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Donald Trump
The Observer view on Donald Trump’s mendacious re-election campaign
Observer editorial
The president has built a palace of lies. It’s up to Joe Biden to demolish it More
Melania Trump
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff has reason to seek revenge but her book does not contain much to concern the first family More
On Tuesday, America heard two calls for peace and unity. The first came from the mother of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot in the back by police multiple times in front of his children, and reportedly left paralysed. After episodes of arson and looting followed peaceful protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Julia Jackson urged: “We need healing.”The second was the gaslighting speech from Melania Trump at the Republican National Convention. The woman who offered what was described as “a plea for racial unity” is the same woman who said American people wanted to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate; wore a jacket reading “I really don’t care. Do U?” on her way to visit detained children on the Texas border; and was appearing on behalf of a man who has triumphed through bigotry. She spoke at a convention seeking to press those same buttons with what one Republican political operative described as “fear porn”. Speakers have included the St Louis lawyers who brandished their guns at Black Lives Matter protestors marching past their home.The first lady’s address was – like much of the programme on Tuesday – a cynical attempt to sanitise the brand, allowing her husband and the Republicans to exploit racism while insisting it is nothing of the kind, and for voters to back them without too much discomfort. Donald Trump’s attempts to capitalise on the Black Lives Matter movement by positioning himself as the “president of law and order” who would defend white suburbs, lifting from Richard Nixon’s playbook, have so far been notably unsuccessful. The public has proved much more sympathetic towards the protests than expected.Whether that will change before November’s election is unclear. What is certain is that the spectre of American carnage that he conjures up has real and dangerous impact. Mr Trump has not invented racial divisions, police impunity, paranoia about “anti-American” forces, or a culture of people taking the law into their own hands. But he has exploited and fostered them.Hours after the convention speech, two people were shot dead and another injured at the protests in Kenosha. A group of heavily armed white men had reportedly clashed with demonstrators earlier, and the county sheriff said a “militia” had been patrolling the streets. Footage posted on social media showed what appeared to be a white man with a semiautomatic rifle firing at what are believed to be Black Lives Matter protestors. Despite the tumult, the alleged gunman is finally seen walking away with his arms raised, a weapon still dangling from his shoulder, as police tactical vehicles drive past him – a stark contrast with the treatment of Mr Blake.Words have consequences. Mr Blake’s family were calling not simply for calm, but for the transformation that the US desperately needs. “We have been watching police kill Black people for years,” his sister Letetra Widman reminded listeners. “I don’t want your pity. I want change.”The first lady’s call was for the perpetuation of the status quo. Her husband rose to power by stoking bigotry and plans to remain in power the same way. His departure alone cannot fix America’s deep-rooted problems. But another victory in November would only multiply them. More
Republican national convention 2020
Remarks were a jarring reminder of pandemic, after an evening of misleading speeches that tried to minimize the public health crisis
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Melania Trump addresses Covid death toll, calls for unity amid racial tensions in RNC speech – video
Melania Trump expressed sympathy to the Americans who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus pandemic, acknowledging the grim toll of a public health crisis the president has failed to contain during a keynote address on the second night of the Republican convention.
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, the first lady offered her condolences to the loved ones of the more than 178,000 Americans who have now died from the virus and the millions more who have been infected, casting her husband as the nation’s best hope to move past this grave chapter, despite widespread criticism of the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic.
“I want to acknowledge the fact that since March, our lives have changed dramatically,” she said, before an audience seated, without regard for social distancing, in folding chairs, her husband in the front row applauding. Almost no one in attendance wore a mask.
“I know many people are anxious and some feel helpless,” she continued. “I want you to know, you are not alone. My husband’s administration will not stop fighting until there is an effective treatment for a vaccine available to everyone. Donald will not rest until he has done all he can to take care of everyone impacted in this pandemic.”
