From Gaza to China, Trump concludes RNC with 'divisive' speech

In his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican Party national convention on Thursday, former President Donald Trump pledged to resolve international crises he blamed on the Biden administration, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. 

"I will end every single international crisis the current administration has created — including the horrible war with Russia and Ukraine, which never would have happened if I was president" and the war "caused by the attack on Israel," Trump said in his sometimes rambling speech.

Trump criticised Biden's Iran policy, promising to rebuild the U.S. military and create an Iron Dome missile defence system domestically. "We will replenish our military and build an Iron Dome missile defence system to ensure no enemy can strike our homeland," he stated. He also warned, "The entire world, I tell you this: we want our hostages back and they better be back before I assume office or you will be paying a very big price."

Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October, resulting in about 1,160 deaths, according to Israeli figures.

Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed over 38,000 people, the vast majority women and children, according to the health ministry in the besieged territory.

Unity and division

Trump, who is now the official presidential candidate for the Republican Party has been a fervent supporter of Israel throughout his political career, including breaking with US and international consensus by moving the country's embassy to Israel to Jerusalem and recognising Israeli claims to the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

But the incumbent President has been supportive of Israel's actions in Gaza, triggering US protest movements among Arab, Muslim and progressive Americans that have urged voters to punish Biden at the polls over his support for Israel, without necessarily defecting to his rival Trump.

On domestic issues, Trump's and other speeches on the last night of the Republican National Convention had initially promised unity, though the messaging throughout was repeatedly hostile to those with different backgrounds and beliefs.

From a mass Christian prayer in the convention arena led by evangelical minister Franklin Graham to repeated statements of immigrants flooding US borders and high crime in US cities to blaming teachers for indoctrinating students, it is unclear who the RNC was trying to bring into the fold with their rhetoric.

Some of the most inflammatory statements came from Donald Trump, who repeatedly brought up "illegal aliens" (an outdated term generally considered racist), saying they were flooding the US and committing crimes (immigrants, including those who are undocumented, tend to have a lower crime rate than others residing in the US).

The former president and Republican presidential candidate made reference to the names of victims of specific crimes that were committed by undocumented immigrants.

Even when Trump wasn't talking about illegal immigration, he found ways to tie other topics to it, whether it was manufacturing, social welfare programmes, or the shooting that grazed his ear in an apparent assassination attempt at a recent rally  (the shooter was a white man and a registered Republican).

He told the audience the story of his assassination attempt, with the white bandage still on his right ear, which he promised would be the last time because he said it was too painful to talk about. As he began his story, a large photo of his bloody face in the aftermath of the shooting was displayed behind him.

A chart on immigration was then projected behind him on the stage showing that under his leadership illegal immigration from the southern border had dropped significantly. (Much of this drop in border crossings could be linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the border closure during his presidency.)

As he remembers, he turned to look at the chart at the moment of the shooting, which, he told the audience, ultimately saved his life. It was unclear if he was trying to prove that a chart on border crossings created a divine intervention to save his life.

In addition to railing against illegal immigration through the southern border, he also turned to China, which he blamed for the loss in US manufacturing jobs. He also took the opportunity to call COVID-19 the "China virus".

Much of Trump's rhetoric related to the southern border and China were his own words where he chose to stray from the teleprompter and pre-prepared speech, possibly a sign that his personal positions, at least what he's willing to say out loud, are more extreme than his party's.

Prior to Trump taking the stage, speakers gave firm nods to his "red-meat" base. There was Hulk Hogan, who stripped down several layers to reveal a red tank top with Trump's name on it. He said that in the future, today's Trump supporters would be called Trumpites (in his speech, Trump later referred to his base as Trumpsters). And there was Kidd Rock, who sang about the assassination attempt on Trump.

The audience that filled the arena was fully engaged with the speeches, ready to start chants at almost any slight prompt. Frequent chants included "USA" and "Drill, baby, drill".

At one point, he pointed to the media section, to the right side of the stage, which was immediately met with loud boos from the audience, before he'd said anything. As it turned out, he ended up implicitly praising news reports said that the convention in Milwaukee was "well-organised".

As Trump wrapped up his speech, his family joined him on stage. In a change from 2016, his wife, Melania, and daughter, Ivanka, did not make speeches.

Nevertheless, Trump's speech and the convention overall seemed to end on an energetic and unifying (at least within the convention arena) note for most attendees, many of whom spent the rest of the night drinking and celebrating in the streets and hotel lobbies.