The Journal. - Takeaways from the RNC: Trump Is in Control

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

The Republican National Convention came to a close Thursday night with a speech by presidential nominee Donald Trump that called for unity while also returning to familiar rhetoric. WSJ’s Molly Ball says it’s a remarkable turnaround for a candidate who was once an outsider, and has now remade the party in his image. Plus, Jessica Mendoza and Jacob Gallagher give the convention a fit check. Further Reading: - Trump Hasn’t Changed, but the GOP Has  - Crypto Dads, Trump Suits and Four-Letter Words: Scenes from the Cultural Frenzy at the RNC  Further Listening: - Elon Musk and Silicon Valley Turn Towards Trump  - Trump Courts the Union Vote  - The Secret Service’s Failure to Protect Trump  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last night, the Republican National Convention culminated in Milwaukee when former President Donald Trump took the stage. 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, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America. So tonight, with faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States. Thank you. the United States. Thank you. And how would you sum up the Republican National Convention in, say, three words? Oh, wow. Jubilant, blessed, and Trumpy. That's senior political correspondent Molly Ball. She was at the RNC this week.

political correspondent Molly Ball. She was at the RNC this week. This is one of the happiest and most well-run political conventions I can remember, at least going back to, say, Barack Obama accepting the Democratic nomination in 2008. You have a party that, as they reminded us over and over again, is extremely unified, is extremely devoted to Trump, and has reshaped and remolded and refashioned itself in the image of Trump.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's Friday, July 19th. Coming up on the show, how Trump won back control of the Republican Party. Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it.

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So this is the third time that Trump has been nominated by the Republican Party. How did this convention compare to the first two? It's really an incredible contrast if you think about Trump's previous nominating conventions. In 2016, he was very much engaged in a hostile takeover of a Republican Party that was still very much resisting him. that was still very much resisting him. Although he had received the overwhelming majority of votes in the primary, in 2020 there really was no ordinary convention because COVID was in full swing, and so there was this sort of truncated program held.

And in 2024, the vibes are completely different. And any sort of dissenting voices have been banished. But it's also a party that's really energized by two things, what seems to many like the inevitable prospect of victory, and second, the fact that Trump escaped death less than a week ago. So it was a convention that to many people felt like it was coming on the heels of a miracle. And there was this constant talk of divine intervention. There were prayers. And for a party whose base is already religious conservatives,

particularly white evangelicals, it was a really powerful feeling that this whole party has been sort of ordained. And there were tears in people's eyes as Trump took the stage to give his speech. Yes. You saw throughout the week the people's devotion to Trump. On a political level, this is a party that is no longer about the symbolism of like elephants and the Republican Party of old. It's a MAGA party. And people are wearing, you know, bejeweled MAGA pins instead of bejeweled elephant brooches.

And they were fashioning these sort of makeshift ear bandages out of paper or fabric in solidarity with Trump to imitate the bandage that he was wearing on the ear that the bullet pierced. And the mere sight of him was very moving to a lot of delegates. And then when he came out, he said, I'm going to tell this story of how I almost lost my life, and I'm only going to tell it once because it's so painful.

When I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear, I said to myself, wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet. And moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down. My hand was covered with blood. Just absolutely blood all over the place. What did it feel like in the room watching him give this speech? You know, this is a room full of thousands of people. It's usually, it's raucous, it's noisy.

People are yelling and chanting and talking amongst themselves. You could hear a pin drop in the convention hall. It was absolutely silent. It was spellbound. You were talking about that part of the speech where he was recounting the assassination attempt and what happened afterward and him starting to call for unity in America and how we need to heal and how important that is, it almost didn't even seem like the same Donald Trump that we have been so used to seeing over the past eight years. And there were moments that I was listening to him thinking, or starting to almost forget about that version of Donald Trump. But then I was sort of shaken out of it as he got to the second half of his speech and he seemed to return to the same kind of politician that we've been seeing so much over the last eight years.

He absolutely reverted to form and he did it very quickly. Just to go back to the first part of what you were saying, the whole convention was aimed at recasting Trump as basically a different person than the Donald Trump who has been part of our politics for nine years now. Into what kind of a person? A unifier. A kinder, gentler, but very much still tough and macho figure.

This sort of benevolent monarch, almost, who sort of enfolded the nation in his embrace. And so his tone was different as he was delivering that first part of the speech as well. He wasn't in his sort of regular ranty register. It was, he was almost soft. The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together or we fall apart.

And then he segued immediately from the story of the attempted assassination and how it proves we have to come together as a country to saying, and that's why these witch hunts need to end, and they should drop all the criminal prosecutions of me. If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts, which I have been going through for approximately eight years. And they should do that without delay and allow an election to proceed that is worthy of our people. And then he proceeded to go on for an entire another hour and give the longest convention speech in the history of any political convention. And it was very much a standard Trump rally speech where he sort of takes loose cues from the prompter,

but he embellishes everything. He wanders off and tells stories. He goes on tangents. So it was very much a speech that started out introducing a different Trump and then very quickly reminded us that he's still the same Trump. introducing a different Trump, and then very quickly reminded us that he's still the same Trump. How would you assess the state of Trump's campaign right now? Because it really feels like the momentum has shifted in his direction as a result of Biden's poor debate performance, the calls for him to step down, and then, of course, the assassination attempt.