Her remarks were a jarring reminder of the trauma and turmoil still ravaging the nation, after an evening of misleading testimonials that sought to minimize, rewrite or entirely overlook the public health crisis. At one point, the White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, referred to the ongoing pandemic using the past tense. More
The best courtroom dramas involve a defence lawyer who can work miracles of persuasion and, no matter how damning the evidence, convince the jury that their client is innocent.A week after Democratic prosecutors presented their “open and shut” case against Donald Trump, the virtual Republican national convention is not only attempting to get him off the hook but argue that he deserves a medal – and four more years in the White House.Take immigration. Trump has sought to cut legal immigration, slowed down the naturalisation process and overseen a zero tolerance policy that separated thousands of parents from their children at the US-Mexico border. But on Tuesday night, his coup de théâtre was a naturalisation ceremony at the White House for five new citizens from different continents.The audacity of hope has nothing on the audacity of this guy. US marines opened wooden doors and saluted as Trump strode through to the fanfare of “Hail to the chief”. He told the new Americans, who waved small stars and stripes flags: “You are now fellow citizens of the greatest nation on the face of God’s earth.”Critics said Trump has used both the immigrants and White House as political props, making this sacred ritual all about him. The ceremony, conducted by acting Department of Homeland Security head Chad Wolf, was a flagrant abuse of the line between governing and election campaigning and typical of a president who has turned television into politics and politics into television. More
Melania Trump
Details from ex-aide’s memoir revealed before key convention speech
Author suggests Trump daughter behind 2016 plagiarism fiasco
US politics – live coverage More
Republicans launched into their national convention promising an upbeat take on the country’s prospects and a compelling case for why Donald Trump deserves four more years in the White House.Portions of the program seemed to deliver on that upbeat promise, as when, on the first night, South Carolina’s Tim Scott, the sole black Republican in the Senate, argued that the US is not in the grip of a crisis of bitterness and bigotry.“America is not a racist country,” reassured former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, once the country’s first female Indian American governor, in a separate address.But as Tuesday’s second night approached, the party seemed increasingly unable to resist the lure of more ominous themes, of the kind that have animated Trump’s political base since he used his 2017 inaugural address to warn of an incipient “American carnage”.Trump has once again set out to pitch himself as the strongman savior of a country beset by insecurity, rancor and a health crisis – hoping somehow to avoid responsibility for what critics say have been costly lapses in leadership.The convention was scheduled to continue on Tuesday with an anchoring speech by the first lady, Melania Trump.What you heard was a parade of dark and divisive fearmongeringKate Bedingfield, Biden campaign“I can tell you every word from this speech is from her,” Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s chief of staff, told reporters. Four years ago in Cleveland, to huge controversy, Melania Trump’s speech turned out in parts to be remarkably similar to remarks by Michelle Obama.This year, also controversially, the first lady was to speak from the White House grounds, in violation of both tradition and federal law dictating a divide between political activities and the conduct of elected office. Footage of Trump at the White House was likewise broadcast on Monday.Additional controversy brewed as the reporter Yashar Ali said Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and adviser of Melania Trump, “taped the first lady” making “harsh comments about Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter and a senior adviser”. Wolkoff has a book coming out in September.In a further departure from norms separating politics and government, Mike Pompeo was scheduled to become the first sitting secretary of state to address a political convention.Other speakers slated for Tuesday included Eric and Tiffany Trump, the president’s children; the Kentucky senator Rand Paul; the Iowa governor, Kim Reynolds, and Nicholas Sandmann, a teen who successfully sued media organizations after an interaction with a Native American activist.That was to follow an appearance on Monday night by a couple who have also featured prominently in the culture wars, Mark and Patricia McCloskey of St Louis, Missouri. They face felony charges for brandishing firearms at anti-racism protesters earlier this summer.“Make no mistake, no matter where you live,” Patricia McCloskey said, “your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America. What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country.”Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness Monster of the swampDonald Trump JrThe most animated speakers of the convention’s first night, including Donald Trump Jr, the president’s oldest son, warned about the supposedly destructive intentions of Democrats everywhere; the threats facing “western civilization” that only Trump could repel; the perniciousness of “cancel culture”; and the danger “quiet neighborhoods” face from “anarchy and chaos in our streets”.