donald Trump.
Not wanting to be left out, UFC chief Dana White said, “I’m in the tough guy business, and this man is the toughest, most resilient human being that I’ve ever met in my life.”
Kid Rock wrapped up that musical interlude by welcoming the Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO, Dana White.
But White didn’t come out immediately. Instead, we went to another musical interlude, courtesy of the house band Sixwire.
White is now onstage.
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Kid Rock has modified the lyrics to his 26-year-old hit to get the crowd chanting “Trump! Trump!”
He also name-checked Arizona and Georgia, two swing states Donald Trump hopes to win in November.
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Kid Rock on stage
And after all that, when the crowd’s energy was at its highest, on to the stage came … Kid Rock.
“What up, America!” he yelled. Now he’s performing his 1998 song “Cowboy”.
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The convention is currently being shown a relatively long video recounting Donald Trump’s story as a businessman, and his accomplishments in his first term.
It is ending with the famous image of him pumping his fist after being shot.
Melania Trump appeared at the Republican convention wearing a dark red dress.
As she walked out, the sound system was playing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor.
The only scheduled guest who has not yet appeared is Dana White, the CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship.
That may be a sign he will act as the hype man for the former president, much as Usha Vance last night introduced her husband, JD Vance, the Ohio senator who is Trump’s running mate.
Donald Trump is expected to take the stage in just a few minutes, and the convention crowd is clearly eager to hear him speak.
The upper section of seats in Fiserv Forum, which had been partly empty for each of the first three nights of the convention, is now completely packed.
Melania Trump appears at convention
Melania Trump is walking out of the backstage and on to the convention floor.
The former first lady is climbing up to the VIP box, where JD Vance and his wife, Usha, among many others, are waiting.
However, her husband, Donald Trump, is no longer there. Perhaps he is getting ready for his speech.
Melania Trump backstage at the Republican convention, photo shows
Melania Trump is currently at the Republican national convention, according to a photo of her backstage taken by the New York Times’ Doug Mills – although she is not sitting next to her husband in his special box.
The photo shows Donald Trump, turning to his left to greet an amused-looking Melania in a narrow corridor underneath the stands, with the bandage on his ear visible.
Eric Trump says father 'not a threat to democracy'
Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump has hit back at those who say the former president is “a threat to democracy”.
Trump’s critics cite such actions as his incitement of the crowd that stormed the Capitol on January 6, his persistent attempts to stop Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s election win, and his continued insistence that the 2020 election was marred by fraud, despite not producing any evidence.
Despite all that, Eric Trump, a top official in the Trump organization, assured the convention that his father is an honest man.
“He has defied the predictions of every political pundit. He fills stadiums across our country. He energizes Americans to the issues facing this nation, and does so with unvarnished honesty,” Trump said.
“He is not a threat to democracy. He is a threat to those who despise our republic, many whom are bought and sold, bribed and coerced, people who have never signed the front of a check and who have been dependent on the government … their entire adult lives.”
Donald Trump is currently sitting with his running mate JD Vance in a VIP box that has three rows of seating.
To make space for Trump and Vance, some of the ex-president’s other allies who were in the box had to move.
Sitting in the front row currently is Trump, Vance and his wife, Usha, and the ex-president’s son Donald Trump Jr.
In the second row is his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Tiffany Trump, among others.
For them to get those seats, a bunch of House lawmakers and senators had to move.
Among those ejected from the special seats for the prime time speeches: senators Ted Cruz and John Barrasso.
This post has been corrected to note that Melania Trump was not present in the VIP seats.
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Speakers at the convention thus far have avoided anything having to do with abortion.
It is yet another sign that Republicans are nervous bringing up a subject on which they haven’t been scoring a lot of victories lately, after omitting support for a national abortion ban from their platform for the first time in decades.
Evangelist Franklin Graham came the closest of any speaker so far, in his just-concluded remarks to the convention – and it wasn’t all that close.