This is a campaign that has a huge amount of momentum and definitely feels like it has the upper hand. People are very confident. People are talking about landslides. Now, the campaign itself is too professional and superstitious to do that, right? They're saying we're always going to run as if we're 10 points down and all the things that campaigns say. But they're also talking about putting states in play that haven't been red states in a very long time. There's polling out that shows that states like Virginia, New Mexico, Minnesota could be in play. And these are not states that we thought would be on the map, but the Democrats are collapsing so severely. And Trump looks like he's in absolute pole position in this race, with the caveat that this is politics and things can always change.

It does feel amazing that he's at this point, though, because it wasn't that long ago. I remember in late 2022, when he seemed to be very unpopular, the candidates that he backed in the midterms, by and large, lost. People were still very upset about what happened on January 6th. And there was a lot of talk about Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley sort of being the new face of the party. And now he is in total control. And even his former rivals, people like Nikki Haley, are at the RNC speaking on his behalf. It really is an incredible comeback when you think about how, particularly in the wake of the 2020 election, first of all, he lost the election. And he has

yet to admit that. But normally, when a candidate loses the election, the party turns on them and says, okay, we don't want this loser. We want a fresh face that can take us to victory, as opposed to the losing candidates of the past. And it really seemed like he would be a permanent political pariah. But he never accepted that. So how did he do it then? It was a few things. Now, most people trace the beginning of the comeback to his criminal indictments, which began in late March of 2023.

his criminal indictments, which began in late March of 2023. And you would think that for most politicians, being the first former president to be criminally indicted is not great for you politically. But for years, Trump had been conditioning Republicans to believe this idea that he was the victim of witch hunts. And so you saw the party sort of in reflexive fashion respond to this the way they responded to all the other things he's been accused of and called hoaxes. And almost all of the other candidates in that primary, with a couple of exceptions, backed him up. One interesting episode that hasn't, I think, gotten enough attention is the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. That happened in February of 2023. So just a few months after that midterm disaster and Trump announcing his reelection campaign, and it was J.D. Vance, the senator from Ohio, who basically set up this appearance and said, this is happening right in the nexus of, you know,

this, the Rust Belt forgotten men and women territory that you're supposed to be speaking to, you know, come talk to the people. And Biden hasn't come out to speak to the people of this town that's been poisoned by these chemicals. And Trump came out and in the view of a lot of people sort of looked presidential. And some people think that that was actually the beginning of the comeback. So let's talk about the substance of the convention. Having read the party's platform and listened to what was said this week, how would you say Trump has changed what the Republican Party stands for? To me, this is really the most important part of this convention,

for? To me, this is really the most important part of this convention, is the way Trump has fundamentally changed the Republican Party and what it stands for. This is a party that in the Reagan era stood for internationalism and American leadership in the world. It stood for fiscal conservatism, and it stood for social conservatism, particularly on the issue of abortion. For the first time in decades, there is not a plank in the Republican platform now that calls for a national abortion ban. And the party that once talked about free trade now has a plank in the platform that supports tariffs. free trade now has a plank in the platform that supports tariffs. The party that, you know, in the Paul Ryan era was obsessed with reforming bloated entitlement programs and bringing federal spending down now has a plank that says we will never touch Social Security and Medicare and we will not raise the retirement age. And in terms of foreign policy, it's a party that is about America first.

it's a party that is about America first. So it feels like the Republican Party is really united under Trump. But was there anybody you spoke to at the convention who didn't support the direction that he was taking the party? Yeah, absolutely. And I think you could feel a little bit of unease with the way that he's changed the party, both among the delegates and among some of the old school Republicans who were in attendance. Now, a lot of the old Republican establishment simply didn't come. Right. I saw Mike Pence tweeting photos of his vacation in Montana. Yeah, exactly. He looked like he was living his best life and very happy not to be at the convention. Yeah, yeah.

So Mike Pence was not there. The Bushes were not there. The Cheneys were not there. The Romneys were not there. But, you know, one person who was there was Asia Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas who ran in the primary and didn't get many votes. And I talked to him on the sidelines of the convention. He said, look, I ran against Trump because I don't agree with these things that he's proposing, and I'm going to continue to fight that fight

and make that argument within the party. So what would you say is the most interesting thing about this moment? To me, it's the political realignment. To me, it's the way Trump has refashioned the Republican Party and what it stands for. And for all of the gripes of the Republican establishment of old, he's winning and they didn't. And, you know, I had people saying to me something that seemed unthinkable even a few months ago, that Trump could actually win the popular vote. People really have come his way on issues like immigration. Now,

it's also true that January 6th was deeply unpopular. Trump was not a popular president. People don't like that he's the first convicted felon to be a presidential nominee. But it is possible that we are entering a whole new political era, that the fundamental axis of our politics has changed from one that was more about left versus right to one that's more about open versus closed. And this isolationist anti-immigration idea that is central to Trumpism could be our sort of reigning ethos for many years to come. Molly, thanks so much for your time. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having me.

But there's more to a convention than a nomination. Coming up, our reporter Jessica Mendoza on the cowboy hats, bedazzled pins, and the fashion statements at the RNC. We'll see you next time. Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of Lego play and

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Thank you. columnist Jacob Gallagher to get his take on RNC style. So, okay, first question. If this were a runway show, how would you describe it? Spangled. There's just so much red, white, and blue happening at all times. And there's just this kind of every day is July 4th way of dressing and looking here that really plays into every possible cliche of someone who would be at a political convention, I think. When we think Trump and the GOP, though, the accessory I think that everybody thinks of is the Make America Great Again red hat. How much of that are we seeing here? It's here. I think that this thing has happened where it's like the MAGA hat spawned this mentality of what is the most out there prominent, you know, noticeable hat that I can find. And here all I can think is fashion is always about this cliche term, classics with a twist.

We're at the stage where Trump has been on the American landscape as this political figure for near on a decade now. And we're seeing that the MAGA hat is the classic and people are twisting it here and contorting it into their own way. And what has been here really prominently that has surprised me a little bit is the cowboy hat.

But it makes sense. The cowboy hat is this avatar of rugged individualism and the great American West and Ronald Reagan. And it has all these attributes that I think the Republican Party is trying to project here. That seems to be what this party is now defined by. Jacob and I were just outside the Fiserv Forum, where the RNC is being held. It was mid-afternoon and people were lining up to get inside, many of them dressed in Trump regalia from head to toe. I'm sorry to bother you. My name's Jacob Gallagher.

I'm a reporter with The Wall Street Journal. Oh. I'd love to ask you. And I subscribe. Oh, do you? Of course I do. That's Susan Reneau, a delegate from Montana. And she was wearing not one, but two cowboy hats.

One hat was absolutely covered in buttons, and so was the denim vest she was wearing. I'd love to ask about your getup here. Well, it's not a getup. It's because I truly do love him. Okay. I adore Mr. Trump. I've been to ten rallies.

Okay. And you're wearing two hats. I've been to 10 rallies. And you're wearing two hats. I am wearing, see, she's very observant. I was given this hat for this convention. This is my red, white, and blue hat. So I'm doing a double hat. And I mean, you know, I'm already over the top, so let's just go full throttle. What's a second hat? Yeah, what's a second hat when you're already throttling?

Soon after we left Susan, Jacob spotted an outfit he had to know more about. Oh, my God. Okay, no, we have to do this woman. She is wearing star and stripe pants, and she's wearing clearly a Donald Trump top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, we'll move fast. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, wait, wait. Okay, we'll move fast. We're moving fast.

Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me, ma'am. I'm sorry. I'm a reporter with the Wall Street Journal. Can I ask about your outfit? Okay. Is that okay?

Yeah. That's Rochelle Henshaw from Washington State. She had on pants she got from a rodeo. And over it, she wore a dress covered in Trump's face.

Well, this is my president right here. So it's a dress that has President Trump sort of printed his face all over it. All over it. So I'm wondering, I don't know if we went to the DNC if we would see someone in a Biden dress. I don't know if even, you know, back in the day when Romney was running, there would have been a Romney dress. What is it about Donald Trump that people want to wear his image on themselves? The orange man, I think it's just mega all the way. And he's funny funny right? So and he I guess we just really connect with

Trump and he fights for people like me and I'm just a regular girl and I've actually met Trump and he said my outfit was beautiful because it was very patriotic and yeah there's nothing like MAGA. It'll never be like this again. There was nobody. Jacob, what are your thoughts?

Certainly there is something to be said for the fact that this candidate, this former president, is a politician who people love to wear his face. You know, Obama had

the hope image, which was, you know, more artsy. And with Trump, it is this kind of let's put his face on stuff. And we have just seen so much this week of blazers, leggings, shirts, dresses, Hawaiian shirts,

like these kind of crazy range of products that have this guy's face on it. And it's a reminder everywhere you turn that it's not just his name and his platform. It's really, you know, kind of just this image of this guy that people have really glommed onto and really feel some gravitational pull toward. And I think that comes through in the close. Like literally the face of the Republican Party is Donald Trump. And we see that here at the convention. Yeah. The literal face of the Republican Party. Yeah.

Before we go, are there any election or political questions that you've wondered about, but have always been confused by and that you'd like us to explain? Send us an email or a voice note to thejournal at wsj.com and Molly and I might try to answer them in a future episode. That's all for today, Friday, July 19th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. The show's made by Catherine Brewer, Maria Byrne, Jonathan Davis, Victoria Dominguez,

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