“What you heard was a parade of dark and divisive fearmongering designed to distract from the fact that Donald Trump does not have an affirmative case to make to the American people about why he should be re-elected,” said Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager of the Joe Biden campaign.But after a virtual Democratic national convention that won praise for its relatable nature in a connected age, political analysts on both sides of the aisle credited Republicans for interweaving traditional set pieces – including the official roll-call vote to nominate Trump – with unexpected moments.Some speakers appeared on the verge of being carried away with zeal.“Ladies and gentlemen,” shouted Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser and Trump Jr’s girlfriend, in a clip happily lampooned online. “Leaders and fighters for freedom and liberty and the American dream: The best. Is yet. To come!”In his own unnaturally energetic speech, Trump Jr warned that the left was trying to “cancel the Founders”.“Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness Monster of the swamp,” Trump Jr said of the Democratic nominee and Washington DC, a supposed “swamp” of iniquity and corruption his father has promised to drain.“For the past half century, he has been lurking around in there. He sticks his head up every now and then to run for president.”One of Trump’s greatest political liabilities, disapproval over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, was treated as an asset, with a set piece in which frontline healthcare workers and emergency responders credited Trump with saving lives. More
Melania Trump will speak at the Republican national convention on Tuesday night, in the shadow of an extraordinary report that she was taped making derogatory comments about her husband’s adult children and even Donald Trump himself.On Monday the media reporter Yashar Ali cited unnamed sources in reporting that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and adviser, “taped the first lady” and plans to share the remarks in her book.They include “harsh comments about Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter and a senior adviser”, Ali wrote.Melania & Me is out on 1 September.The US continues to digest the publication, by the Washington Post, of tapes of Donald Trump’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, calling the president “cruel” and criticizing his character and behavior.Those tapes were made surreptitiously but legally by Mary L Trump, the president’s niece, who released a bestselling book in July, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.Simon & Schuster published Mary Trump’s book and one by John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser. It will publish Melania & Me.In publicity material, the publisher says Wolkoff, a long-term friend of Melania Trump “was recruited to help produce the 58th presidential inauguration and to become the first lady’s trusted adviser”.“… Then it all fell apart when she was made the scapegoat for inauguration finance irregularities. Melania could have defended her innocent friend and confidant, but she stood by her man, knowing full well who was really to blame. The betrayal nearly destroyed Wolkoff.”Fundraising for Trump’s inauguration has been the subject of investigations by the special counsel and authorities in New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, which alleged fundraising was used to enrich Trump family members.The White House did not immediately comment on reports about Wolkoff’s book but last weekend, responding to his sister’s comments, the president indicated he has grown used to such news.“Every day it’s something else,” Trump said. “Who cares?”Evidently, publishing companies do. Melania & Me is the latest in a stream of tell-alls due out before the election in November. The former personal lawyer Michael Cohen and former campaign aide Rick Gates – both convicted in cases arising from the work of special counsel Robert Mueller, Gates a figure in the inauguration case – have books on the way. So does the former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann.HR McMaster, national security adviser before Bolton, has a memoir coming out this month. The Watergate reporter Bob Woodward also has a new Trump book coming.Melania has been the subject of previous books including Free, Melania by Kate Bennett and Melania: The Art of Her Deal by Mary Jordan.From Wolkoff, Simon & Schuster promises a “candid and emotional memoir” which will answer questions about many of the most scandalous and salacious moments of the Trump presidency. Among them: “How did Melania react to the Access Hollywood tape” – in which Donald Trump infamously boasted of grabbing women “by the pussy” – “and her husband’s affair with Stormy Daniels”, which Trump denies but which remains a cause of legal trouble and political jeopardy.“Does she get along well with Ivanka?” the publisher asks. “Why did she wear that jacket with ‘I really don’t care, do u?’ printed on the back? Is Melania happy being first lady?“And what really happened with the inauguration’s funding of $107m? Wolkoff has some ideas …” More