“For as long as I’ve known president Trump, I found him to be a man of his word. Things that he said he’ll do, he did. When he told me and our country in 2016 that he was going to appoint conservative justices, guess what he did?” asked Graham, the son of evangelical Christian icon Billy Graham.
Trump appointed three conservative justices during his term, and all of them signed on to the 2022 Dobbs opinion, which overturned the constitutional protections on abortion established 49 years prior in Roe v Wade.
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We mentioned earlier that Hulk Hogan is a retired professional wrestler.
While he’s now done with the sport, apparently for good, in 2015, he was fired by World Wrestling Entertainment for a few years after being overheard using racial slurs.
That, apparently, was no problem for the Republican party. Here’s a look back at what Hogan said:
Hogan just did a bit of a strip tease.
He was wearing a navy blazer when he first got on stage, then took it off to reveal a sleeveless black shirt with the words “real American”.
And as the crowd roared, he tore that off to reveal a red sleeveless “Trump Vance” shirt.
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You will not be surprised to learn that Hulk Hogan’s speech thus far has been full of wrestling metaphors.
“You know something, I’ve seen some great tag teams in my time. Hulk Hogan and oh yeah, the Macho Man Randy Savage. But you know something, I see the greatest tag team of my life standing upon us, getting ready to straighten this country out for all the real Americans,” Hogan said.
Interestingly enough, JD Vance, the Ohio senator who Donald Trump named as his running mate earlier this week, has not been spotted.
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Hulk Hogan takes stage as Trump returns to arena
The Republican national convention is back on course.
Donald Trump, who was in the VIP stands for a short period of time earlier in the night before quietly departing, has returned to his seat.
Retired professional wrestler Hulk Hogan is now at the podium. He’s wearing a red hat and still has his trademark blond handlebar mustache.
In what is perhaps an ominous sign for a speaker coming out anytime soon, the house band has launched into another cover, this one being Isaac Hayes and David Porter’s Soul Man.
Just who are these guys who have been doing a professional job of getting the convention rocking for the past four evenings? NPR has the answer:
Anyone who’s tuned into the RNC so far will likely recognize Sixwire, the five-member house band that’s brought an enthusiastic series of classic rock covers to the convention floor – including a surprise extended performance after an abrupt teleprompter malfunction on Night 1.
The group has entertained viewers with renditions of such hits as “Life is a Highway,” “All Star,” “What I Like About You,” “Don’t Stop Believin’ “ and “Reelin’ in the Years,” among other “dad jams.”
And while it’s only recorded one album (for Warner Brothers, back in 2002), it’s not just a random country cover band.
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The convention has entered a holding pattern, and it’s unclear if it’s planned.
The house band has played for the last 15 minutes or so. Retired professional wrestler Hulk Hogan is the next scheduled speaker, but he has not been spotted yet.
Earlier in the evening, Mike Pompeo, one of Donald Trump’s former secretaries of state, had more to say about Joe Biden’s competence and his attitude towards aspects of the military.
“The entire administration has failed to tell us the truth, the truth that we all know and is so dangerous to our nation, the truth that Joe Biden cannot handle ‘that 3am phone call’, indeed he won’t take a phone call after about 4pm,” Pompeo said, referring to president saying that he needed more sleep and fewer late engagements, in the wake of his dire debate performance against Trump last month.
Pompeo also make another interesting comment, noting that he was speaking as an army veteran, saying that everyone who has served in the military, and their families “deserves a president who does not check his watch while he in honoring our fallen brothers and sisters. It was indecent.”
The topic of Joe Biden looking at his watch during a ceremony while the bodies of veterans killed in Afghanistan were repatriated has been the subject of rows about information and misinformation, which sparked further rows.
But during his term, Trump cause outrage by calling fallen military veterans “suckers and losers” in 2020 and, in 2018, refusing to visit a US war cemetery in France during commemoration events.
