In Trump they trust: Republicans renew their faith in leader

MILWAUKEE — If there was a single unifying theme of the Republican National Convention, it was confidence in the leadership of former President Donald Trump.

That’s not to say that making America safe, strong, and great again weren’t important parts of the Republican message over those four nights. But Republican delegates trust Trump to deliver on those goals more than ever and his emotional bond with the party faithful has never been stronger, in a way that has superseded their connections to past leaders such as George W. Bush. 

The list of living former GOP presidential and vice presidential nominees who weren’t at the convention that circulated widely on social media simply did not matter to the delegates inside the Fiserv Forum, whatever their feelings about these Republicans individually. When asked about Trump, delegates used words like “strong,” “tough,” “brave,” and “courageous.”

This trust in Trump is what tied together the “amens” that greeted evangelist Franklin Graham, son and successor of Billy Graham, and the “yeah, brothers” of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan directly before him. The realization that Trump could have died the weekend before the proceedings and the jubilation over the fact that he survived, bloodied but unbowed, suffused the whole event.

“Heading into Milwaukee, former President Trump was riding the wave of what could be described as the most successful three weeks of his political career, excluding Election Day 2016. This period includes a monstrous debate, favorable Supreme Court rulings, the dismissal of the classified document case, and even surviving an assassination attempt,” Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said. “That momentum continued at the RNC convention. The atmosphere was electric, the convention was meticulously choreographed and executed, and the GOP is at least as unified as it was in 2004, and possibly even 1984. Nearly every single Republican now sees Trump as the toughest SOB ever to run for president.”

Modern political conventions are mainly extended television commercials for the party’s nominee. Here Trump the showman also put his stamp on the gathering.

“This was the best programming that an RNC convention has done in quite some time,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said. “Bringing in compelling speakers to share emotional and interesting stories that helped to shape the narrative for Trump’s candidacy.”

Trump has now been the titular head of the Republican Party as long as any two-term president, despite having only served one. That’s why he didn’t need ambassadors to vouch for his Republican or conservative credentials, a list of Supreme Court picks or specific assurances to social conservatives, or a vice presidential selection from the pre-Trump GOP or conservative movement like Mike Pence.

Instead Trump had already proved himself on judges and taxes. He could choose a running mate from his own faction of the party in Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). He could water down the pro-life plank in the platform because of his role in the reversal of Roe v. Wade. If he returns to Washington in January, Paul Ryan will be gone and Mitch McConnell will have stepped down from leadership.

Not everyone in the party is happy with these changes. But Trump is no longer the interloper from New York with no political track record outside of bipartisan donations and a brief campaign for the Reform Party presidential nomination running to the left of Pat Buchanan. Republicans trust him, and even those who don’t now see him as Buchanan’s heir, if not Ronald Reagan’s.

If Trump himself is not new, some of the confidence in him as a man is. Yes, he has had a passionate MAGA following from the moment he came down the escalator in Trump Tower in 2015, now nearly a decade ago. But there were plenty of Republicans who liked the policies, especially the more conventionally conservative ones, but not the tweets. Which was another way of saying they had misgivings about Trump’s tone and temperament, as well as his penchant for picking petty and counterproductive fights.

One of the earliest adopters of Trump on the Right, syndicated columnist Ann Coulter, wrote the book In Trump We Trust. Coulter sharply broke with Trump afterward. Unlike many others who did so, it wasn’t because she drifted leftward or lost her White House job. Coulter didn’t believe he followed through on his promises on immigration.

Never Trumpers, some of them lifelong Republicans, never trusted Trump’s conservatism or his character. Trump governed as a conservative in his first term, though intraparty disagreements over trade and foreign policy (less so immigration) remain potent. The character concerns looked prescient in the aftermath of the 2020 election, culminating in the disaster of Jan. 6, forming the centerpiece of the Democrats’ argument that Trump is a threat to democracy. The most fervent Never Trumpers relocated to the Democratic Party.

But the prosecutions of Trump, including the two cases related to Jan. 6, hardened the Republican base’s faith in the former president. They came to increasingly see him not as the self-interested figure presented by his detractors, but rather as a man giving up a comfortable existence and risking his fortune, freedom, and after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pa. his life for their values and the country.

The assassination attempt also sparked conversation about Trump as a changed man. He appeared visibly moved at his reception by the convention delegates, a side of him the public had never seen before. He was amused by Hulk Hogan and seemed to take more pleasure in the tributes paid to him by convention speakers, especially his granddaughter. 

Tears streamed down delegates’ cheeks as Trump recounted the attempt on his life with the firefighter uniform of Corey Comperatore, who was killed by the shooter at the rally, behind him on stage. While the speech went long and eventually reverted to standard campaign talking points, for the first 20 or so minutes Trump spoke in hushed tones and the delegates hung on his every word. Trump told the Washington Examiner he had thrown out his previous version of the speech after the shooting.

Longtime Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) did an about face and endorsed the Republican nominee after the assassination attempt. “Your life was spared,” Cox wrote to Trump in a letter dated July 14. “Now, because of that miracle, you have the opportunity to do something that no other person on earth can do right now: unify and save our country.”

Uncertainty over the identity of the Democratic nominee amid the unprecedented mutiny against President Joe Biden also factored into the Trump-centric GOP convention. Republicans left Milwaukee united while Democrats may head into Chicago deeply divided.

How long the GOP will be Trump’s party remains to be seen. If he wins, he will be ineligible to run again in 2028 under the 22nd Amendment. If he loses, he will be 82 by the next election, older than Biden is now, and a twice-defeated nominee. Reagan’s grip on the party lasted more than 40 years, while George W. Bush’s influence began slipping even before he left office. 

“If the election were held today, Trump would become the 47th president of the United States,” O’Connell said. “For those who doubt this assessment, just tune into MSNBC or The View. They have cranked up the conspiracy theory narrative to the max because they recognize that Trump is on a roll, and the convention in Milwaukee only bolstered his political momentum.”

For now, it’s Trump’s party like never before.