July 22, 2016
Donald Trump accepted Republican nomination for his presidential candidature with darker portrayals of American domestic and international scenes, casting rival Democratic Hillary Clinton as dangerous and presenting himself as law and order candidate.
Sounding nationalistic through much of his long speech in Cleveland, Ohio, Trump said he would make good on his promise to build a wall along US-Mexican border, stop flow of immigrants from nations compromised by terrorism, put American ahead of everything else, and oppose trade deals unfair to America.
“The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponent, is that our plan will put America first. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo,” he said as his remarks echoed a kind of American Brexit – an inherently improbable thing given America’s multiculturalism, unprecedented international engagement, and its cultural and foreign policy sweep around the globe.
His acceptance speech marked continuation of the rhetorical political campaign heading to what is expected to be an intense campaign against Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton, who will be formally declared candidate of her party for November 8 election at a convention later this month.
The billionaire businessman, whose rise in American politics is seen an unusual event – and until middle of the heated primary season an improbability – referred to recent violence against police, declaring, “an attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans.”
On fighting the ISIS, he recalled the recent terror attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and promised to protect “the LGBTQ community,” – a phrase some analysts found new as the normal description of gays is limited to LGBT.
The GOP nominee vowed to fight terrorism in the Middle East, and said this includes working with “our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel.”
He also vowed to crack down on immigrants from countries that pose a terror threat – replacing his use of term ban on Muslims.
“Very importantly, we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place . We don’t want them in our country.”
“I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people,” he said, adding, “Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never, never will be!”
Trump focused on the negative side of the undocumented workers, telling the Republican National Convention the story of his meeting with three American families who had children killed by illegal immigrants, and pledged, in their honour, that he would save countless more families from suffering the same awful fate.
“We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities.”
He promised to work with US Border Patrol agents to protect the integrity of “our lawful immigration system.”
“On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced.”
At the same time, he said he would be considerate and compassionate to everyone but assured his followers that the greatest compassion would be for struggling US citizens.
Trump dubbed Clinton’s immigration policy “radical and dangerous.”
On US policy toward NATO, he said : :Recently, I have said that NATO was obsolete . Because it did not properly cover terrorism. And also, that many of the member countries were not paying their fair share. As usual, the United States has been picking up the cost. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that NATO will be setting up a new program in order to combat terrorism. A true step in the right direction.”
The business tycoon offered few specifics of his economic policy but promised to create more jobs for Americans.
“I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences.”
As a result of his economic policies, Trump said trillions will be flowing into the United States.
“This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans – We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow. This, in turn, will create millions more jobs. We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice.”
Trump vehemently opposed what he called bad trade deals, and said he would instead put “America First” even if that meant entering smaller trade deals with individual countries.
“Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America – and we’ll walk away if we don’t get the deal that we want.”
Maintaining his primary electioneering style, Trump came down hard on Hillary Clinton, holding her responsible for the mess in the Middle East, and also took a swipe at Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. Iran, he said, is making nuclear weapons.
Contrasting his pledge to Clinton’s slogan “I’m with her,” he said his pledge reads, “I’m with you, the American people. I am your voice.”
“In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map.
Libya was stable. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq was seeing and really a big, big reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was somewhat under control. After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have?
“ISIS has spread across the region, and the entire world. Libya is in ruins, and our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos.
“Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war, and a refugee crisis now threatens the West. After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.
This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.”
Reacting to Trump sweeping allegations in the acceptance speech, Hillary Clinton tweeted that “we can’t let him become president.”
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta pointed out that Trump’s featured “more fear, more division, more anger, more hate.”
Trump offered “just more prejudice and paranoia” rather than solutions, Podesta said, adding that “America is better than this.”
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