Pompeo finished his short speech by saying that if Trump is elected to the White House this November “we will make America special, exceptional and of course great again.”
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Vulnerable Senate Democrat calls on Biden to drop re-election bid
While Republicans rally in Milwaukee, a red state Democratic senator joined the chorus of voices calling on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
Senator Jon Tester, who faces a difficult re-election bid in Montana this year, became the second Democratic senator to publicly call on the president to drop out.
“Montanans have put their trust in me to do what is right, and it is a responsibility I take seriously. I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong,” Tester said.
“And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term.”
Biden is reportedly “soul searching” to determine his next steps, but it seems like the increasing pressure on him may be reaching a breaking point.
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Tucker Carlson closed his speech by invoking something we’ve heard quite a lot about at this convention.
“I’m not always convinced that I’m on the right side. I’ve been on the wrong side many times,” Carlson said.
“You’ll never hear me say I’m on God’s side, or God’s with me, or even I’m with God. I want to be, not sure I am, but I will say this unequivocally and conclusively: God is among us right now, and I think that’s enough.”
And with that, he walked off stage.
Ignoring 2020 election meddling, Carlson says Trump wants 'to return democracy' in US
Tucker Carlson just said onstage that what Donald Trump wants is to restore democracy in America.
“I think the entire Trump project, paradoxically, is attacked as an enemy of democracy, is to return democracy to the United States,” the former Fox News host said.
It’s a staggering claim in support of someone who sought to overturn the election results in several key swing states and stop the certification of the electoral vote in Congress.
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Carlson, who once celebrated being able to ignore Trump after the 2020 election, has reportedly become much closer to the former president recently.
Unlike many speakers, Carlson does not have his speech on screens around the arena. He appears to be doing his remarks without a teleprompter, and at one point said, “I don’t have a script.”
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Assassination attempt 'changed' Trump, claims Tucker Carlson
Tucker Carlson is telling the convention he believes Donald Trump “became the leader of this nation” after he was the target of the assassination attempt.
“In that moment, Donald Trump, months before the presidential election, became the leader of this nation, that was the most obvious to me. And I have to say, you know, I think it changed him,” Carlson said, referring to the shooting targeting Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend.
“I reached out to Trump within hours of it that night and what he said to me that night, having just been shot in the face, he said not a single word about himself. He said only how amazed he was and how proud he was of the crowd, which didn’t run.”
The reason that a stampede did not break out after the shooting was because “his courage gave them heart”, Carlson said. He also noted that Trump, “turned down the most obvious opportunity in politics to inflame the nation after being shot”.
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Tucker Carlson addresses Republican convention
Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News conservative commentator, is now onstage at the Republican national convention and has been greeted with loud and persistent applause.
“Thank you, oh, this is wild,” he said.
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As a reminder, Donald Trump has been charged in four criminal cases and was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York.
But a recent ruling in Florida has left one of those criminal cases up in the air, and he has appealed his New York conviction after the supreme court determined presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.
In yet another sign that a major goal of this convention is to soften Donald Trump’s public image, Alina Habba, an attorney for the former president, described how he wanted to talk on the phone with a supporter she ran into on the street.
“Not too long ago, a supporter shouted, ‘God bless you and President Trump’ in the middle of Manhattan after one of our trials. Little did that man know that I was on the phone with the president himself, and he immediately asked me to pause, give the man my phone, and spent time speaking to him and thanking him for his support,” Habba said.
“Despite the lawfare and the politics, President Trump loves the American people and he loves this country.”
Here’s more about what Habba calls “lawfare”, and what others would describe as proof that no one is above the law:
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Fact check: Chinese spy balloons did fly over US during Trump president
Mike Pompeo, the former CIA Director and secretary of state in the Trump administration, said in his speech tonight that no Chinese spy balloons flew over the US when Trump was in office.
It’s a line that has been used by several speakers at the Republican national convention to suggest that China became emboldened to fly spy balloons because they view Biden as weak.
