“God saved me. We will restore peace. We are embarking on the largest deportation in our history.” Kissing Melania on stage

Party unity and country. But also America first, with allies forced to pay more for defense, trade tariffs to defend American industries, the largest mass deportation of migrants on the Mexican border, where construction of the wall will resume. Finally, a strong grip on China and Iran, full support for Israel, and a negotiated peace in Ukraine. These were the main points of Donald Trump’s nomination acceptance speech for the White House on the final night of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, under a shower of 100,000 red, white and blue balloons, the colors of the American flag. And with the world’s television audience watching, 2,429 delegates, thousands of journalists and the entire family, including Melania and Ivanka (so far absent). Topics that his vice president and potential dolphin, J.D. Vance, also raised in his first appearance the night before, to applause. The closing of the event, dedicated to the theme “Make America Great Again”, will be remembered as the day of the apotheosis of Donald, who rose from the ashes of the attack on the Capitol in 2021, having survived all the events so far. Important trials and above all the attack in Pennsylvania. He is now the undisputed leader of a homogeneous party where loyalists, skeptics and Trump supporters (including Vance) have united and he is the frontrunner for a campaign that may change course perhaps only if Joe Biden takes a step back in the next few days. Under pressure from Democratic leaders, donors and pollsters, as Axios suggests. It was introduced by Dana White, CEO of the mixed martial arts organization “Ultimate Fighting Championship”: the right man to promote the businessman’s fighting response even after the assassination attempt. Trump’s speech – who appeared every evening at the convention wearing a white bandage over his injured right ear that has become fashionable among delegates – was his first public speech after the attack, prompting him to change what was supposed to be a “bombing” against Biden into a call for American unity. Not to mention the controversial “Second American Revolution” program, Project 2025, which would concentrate power in the hands of the executive branch. A way to try to block independents, moderates and waverers in prime time, and expand the Republican “big tent.” Even with the help of 17-year-old Kai, the eldest of 10 grandchildren, the daughter of his eldest son Donald Jr., who introduced him on stage this way: “To me, he’s just a regular grandpa. He gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking. “He always wants to know how we’re doing in school,” he said bluntly, drawing a genuine businessman’s smile, in a well-crafted family story. But Trump is hoping for a boost from Ohio’s 39-year-old senator, the first millennial on a presidential ticket and the first vice presidential nominee with a beard in 75 years, breaking taboos around prejudice and distrust. Accepting the vice nomination to a standing ovation after being introduced by his Indian-American wife, Usha Chilukuri (who kissed and hugged him on stage), Vance praised Trump’s courage (“When he stood at the rally after the shooting with his fist in the air, America rose with him”), called for party unity, attacked career politicians like Biden (“He’s been in politics since before I was born”) and relaunched America First. By targeting China and warning allies that they will have to “share the burden of ensuring world peace: no more free trips to countries that betray the generosity of American taxpayers.” He seemed more open about immigrants instead: “It is part of our tradition to welcome newcomers, but on our terms.” His best-known piece was his personal life as an example of the American Dream, of rising from a difficult adolescence with an alcoholic mother in Middletown to Appalachian poverty and into the Marines, Yale Law School, the world of finance and the Senate. As he put it in his best-selling book, “American Elegy,” he highlighted the white working class he left behind. That’s the one he addressed in his speech to bring the Midwest and Rust Belt states to Trump: “Stop caring about Wall Street. It’s over. We’re committed to working people. To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and every corner of our nation … I will never forget where I came from.” Nor did he forget his proud mother, whom he praised on the stage (“She was sober for 10 years”), and his late grandmother who raised him while keeping 19 loaded guns hidden in the house to protect the family: “This is what we fight for, this is the American spirit,” he added, drawing a standing ovation equal to the one he had just received for Peter Navarro, the former Trump adviser who had taken the stage with his girlfriend the same day he was released from prison for contempt of Congress in the investigation into the Capitol attack: “Joe Biden and his Justice Department put me in prison.