JD Vance introduced himself to America with personal stories that really resonated, but tonight, Trump is the one.
The silent majority is no longer silent. The forgotten Americans are forgotten no more. None were ignored at this convention. Tonight, Donald Trump will speak to them—to us, as he accepts his party’s nomination for president.
Everything leading up to this speech brings to mind everything that happened before another speech so many years ago. Riots, war, assassinations, campus takeovers, contempt for the police, an unpopular Democrat in the White House, and Democrats fighting in Chicago—all this happened in 1968. The past is present again, except this time, the assassination failed.
Like last time, however, we have an experienced candidate, a candidate who ran for the presidency once before, a candidate who knew and was a friend of the author of the greatest political comeback since Lincoln, and the winner of the largest share of the popular vote for the Republican Party in any presidential election: Richard Nixon. And like the New Nixon of 1968, the New Trump of 2024 is tanned, rested, and ready.
Unlike any president since Reagan, Trump has been tested in the hardest way possible. Trump took a bullet and kept fighting, proving he has what it takes—that he is a man who will “Fight, fight, fight.”
Like Nixon, Trump has the right enemies. The people who hated Nixon, the media, the professors, the radicals, the race hustlers, and the violent extremists are the same people who hate Trump. The people who sought to destroy Nixon, who wasted their lives by trying to drive Nixon out of public life, who waged lawfare against Nixon and passed laws to spite Nixon, are the same people who cheered when a gunman tried to smite Trump.
Like Nixon, Trump has the right policies. He has the right Mideast policy, for sure. Israel had a friend in Nixon, an indispensable ally in a time of war. Israel has a friend in Trump, too. The Abraham Accords are a testament to Trump’s vision. Trump’s popularity in Israel is a testament to his leadership, for which no other candidate comes close.
Judge Trump by the enemies he has made. That, after all, is the standard FDR set for himself in 1932 when he said, “My friends, my policy is as radical as American liberty. My policy is as radical as the Constitution of the United States.”
Look at who Trump’s enemies are. Hamas, Iran, and Antifa—they all want Trump dead. Their ranks also include renegade prosecutors, corrupt judges, and criminal politicians. So yes, judge Trump based on the enemies he has made. Judge him by those who long to sit in judgment against him.
Look at what Trump’s enemies want to do to the judiciary. They want to pack the Supreme Court. They want to limit how long Justice Thomas, Justice Gorsuch, or Chief Justice Roberts can stay on the Court. They want to annex the Court to annul its rulings. They want to continue waging war against their fellow citizens.
President Trump does not romanticize war or long to be a wartime president. He is not a pacifist, either. He opposes stupid wars, like the kind Obama did nothing to stop. He started no new wars while president and will not start another forever war as president.
This Trump also trumps all past versions of himself. His speech should reflect this. No doubt he will speak to what he has learned, for he has learned a great deal. He has suffered a great deal, too. In the end, it is this Trump—the dealmaker—who can bring us together. The author of The Art of the Deal is the president who can bring Republicans and Independents and a good number of Democrats together.
In this respect, Trump is more like Reagan than Nixon. Trump has been impeached, indicted, prosecuted, fined, and shot. The Donald does not surrender. The Teflon Don is real.
Resilience abounds in President Trump. So does humor, as he has incredible comedic timing. If he gets the better of his enemies, all the better. If he goes off script, improvises and does schtick, and tells a few jokes even at his own expense, it’s because he’s a performer, for the best politicians are performers. Reagan was a performer. Kennedy was a performer. All the greats were performers.
Trump will not miss an opportunity to have fun. He had fun debating Joe Biden, or rather, watching Biden flail and fail onstage. Trump will have fun goading Biden. We will have fun too.
After four years of lies and incompetence, we deserve a performance. After four years of domestic trouble, we deserve a night of fun and tranquility. After all this, we deserve a speech that will inspire us.
In 1968, Nixon said, “This time, vote like your whole world depended on it.”
Now is the time for us to elect President Trump.
Our world depends not on what President Trump says but on what we do.
The world we want depends on what we do to elect President Trump.
The whole world is watching what we do.
Our enemies want to know what we will do.
Our enemies should watch us because we have a leader who will not appease them.
We have a president who fights to win.
We have a president who says, “Fight, fight, fight!”