But it’s not rooted in reality, according to US intelligence officials. There were some balloons that flew over the US during that Trump presidency – they just weren’t detected until the Biden administration.
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To Republican delegates, 2020 election is 'in the past'
One thing we haven’t heard much of from the speakers at the Republican national convention is conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
While Donald Trump continues to stick to his disproven claim that he was fraudulently removed from office, few, if any, speakers have openly embraced that theory at the convention.
“That’s in the past,” Evan Power, a Florida delegate who chairs the state’s Republican party, replied, when the Guardian’s US politics live blog asked him why the subject was being avoided.
“Especially after the events of last Saturday, everyone’s focused on doing the work to win in 2024,” he added.
Joseph Belnome, a New Jersey delegate who is running for Congress and protested outside the Capitol on January 6 – but reportedly insists he did not go inside the building – said of the 2020 election, “we’re beyond that now.”
However, Belnome agreed with several speakers at the convention, who have claimed that undocumented people are voting – which in fact happens rarely.
“It looks like they’re trying to get illegal aliens to vote or non citizens to vote,” Belnome said, noting that the theme of his campaign is “restore integrity”.
When it comes to the 2020 election, Florida delegate Kathi Meo said, “We just gotta move on.”
She spoke amid speculation that Joe Biden would call off his re-election effort, as polls show his support slumping in swing states after his un-energetic debate performance.
Asked if she thought a different Democrat could beat Trump in Florida, which has become increasingly Republican over the past decade, Meo replied, “I don’t think there’s any possible person in the universe that could beat him, unless they cheat, which we know they will.”
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All week there have been more than 100,000 red, white, blue and gold balloons suspended over the Fiserv Forum.
Tonight, as is tradition, we’ll see them descend onto the floor after Donald Trump speaks.
Since 1988, Treb Heining has overseen the balloon drop at every GOP convention. He told PBS that the drop is actually quite carefully choreographed.
“I have a sheet. I’m on the main camera platform on Thursday night, right in the center of the action. And I’ll be looking at the sheet and, basically, I will say, ‘Go number one,’” he told PBS “Then, when I see that just about dissipating down, [I say,] ‘Okay, go number two.’”
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Trump arrives at Republican national convention ahead of official nomination
Donald Trump has taken his place at the convention ahead of his nomination and speech tonight, drawing a standing ovation from attendees.
The former president grinned widely and also clapped and gave a fist pump, wearing his characteristic red, white and blue suit and tie combo.
Tonight will not only see him anointed as the Republican party’s nominee at the top of the ticket for the presidential election alongside his new running mate, JD Vance.
It will be Trump’s first speech since an assassination attempt against him at a rally in Pennsylvania last weekend, where his ear was clipped by a bullet fired by a man shooting from a rooftop.
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'We put America first every single day' – Pompeo
Mike Pompeo is addressing the convention and giving a relatively normal speech, pumping up his highlights of Donald Trump’s administration, in which he served, and criticized Joe Biden and his current administration that came after.
Under Trump “we put America first every single day”, he said, listing the lack of major new wars, anti-immigration policies and “destroying Isis”.
Pompeo talked of Afghanistan and said he was “disgusted by the incompetent pullout from that country” by US troops under Biden in the first summer after the Democrat became president.
A US state department report last year criticized both the Trump and Biden administrations over the withdrawal and there’s been a lot of blame to go around. But the final evacuation under Biden in August 2021, as Kabul quickly fell to the Taliban, has been roundly criticized by military as well as political leaders.
Pompeo then joked that Biden only “shuffles” across the global stage, rather than struts it, amid a crisis in the president’s re-election campaign over his age and acuity.
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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is taking the stage at the RNC.
He also served as CIA director to Donald Trump when he was president.
CNN is reporting that Trump has arrived at the RNC site ahead of his speech tonight.
