Presidential Election of 2024

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      Donald Trump Promised a Softer Image. He Delivered Hulkamania.

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      The last night of the Republican National Convention featured glimpses of a more sober tone — and a whole lot of testosterone.Who is Donald J. Trump?After over four decades of tabloid celebrity, reality-TV stardom and presidential politics, you would think this would be a settled question. But after his near assassination in Pennsylvania, the Republican National Convention teased that the former president was going to unveil a softer, changed version of himself. He would recast his acceptance speech to emphasize “unity,” a word that, in four days of TV coverage, was endlessly parroted and rarely defined.Mr. Trump turned himself into his own surprise guest. Would the final night of the convention portray him as a bellicose, combative alpha male, or as a sensitive late convert to empathy and self-reflection?The answer was: Yes, and yes. The night began with a pageant of hypermasculinity, with musclemen and ripped garments. It led to Mr. Trump’s taking the stage with a new, somber voice as he recounted his brush with death. Then, over the course of a digressive hour-and-a-half speech, he somehow changed back before our eyes.First came The Man Show. The introductory hours of the night featured a rotation of admirers, heavily male, who cited Mr. Trump’s close call and defiant survival as testimony to his macho fighting spirit.This is what male identity politics looks like. Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality — who has embraced the alt-right angst over testosterone levels — spoke off the cuff, suggesting that the shooting established Mr. Trump as a leader on a biological level. “A leader is the bravest man,” Mr. Carlson said. “This is a law of nature.”Kid Rock retooled his rap-metal anthem “American Bad Ass,” exhorting the delegates to throw up their fists and “Say fight! Fight! Say Trump! Trump!” Dana White, the beefy chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, introduced Mr. Trump.But the splashiest spectacle brought Hulkamania to Milwaukee. Terry G. Bollea, the handlebar-mustached wrestler who performs as Hulk Hogan, took the stage in character to praise “my hero, that gladiator,” working himself into a rage over the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life and ripping open his shirt to expose a “TRUMP-VANCE” tank top.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Spotted at the RNC: Melania Trump, and Many Faux Ear Bandages

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      As the Republican National Convention drew to a close, it painted a red, white and blue picture.On the final night of the Republican convention, just in time for her husband’s official nomination as his party’s presidential candidate, Melania Trump finally took her place by his side — sort of.She was the last Trump family member to make her entrance at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, stoking the will-she-or-won’t-she anticipation to the end, arriving well after Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who have also been largely absent during the campaign; