America’s in crisis ... and only I can save it, claims Trump
DONALD Trump has told Americans he is the only leader who can save the US from its ‘moment of crisis’, beset by rising crime, a failing economy and humiliation abroad.
Turning his back on decades of Republican leaders following the free trade, free world-leading optimism of Ronald Reagan, Mr Trump unveiled a bleak vision of an inward-looking, self-interested US on the last night of his party’s convention in Cleveland.
With his usual chutzpah only slightly toned down for the occasion, the 70-year-old officially accepted the party’s presidential nomination with a one hour and 15 minute-long address, the longest acceptance speech since at least 1972.
Introduced on stage by daughter Ivanka, he portrayed himself as an all-powerful saviour of a US whose strength and influence was crumbling at home and abroad. Mr Trump promised to put ‘America first’.
He told a convention that has reflected deep party splits over the bombastic tycoon: ‘We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order. The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end,’ he said, to wild applause. ‘Beginning on January 20th of 2017, safety will be restored.’
He added: ‘The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.’
His stream of bold promises, from defeating IS ‘fast’ to stopping illegal border crossings, were backed by few details. But they were met with loud applause from an audience that has watched in dismay as the four-day convention was beset by mishap after mishap.
He blamed much of America’s woes – including a string of bloody police deaths – on Barack Obama. ‘The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and colour, has made America a more dangerous environment than frankly I have ever seen, and anyone in this room has ever watched or seen,’ said Mr Trump.
He got a huge cheer when – outlining the extent of inner city poverty – he said the US ‘cannot afford to be politically correct any more’.
An attack on a policeman was ‘an attack on all Americans’, said Mr Trump. He
‘Irresponsible rhetoric’
vowed to end multilateral trade deals and cut US intervention in foreign crises. Mr Trump, who put his youngest child Barron, ten, into the limelight for the first time, would put ‘America first’, hailing a policy of ‘Americanism, not globalism’.
He singled out China as the country most responsible for cheating the US through anything from intellectual property theft to currency manipulation. And in a clear rebuke of the last Republican president, George W Bush – who refused to attend the convention – Mr Trump condemned ‘15 years of wars in the Middle East’. On free trade, he said: ‘No longer will we enter into these massive transactions with many countries that are thousands of pages long.’
Citing US sailors ‘forced to their knees’ by Iranian captors, the killing of American diplomats in Libya and Mr Obama’s decision not to defend the ‘red line’ he drew in Syria, Mr Trump said Americans had ‘lived through one humiliation after another’.
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, now his Democrat rival for the White House, had left a legacy of ‘death, terrorism and weakness’ through her mishandling of crises in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Egypt as well as her encouragement of ‘mass immigration’, he said.
He reiterated his promise to build a ‘great border wall’ to stop illegal immigration from Mexico. On his pledge to ban Muslim visitors, Mr Trump said vaguely he would ban people coming to the US from countries ‘compromised’ by terrorism.