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Melania Trump expected to attend RNC's big last night
Melania Trump is expected to appear on the final night of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee but, in a break with tradition, she will not deliver remarks, according to people familiar with the matter.
The former president’s wife has been conspicuously absent in recent months, including at the New York criminal trial where Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Melania Trump will at least make an appearance at the convention on the night that her husband delivers his first public remarks since he survived a shooting that officials are investigating as an assassination attempt.
Her decision not to give a speech is doubly notable because Melania Trump had overt acts at the 2016 convention, where she plagiarized some of Michelle Obama’s speech, and in 2020, when she gave a speech from the Rose Garden.
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It’s not clear exactly what was discussed when, reportedly, Donald Trump met with the Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, two days ago, not long after an assassination attempt on the former president’s life when he was shot during a campaign rally in Butler county, Pennsylvania, last weekend.
A Trump campaign adviser did not confirm or deny the meeting and referred the Reuters news wire, which reported the news citing the TV network that broke the story, ABC, to the Secret Service.
The federal agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters says.
Cheatle said on Monday that the shooting at Trump’s rally was “unacceptable” and that she would not resign.
Cheatle has agreed to testify before the US House of Representatives’ oversight committee on 22 July for a hearing, the panel said on Wednesday.
The shooting raised serious concerns about how the suspect was able to access a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to where Trump was speaking. The suspect was shot dead by government snipers. A rally attendee was killed, while the former president was slightly injured, but possibly escaped death by less than an inch. Trump will address the RNC at its grand finale tonight, as he accept’s the party’s official nomination for the White House.
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Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, has not ruled out Republicans mounting a legal challenge if Democrats try to change their presidential nominee.
“We’re looking into all the alternatives,” Johnson said at a CNN-Politico Grill event on the sidelines of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee. “Look, I will say the Democrats pride themselves on being the party of small ‘d’ democracy – they talk about it incessantly and they claim that we are not, which is absurd.
“If they go about the process of having a few people in a backroom make this magical decision and kick their candidate off the ballot, it defies all the work that’s been done for 14 months. They went through the democratic process – the small ‘d’ process – and they chose Joe Biden.
“He’s the duly selected candidate for president for reelection and I don’t know they can just wave a magic wand and make it all go away without violating at least some great tradition and probably some statutory law itself, at least in some of these states.”
Some “preliminary research” into the legality of the move is being done, added Johnson, noting that each state has its own distinct system. “There’s some very unique statutes out there and there’s some real impediments to just making an easy switch like that. So I think in the states where it could be contested I expect that it will be and they’ll have an interesting battle on their hands.”
Based on personal interactions, Johnson said he does not believe Biden is fit for office. “We have ourselves an unprecedented situation here. I mean, there’s never been a scenario like this. You have hot wars around the globe. You have very aggressive adversaries who are ready to pounce. Anything could happen at any moment and you have the weakest president in the Oval Office in memory, probably in the history of the country.”
The Democratic party’s election campaign hub has issued sharp counter-messaging to the Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s anti-abortion stance, saying that the US senator from Ohio “is leaving zero doubt about his extreme anti-choice agenda”.
The Democratic National Committee’s “war room” has slammed Vance for “telling the radically anti-choice Faith and Freedom Coalition they’ll ‘have a seat’ at the Trump-Vance ticket’s table less than 24 hours after audio surfaced of him admitting he wants ‘abortion to be illegal nationally’”.
The event referred to here is a breakfast that Vance attended this morning at the Republican national convention, where he said: “There has been a lot of rumbling in the past few weeks that the Republican party of now, the Republican party of the future, is going to be a place that’s not welcoming to social conservatives. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say that is not true. Social conservatives have a seat at this table, and they always will, so long as I have any influence in this party and President Trump, I know, agrees.”
Vance previously said that he wants abortion to be illegal nationally and he was also speaking to reassure the Christian hard right that the leadership stance has not softened on abortion.
