Biden will destroy our greatness, says Trump
President claims that Democrats see US as ‘wicked’ in convention speech at White House
DONALD TRUMP conjured up an alarming vision of what life under a Joe Biden presidency would be like in his closing Republican convention speech, claiming that the streets would not be safe and America as it is today would disappear forever.
In a 70-minute address packed with grim warnings about the Democrats, the US president said Mr Biden would push the country on the path to socialism and is too “weak” a leader to stop violent clashes seen in cities this year.
Mr Trump claimed that Mr Biden and his “radical” Democratic colleagues saw America as “wicked” and “depraved”, painting his political opponents as a menace to the country and its values. “Joe Biden is not the saviour of America’s soul – he is the destroyer of America’s jobs, and, if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness,” Mr Trump said, taking Mr Biden’s campaign theme and rebutting it.
The address was delivered in a madefor-tv spectacle that saw the president speak on stage before a gleaming White House with an audience of more than 1,000 cheering supporters on the South Lawn. Few wore face masks.
Mr Trump, introduced by his daughter Ivanka, started by processing from the White House alongside his wife Melania before going to a lectern behind which stood more than 50 US flags. It ended with fireworks spelling out “TRUMP” and “2020” over Washington DC.
However, Mr Biden’s speech drew a larger audience than Mr Trump’s, according to ratings released by Nielsen yesterday. The Democrat beat the president, a keen follower of television ratings, by two million, with 23.6million viewers to his 21.6million.
Staging a party political speech before the embodiment of US executive power drew fierce criticism from the Democrats. Many said it violated the Hatch Act, which bars government employees from engaging in most political activity inside federal buildings.
One Democratic senator wrote on Twitter: “Get off our lawn.”
There had been speculation that late changes forced by coronavirus in the planning for Mr Trump’s speech, which was originally due to take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, then Jacksonville, Florida, could lead to a chaotic event. That proved incorrect.
With slick production values, the address saw Mr Trump stick mainly to the autocue, reading in an even tone which was markedly different from his tubthumping rally speeches. He gave some ad-libs but only rarely.
Yet the message delivered, while familiar in its lines of attack, was cutting, painting the bleakest picture of how American life would be altered beyond recognition if Mr Biden manages to beat him at the Nov 3 election. “At the Democrat National Convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice,” Mr Trump said.
“So tonight, I ask you a very simple question: how can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country? In the Left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just, and exceptional nation on Earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins.”
The image of violent looters and rioters was conjured up on numerous occasions by the president, following not just clashes in cities such as Minneapolis and Portland earlier this year but this week in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Mr Trump, 74, has cast himself as the defender of law enforcement, emphasising the fraction of anti-racism protests that have morphed into violent clashes and asking why Mr Biden, 77, does not do more to condemn them.
“Your vote will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans or give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten our citizens,” the president said. “And this election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life, or whether we allow a radical movement to dismantle and destroy it.”
Mr Trump repeatedly called the cities which have seen the clashes “Democrat-run”, on account of the mayors there. The Biden camp pushed back hard yesterday, noting this is happening in on the president’s watch.
Large sections of Mr Trump’s speech focused on his accomplishments in office. He mentioned building nearly 300 miles of new fencing along the Mexico-us border, creating what he dubbed the “greatest economy in history” before the pandemic.
There was one new policy announced – a vow to impose tariffs on any company that leaves the US to create jobs elsewhere in his second term. “Joe Biden’s agenda is Made in China. My agenda is Made in the USA,” he said.
At the end of the speech, as a red, white and blue firework display erupted in the skies, the president stood with his wife and children watching on from the house he hopes to still call home come January.
‘Your vote will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans or give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals’
Is there anyone in the world who cannot list Donald Trump’s flaws? They seem so manifest and so multiple that even thinking of doing so evokes thoughts of barrels, shooting and fish. His unwillingness to ever miss an opportunity to boast. His career-long devotion to exaggeration. His desire to talk up everything about himself and talk down everything about anyone else. This and much more can all be held against him and regularly is.
He is also one of the most successful figures in US history. In his career before the presidency he made a fortune, lost a fortune, made a fortune again, then ran for president and – having never held political office – gained the presidency on his first try. You don’t need to admire him, let alone love him, to notice that there is something uncommon about him. And uncommon people – especially uncommonly successful people – generally have something worth teaching.
