MILWAUKEE — Donald J. Trump watched Tuesday night as a parade of vanquished rivals took the stage at the Republican National Convention to pledge their fealty, sing his praises and denounce President Joe Biden.
Nikki Haley, the last of his opponents to end her campaign and the only one to withhold her support, came in response to a hard-to-refuse invitation extended by Trump in a phone call on Sunday, the day after the attempt on his life.
“President Trump asked me to speak to this convention in the name of unity. It was a gracious invitation, and I was happy to accept,” Haley said. “I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period.”
Trump, who had arrived to cheers as he took his seat in a family box on the opposite side of the convention, smiled as Vivek Ramaswamy, Ted Cruz, Haley, Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio had their moments on stage. Next to him was J.D. Vance, the newly crowned running mate who once called Trump reprehensible and an idiot and compared him to Adolf Hitler.
Cruz and DeSantis, both U.S. senators with significant political bases in Texas and Florida, ineffectually challenged Trump in 2016. The others tried in 2024. All but Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served the Trump administration as ambassador to the United Nations, already had pledged support this cycle.
Haley lined up behind Trump as the messenger best able to reach voters not yet supporting a 78-year-old former president who still insists the 2020 election was stolen, a claim rejected by his former inner circle and judge after judge, many of whom he had placed on the bench.
“We should acknowledge there are some Americans who don’t agree with President Trump 100% of the time,” Haley said, making light of her strained relationship with Trump. “I happen to know some of them, and I want to speak to them.”
“My message to them is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him. Take it from me, I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree.”
The original theme of the night, as planned prior to the attempted assassination, was “Make America Safe Again,” featuring victims of crimes and drug overdoses the Trump campaign blames on Biden, a porous southern border and migrants. Instead, the campaign broadened the mission to one of unity.
Relatives of murder and drug overdose victims angrily faulted Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for an open border and crime. Cruz went further, accusing Democrats of making a choice keep the border open to recruit illegal voters, not caring if the result was a more dangerous America.
Ignored was research indicating that crime rates among migrants either were no more likely, or even less likely, than citizens to commit crime. Crime has steadily fallen in the U.S. for decades, though there was an uptick in property crime in 2022.
Connecticut delegates deflected questions asking if they agreed with Cruz’s claim that Biden was willingly trading American deaths for the votes of migrants who cannot legally vote.
“I didn’t write his speech,” said Timothy Herbst, who was candidate for governor of Connecticut in 2018. “I probably would have said it differently.”
Annalisa Stravato, a delegate and a member-elect of the Republican National Committee, said she has no problem with legal immigration. She emigrated from Italy with her parents as a 4-year-old, become coming a citizen a dozen years ago and an early supporter of Trump eight years ago.
She did not answer directly if she believed Cruz but rather commented on the inability to control the border.
“I have great pause with what’s going on,” she said.
DeSantis, who had been mercilessly mocked by Trump, drew a smile from the former president when he mocked the fitness of the 81-year-old Biden to lead and said America need the 78-year-old Trump.
“Let’s send Joe Biden back to his basement, and let’s send Donald Trump back to the White House,” DeSantis said to laughter from the crowd and an approving grin from Trump. “We need a commander-in-chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week. America cannot afford four more years of a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency.”
CT Mirror staff writer Lisa Hagen contributed to this story from Washington, D.C.