You can read the Guardian’s piece by my colleague Carter Sherman about how a Trump-Vance administration would be ‘the most dangerous’ for abortion rights, say advocates. Click here.
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Nancy Pelosi has been widely reported as orchestrating the renewed pressure on Joe Biden to give up his re-election bid, which has intensified in recent days after a brief pause following last Saturday’s failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, to which the US president responded with a series of authoritative statements calling for calm.
Adam Schiff, the California congressman who on Tuesday became the latest elected Democrat to urge Biden to stand down, is known to be particularly close to the former speaker.
“The speaker does not want to call on him [Biden] to resign [as the Democratic nominee], but she will do everything in her power to make sure it happens,” the Politico website has reported one Pelosi ally as saying. Our full report here.
Pelosi confides Biden may bow to pressure to quit re-election soon - report
Nancy Pelosi, revered in Democratic circles as the former long-serving and first female speaker of the US House of Representatives, thinks Joe Biden can be convinced before long to quit the top of the party’s re-election ticket, the Washington Post has just reported, citing anonymous sources.
Pelosi, 84, who has represented California in Congress for decades, appears to have had some private discussions, the Post reports, that indicate a key factor in the president’s decision would be doubts about whether he can beat Donald Trump in November, the Republican former president who is about to receive his party’s formal nomination tonight.
There have been reports in the past 24 hours that Pelosi is pivotal in the pressure campaign to persuade Biden to jump out of his re-election attempt. More details shortly.
She appears to have been speaking in code for the past couple of weeks, referring in a TV interview to Biden having to make up his mind, when the president had already said emphatically that he had made up his mind to stay in the race. This all follows Biden’s dire debate performance against Trump last month.
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Trump meets with Secret Service chief
Donald Trump has met up with the director of the US Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, while both are in Milwaukee for the Republican national convention (RNC), in the wake of the attempted assassination of the former president last weekend, ABC is reporting.
The TV network reports that the meeting took place at the hotel where Trump is staying in the Wisconsin city for the convention and was held on Tuesday, three days after a 20-year-old fired an assault rifle at the former president during a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania and narrowly missed killing him.
LATEST: Former Pres. Trump met with Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle, a source told ABC News.
— ABC News (@ABC) July 18, 2024
The meeting took place on Tuesday at the former president's hotel in Milwaukee, the source said.
It is unclear what was discussed in the meeting. https://t.co/CaHFvQMgpW
ABC cites an unnamed source. There has been a chorus, led by Republicans and including members of Donald Trump’s family, for Cheatle to step down from her role after the failure of the federal agency to protect the former president, whose right ear was injured as a bullet grazed it.
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Hours before Donald Trump is set to formally accept the Republican presidential nomination, CBS News reports that he has further widened his polling lead over Joe Biden.
Trump has turned what was a two-point national lead in early July to a five-point advantage over the president, CBS News found. In the battleground states that are expected to decide the election, Trump’s lead is slightly narrower, at three percentage points:
NEW
— Kabir K. / kabirkhanna.bsky.social (@kabir_here) July 18, 2024
Trump accepts nomination with his largest lead over Biden so far
Now 5 points nationally — small shift in recent days, with battleground advantage intact
Context: 20 years since GOP popular-vote win and over 30 since margin over couple points
More: https://t.co/iExzUY5JBG pic.twitter.com/AK0iV4k8Cd
And while a growing chorus of Democrats is encouraging Biden to call off his re-election bid, CBS News found that Kamala Harris, the vice-president who could become his successor, polls only a little bit better against Trump:
Amid debate about Democratic nomination, Trump also leads Kamala Harris in hypothetical matchup — by 3 points, compared to his 5-point lead over Biden
— Kabir K. / kabirkhanna.bsky.social (@kabir_here) July 18, 2024
At the moment, marginal differences at best between how she and Biden are running among younger voters and voters of color
1/2 https://t.co/SEms5cbBNF pic.twitter.com/hAjPrfirK3
Everything you need to know about the Republican national convention's biggest night
We’ve put together an explainer going through the finer details of the closing evening of the Republican national convention, including when Donald Trump is expected to speak, how you can watch his address, and who else from the Trump family may be in the room.
