Trump slams Clinton legacy in pledge to restore ‘safety’
Crowd chants ‘U-S-A’ after speech promising to curb immigration
DONALD Trump has promised that “safety will be restored” to the US if he is elected to the White House in November.
Accepting the Republican nomination, the billionaire businessman pledged to curb immigration, build a wall along the border with Mexico and save the nation from Hillary Clinton’s record of “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness”.
The 70-year-old spoke for more than an hour on the closing night of the party convention, to a crowd chanting “U-S-A”.
Mr Trump declared the nation’s problems too big to be fixed within the confines of traditional politics.
“I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves,” he told delegates in Cleveland, Ohio.
He added: “Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation.
“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.”
Underscoring his unorthodox candidacy, Mr Trump set out the hardline immigration policies that fired up conservatives in the Republican contest, but broke with many in his party by promising protections for gays and lesbians.
As the crowd, fiercely opposed to Mrs Clinton, broke out in its usual chant of “lock her up,” he declared: “Let’s defeat her in November.”
Yet he also accused her of “terrible, terrible crimes” and said her
‘‘ Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead country
greatest achievement may have been avoiding prison for her use of a private email and personal server as secretary of state.
He accused his Democratic rival of lacking the good judgment to serve in the White House and as the military’s commander in chief.
“This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness,” he said.
“But Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy.”
In a direct appeal to Americans shaken by a summer of violence at home and abroad, Mr Trump promised that if he takes office in January, “safety will be restored”.
John Podesta, a senior aide to Mrs Clinton, attacked Mr Trump for offering little more than “prejudice and paranoia”.
He also promised the Democrat candidate would set out a more positive vision for America when she accepts the party’s nomination at its convention next week in Philadelphia.
Mr Trump also incurred the wrath of British rocker Paul Rodgers by using his hit song All Right Now to cap off his presidential nomination speech.
Rodgers had earlier joined a string of British artists including Queen, Adele and representatives of George Harrison to object to the Republican and his campaign using their material.
But the billionaire tycoon, who was in Scotland last month to open his revamped Turnberry resort, ended his speech with his campaign slogan “Let’s make America great again” and “I love you” before All Right Now’s famous guitar kicked in.
Rodgers, who wrote the tune in 1970 while a member of Free, previously warned he had alerted his lawyer to the song’s unauthorised use during the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
Meanwhile, an academic study of Donald Trump and Harry Potter riff suggests the Republican’s chances of becoming US president could take a knock because he reminds readers of Lord Voldemort.
The more of JK Rowling’s stories about the boy wizard Americans read, the more anti-Trump they become, say researchers.
They believe the “Harry Potter effect” is because Mr Trump’s political messages are at odds with the values of Potter and his friends, such as tolerance, respect for difference, opposition to violence, and anti-authoritarianism.
Mr Trump is seen as having more in common with Harry Potter’s arch enemy Lord Voldemort.