Family, GOP allies look to recast presidency
WASHINGTON — Republicans will aim to recast the story of Donald Trump’s presidency when they hold their national convention, featuring speakers drawn from everyday life as well as cable news and the White House while drawing a stark contrast with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Trump is looking to shift his campaign from being a referendum on a presidency ravaged by a pandemic and economic collapse and toward a choice between vastly different visions of America’s future. Reshaping the national conversation around the race has taken on greater urgency for Trump, who trails in public and private surveys amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The four-day event starting Monday is themed “Honoring the Great American Story,” according to four Trump campaign officials involved with the planning process but not authorized to discuss it by name. The convention will feature prominently a number of well-known Trump
supporters, including members of the Trump family, but also those whom the GOP say are members of the “silent majority” of Americans who have been aided by Trump’s policies. Some have been “silenced” by a “cancel culture” pushed by Democrats, the campaign officials said.
Trump himself was expected to appear each night at the Republican National Convention, planners said.
The opening night will highlight the “Land of Promise,” aiming to show how Trump helped renew the American dream.
Featured speakers include South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who will deliver the closing speech of the televised prime-time block; former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley; presidential son Donald Trump, Jr.; congressional defenders Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Jim Jordan of Ohio; and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
Tanya Weinreis, a Montana coffee shop owner who received federal loans to pay her employees during the pandemic, will also speak, as will Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was among those killed in the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Tuesday’s theme is “Land of Opportunity,“
which is expected to cast Biden’s plans as “socialist” and “radical left.”
Speakers will highlight Trump’s actions on trade, abortion and the nation’s opioid crisis. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will address Trump’s foreign policy record and Trump children Eric and Tiffany Trump will also speak.
Another speaker will be Nicholas Sandmann, who as a student at a Catholic high school in Kentucky gained national attention last year for his interaction with a Native American man during demonstrations in Washington. Media commentary in the aftermath of the viral video from the interaction depicted the students as racially insensitive. Sandmann and the Native American man, Nathan Phillips, later said they were both trying to defuse tensions among conflicting groups at the Lincoln Memorial.
First lady Melania Trump will deliver the marquee address of the night from a newly renovated White House Rose Garden.
Wednesday, themed “Land of Heroes,” will feature conservative personalities including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.
Clarence Henderson, a civil rights figure from the 1960s, is also on deck to address
the “true meaning of peaceful protest,” planners said, as Trump plans to highlight police officers amid a nationwide call for policing reform after the May death of George Floyd in police custody.
Vice President Mike Pence will deliver the keynote Wednesday from Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, which inspired “The StarSpangled Banner,” to highlight Trump’s opposition to professional athletes who protest racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem.
Speakers on the final night, themed “Land of Greatness, will include Alice Johnson, the criminal justice advocate whose sentence on drug crimes was commuted by Trump at the urging of celebrity Kim Kardashian; Carl and Marsha Mueller, the parents of human rights activist Kayla Mueller, who died while being held by the Islamic State group in Syria; and Rev. Franklin Graham.
Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, whose attempts to dig up dirt in Ukraine on Biden’s family were at the center of the president’s impeachment last year, will also address the final night of the convention. Republican congressional leaders Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California are to deliver remarks.
Trump will close the convention during an address from the White House South Lawn.