Four memorable moments from past Republican National Conventions

The 2024 Republican National Convention will see former President Donald Trump accept the party’s nomination for a third consecutive time, in which there will likely be various memorable moments.

Throughout the decades of Republican conventions, nominees and invited guests have made lasting memories, both positive and negative. Here are four memorable moments from Republican National Conventions over the years.

1992 – Reagan’s final major speech

Former President Ronald Reagan addressed the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas, in support of his former running mate George H.W. Bush’s bid for a second term, but the speech would end up being his final major public address before his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Reagan reminisced on his political career as governor and president, addressing the convention as a private citizen roughly four years removed from the White House.

“May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural, God-given optimism. And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill,” Reagan said.

“Before I go, I would like to ask the person who has made my life’s journey so meaningful, someone I have been so proud of through the years, to join me. Nancy. My fellow Americans, on behalf of both of us, goodbye, and God bless each and every one of you, and God bless this country we love,” he concluded.

In 1994, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and remained out of the public eye for the final 10 years of his life until his death in 2004 at age 93.

2012 – Clint Eastwood’s empty chair

Actor Clint Eastwood had a memorable speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, when he talked with an empty chair.

During his roughly 10 minute speech, Eastwood talked to the chair imagining an invisible then-President Barack Obama was there. He questioned the invisible Obama, jokingly suggesting the phantom president was telling him to “shut up.”

Eastwood’s unique speech came on the same night former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney accepted the GOP nomination, and overshadowed Romney’s speech. Reaction was mixed to the speech, with some questioning Eastwood’s decision to talk to an empty chair. He would later say that he regrets the “silly” bit he did with the chair.

2016 – Trump’s over-the-top entrance

Donald Trump had never been elected to office when he won the nomination for the Republican Party in 2016, but as a larger-than-life personality in New York City and on his former NBC show The Apprentice, he knew how to make an entrance.

The 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, was big and bold, as the GOP began to mold itself around its less-than-subtle nominee. When Trump introduced his wife, Melania Trump, on the first night of the convention, he made an over-the-top entrance.

The lights in the convention hall dimmed and Trump’s silhouette appeared and approached the podium, as Queen’s “We Are the Champions” played.

The future president then proclaimed that his campaign would win that November, a prediction which would come true, before introducing Melania Trump for her address to the convention. Melania Trump’s address would also become memorable, due to allegations parts of the speech were plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech.

2020 – Controversial venue for acceptance speech

With the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the last round of major political party conventions looked significantly different than any in modern history. The Democratic and Republican National Conventions were largely held virtually, with most of the speeches at the RNC being held at an empty Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.

The venue for then-President Trump’s GOP acceptance speech, however, was another D.C. landmark, with was significantly more controversial. Trump accepted the speech at the south lawn of the White House.

The speech’s location, chosen largely due to coronavirus restrictions, caused ethical concerns from watchdog group, who claimed the use of the White House as a backdrop for an explicitly political speech would violate the Hatch Act.

Alongside the using the White House as the backdrop for accepting the Republican nomination, a fireworks display — complete with “Trump 2020” being spelled out — lit up the sky over the national mall.

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It was not the first time a president had accepted a party’s nomination from the White House, with then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt doing so for the Democratic Party’s nomination in 1940.

The 2024 Republican and Democratic National Conventions will see a return to the traditional in-person festivities at a convention hall, with GOP assembling in Milwaukee this upcoming week and the Democrats doing so in Chicago in August.