Family exerts ever tighter grip on party

Trump’s hold over the party is complete More than a fifth of speakers this week are either related to Mr Trump or work for him, underscoring the dominance the US president now holds over the Republican Party.

The president’s grip over the party was affirmed with the decision to drop the custom of adopting a policy platform. Instead, the party simply chose to express its enthusiastic support for Mr Trump’s (rather vague) agenda.

Gone too were the party’s elder statesmen, who usually use their gravitas to recommend the presidential candidate to voters. Trump wants to be the ‘Law and Order’ president One phrase cropped up again and again throughout this week: “law and order”.

Republican officials used the convention to sound the alarm over the unrest tearing through the country, warning that only Mr Trump could bring the violence and lawlessness to an end.

The party has a clear aim here: to shift focus away from the coronavirus figures and reframe the election campaign around urban unrest. Melania Trump proves she’s a political force in her own right The First Lady outlined her own agenda with her Rose Garden address, tackling America’s racial inequality and offering a message of optimism and unity that jarred with the tone of other speakers.

Mrs Trump urged Americans to “reflect on our mistakes”, saying “we are not proud of parts of our history”, in a message at odds with those who took to the convention stage before her. The race for 2024 has already begun Mike Pence, the US vicepresident, used his address to reintroduce himself to voters, deftly managing to voice his enthusiastic support for Mr Trump while also distancing himself from the president’s bombastic rhetoric.

Donald Trump Jnr’s speech also offered him the chance to audition for a potential presidential bid, echoing his father’s rhetoric and proving he shares his rare ability to connect with the conservative base.