As the Republican National Convention continues and preparations are made for remarks from former President Trump on Thursday, here is a look back at his two previous addresses at the conventions in 2016 and 2020:
Following an unpredictable Republican presidential primary race in 2016, Trump made his debut at the RNC in Cleveland. In his speech, Trump decried political correctness, telling attendees, “It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation. I will present the facts plainly and honestly. … We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.”
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Much of his remarks emphasized his vision for returning the U.S. to law and order, particularly as it relates to crime and the southern border.
“Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this administration’s rollback of criminal enforcement,” he said at the time.
Trump talked about crimes perpetrated by illegal immigrants as he pushed for a more secure border, starting a trend that has continued, with Republicans emphasizing heinous crimes allegedly committed by suspects who entered the country illegally.
“One such border-crosser was released and made his way to Nebraska. There, he ended the life of an innocent young girl named Sarah Root. She was 21 years old and was killed the day after graduating from college with a 4.0 grade point average, No. 1 in her class,” he told listeners.
“Her killer was then released a second time, and he is now a fugitive from the law. I’ve met Sarah’s beautiful family. But to this administration, their amazing daughter was just one more American life that wasn’t worth protecting, one more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders.”
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Trump’s 2016 remarks would preview what much of his presidency would go on to look like, with a strong emphasis on illegal immigration.
In 2020, after Trump had served in the role of commander in chief for several years, his remarks began to focus on a different subject. By this point, the country was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and a vaccination had yet to be made available. Due to the pandemic, many speeches were even delivered remotely.
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“In recent months, our nation and the entire planet has been struck by a new and powerful invisible enemy. Like those brave Americans before us, we are meeting this challenge,” then-President Trump said. “We are delivering lifesaving therapies and will produce a vaccine before the end of the year or maybe even sooner. We will defeat the virus, end the pandemic and emerge stronger than ever before.”
He spent time during the remarks reflecting on accomplishments over the previous few years. Trump named a few, explaining how after he took office he immediately “withdrew from the last administration’s job-killing Trans Pacific Partnership. I then approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, ended the unfair and costly Paris Climate Accord, and secured, for the first time, American energy independence. We passed record-setting tax and regulation cuts, at a rate nobody had ever seen before.”
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“Within three short years, we built the strongest economy in the history of the world,” Trump said.
Laced throughout his 2020 remarks were warnings to voters, that all of the progress Trump had made toward his goals as president could be undone if he didn’t win again on Election Day.
Trump’s 2024 remarks will likely touch on some of these same subjects. However, the former president has revealed that his speech will do one thing in particular: unify. After the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally on Saturday in Butler, Pa., that left him bloodied with a wound on his right ear, the former president said he ripped up his planned convention speech.
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” he said in an interview after the shooting.
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