Opinion polls suggest that the British people have never warmed to Trump and find his vulgarity as well as what news about him filters through to be reason enough to dismiss him. But taking this view deprives us of something. Not least an ability to learn what it is about Trump that makes him appealing to a significant proportion of the American public and what has made aspects of his time in office a success. Listing Trump’s virtues may be harder than listing his flaws, but still they are there and worth highlighting.
Take Trump abroad. The revelations about him – such as those in John Bolton’s recent memoir – can be hair-raising, without a doubt. The president’s lack of awareness about major aspects of foreign policy. His ignorance of basic things (such as – apparently – this country being a nuclear power) are enough to instil in the foreign policy establishment a desire to have a lie down. And yet those same foreign policy establishments have been shown to be wrong time and again. Whether it is intelligence failures over WMDS, or a total lack of foresight over nearly any major event (such as the so-called Arab Spring) we have of late had a foreign policy establishment that can hardly point to a single success. What is more, among most candidates for the US presidency, it seemed to have become a pre-requisite for office to appeal to the American public on the basis that you’d be keener than any of your opponents to send American troops into battle. Any battle.
Trump reversed all of that, promising to prevent America being dragged into quagmires around the world. Of course, there are consequences to America’s withdrawal. But Trump was not wrong when he berated the foreign policy failures of his predecessors and rivals. Had Hillary Clinton achieved the Oval Office, it is almost certain that she would have got her country into one or more conflicts in the Middle East among other places.
The person who actually won the 2016 race has done no such thing. He has not only stuck to his promise not to get America into any more wars, he has done things that his predecessors would never have done without getting America into endless such conflicts.
Cast your mind back to January when American forces killed General Qasem Soleimani. The moment the killing of Iran’s foremost general was announced, the entire foreign policy commentariat went into overdrive. “Is this our era’s Franz Ferdinand moment?” they asked. And that was just the less excitable ones. There seemed a general belief – once again – that Trump was going to get us all killed. And yet – once again – he didn’t. American forces took out Iran’s leading general, a man who had overseen the deaths of countless numbers of British and American troops, not to mention Iraqi and other civilians in the area, and Iran took it. Not least because they seemed to fear that they were dealing with a madman.
It is the same with the other notable foreign policy strides of his presidency. Whether it is the still under-heralded but utterly historic Israel-uae peace deal. Or his unexpected efforts to address the problem of North Korea. Time and again Trump has done bold, brash and often nail-biting things in the foreign arena. But he has come through them. Like all presidents he could have done more in other places. But in the areas that Trump has applied himself to, he has made quite extraordinary achievements. And the fact that he is unpredictable and perhaps even a little crazy (an impression we must hope that he works at cultivating) can be a great virtue in the international arena.
Likewise, when it comes to the only major challenger to America’s global economic and military dominance, Trump has been able to do things that none of his opponents would ever have dreamed of doing. His re-building of the American military has not been done in order to use it against thirdrate despots and tinpot terrorist groups (who have demonstrated an uncanny ability to play America to a draw in recent conflicts). Rather he has built it up in order to demonstrate to China that American military dominance will not be allowed to dwindle away. He knows that if you have military dominance, an awful lot of other games can also come into play.
Is there another candidate (in 2016 or now in 2020) who knows better than Trump the game that is now in motion with Beijing? If there is, then is there any other who would have been willing to slap tariffs on the country, bring back jobs from China and much more in the way that Trump has done? Long before the coronavirus hit, Trump had warmed up the American people to understand the threat that China posed to them. Not as a military power but as an economic rival. An economic rival whose actions were directly affecting the wage-packets of American workers. No European leader has managed to do anything like that. And America’s desire to play the Chinese at their own game is a major global play that is highly unlikely to survive the Trump presidency.
And then there are the issues that are of more immediate relevance to the UK. Most important of which is the US-UK trade deal currently under negotiation. It seems unlikely that this deal will be completed before the presidential election. Not for any lack of will on either side, but simply because of the time it takes for the details of such agreements to be ironed out. The excellent trade teams on both sides of these discussions want to arrive at a deal and given the opportunity they will do. The good will in Washington and from the team around Trump is not to be ignored. Compare that with the “back of the queue” that Trump’s predecessor said a post-brexit Britain would be sent to.
On these issues and more, there are successes that this administration has achieved which are worth reflecting on. Of course, some will judge that these do not outweigh the negatives. Others will accuse me of seeking to use a low tool for high purposes. But there are only two people on the ballot this November. And the one most frequently presented as the most unstable and unpredictable may yet prove to be the one who will give this country and the wider world the period of greater success and calm.
Trump was not wrong when he berated the foreign policy failures of his predecessors and rivals