A roster of Donald J. Trump’s former rivals, including Nikki Haley, lined up to pledge their allegiance, and a party confident of its November fate drove home an aggressive law-and-order message.
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Donald J. Trump’s vanquished rivals took to the stage on Tuesday for the second night of the Republican National Convention to pledge their fealty to him.
The second night of the Republican National Convention was all about unity, in the party and in the nation. But in Donald J. Trump’s Republican Party, unity is not something to strive for. It is something inherent in the Make America Great Again movement — if only the elites in the news media and the Democratic Party would recognize it.
For much of the Trump era, Mr. Trump and his acolytes were content to pit those in their movement against everyone else, and eke out a large enough coalition to win without expanding the tent. But with the wind at their backs, those same politicians seem ready to reframe Trumpism as a movement for everyone, whether they know it or not.
“The Americans who wear the red hats and wait for hours under a blazing sun” are “not hateful or extreme,” Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said as he closed the night on Tuesday. “What they want are good jobs and lower prices. They want borders that are secure, and for those who come here to do so legally. They want to be safe from criminals and from terrorists, and they want for our leaders to care more about our problems here at home than about the problems of other countries far away.”
The message was clear: What could be more unifying than that?
Here are five takeaways from Night 2.
ImageAfter months of withering attacks from Mr. Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke in support of him on Tuesday night.Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times
The watchword: unity. The visual: fealty.
One after another, Mr. Trump’s vanquished foes took to the stage Tuesday night to bend the knee to the man who had beaten them: Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, and Mr. Rubio, all pledging fealty to a man they once suggested should never grace the Oval Office.
Gone were the tensions of the 2016 convention, when Mr. Cruz gave a speech that failed to include an endorsement of the nominee, Mr. Trump. “Let me start by giving thanks to God Almighty for protecting President Trump,” Mr. Cruz said this time, as the former president smiled.
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Source: nytimes.com