Give it a read here:
Over the past three nights, several speakers at the Republican national convention have tried to rehabilitate Donald Trump’s image by telling the public that what they have heard about the former president isn’t quite right. The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington takes a closer look at the campaign to “Make Trump Human Again”:
Even before Donald Trump takes the stage at the Republican national convention on Thursday night, promising a speech on national unity rather than the usual partisan rancour, his team has laboured hard in the wake of the rally shooting to give the impression that he is a changed man.
Gone was the Trump of “this American carnage”, the victim of witch-hunts who, if returned to the White House, would unleash a whirlwind of retribution on his enemies and be a dictator on day one. In its place was Trump the candy-peddling grandfather, the kiss-me-goodnight father, the comforting mentor and patriotic healer.
It was as if the official theme of the week, Make America Great Again, had been hurriedly replaced by a new slogan: Make Trump Human Again.
Kai Trump, the former US president’s 17-year-old granddaughter, helped set the tone. In a convention address on Wednesday she shared her big secret about the 78-year-old Republican nominee.
“To me, he’s just a normal grandpa. He gives us candy and soda when our parents are not looking.”
The theme of a “caring and loving” Trump – Kai’s words – was reminiscent of the narrative that has long been projected by Joe Biden, who presents his candidacy as a choice for dignity, respect and civility. It was as if the Trump team had adopted Biden’s playbook as empathiser-in-chief.
Trump to formally accept presidential nomination on final night of Republican convention
Good evening US politics blog readers, and thank you for joining us as we cover the last night of the Republican national convention. Donald Trump is set to formally accept the GOP’s nomination to be its presidential candidate with a speech at the convention’s end. Before that, we’ll be hearing from a slew of speakers in a night themed “Make America great once again”. These include Tucker Carlson, the rightwing commentator who has struck off on his own show after Fox News fired him last year, the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, the Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO, Dana White, and the retired professional wrestler Hulk Hogan.
As he usually is, Trump is the star of the show, and the convention has him scheduled to speak for a whole 90 minutes, beginning at 9pm CT. This will be his first public address since an assassin tried to kill him on Saturday, and he’s still sporting a bandage on his right ear from the attempt, which led to the death of a rally-goer. This will also be the highest profile speech Trump has made since his first debate with Joe Biden in late June. The president’s fatigued performance in that showdown has led to a growing wave of Democrats – reportedly including the party’s leaders in Congress – to urge that he reconsider his bid for a second term in office. The Republicans, meanwhile, have been united around Trump, and his speech this evening will serve as a chance for him to elaborate on his plans for a second term in office.
Here’s what we’ll be watching out for:
Will Trump cast himself as a unifier? After his brush with death on Saturday, the former president has tried to play up the theme in his statements, and several speakers at the convention thus far have tried to cast him as a family man – perhaps as a way to detract attention from his often tawdry legal troubles.
Convention speakers over the past three nights have made plenty of rightwing policy promises – but not quite as many as expected. Though attendees have waved signs reading “Mass deportations now” and some speakers have claimed, without evidence, that undocumented people have cast ballots, there has not been much mention of conspiracy theories around the 2020 election, plans to use the national guard to carry out mass deportations, or Trump’s vow to have the justice department to retaliate against his enemies. Will the former president mention those themes in his speech?
Who else might Trump attack? It’s a given that he’ll go after Biden, but the Democrat is facing a backlash not seen in decades to his re-election campaign, and could step aside. Some earlier convention speakers have made a point of criticizing Kamala Harris, perhaps as a hedge to her ascension as the Democratic candidate. We’ll see if Trump follows suit.
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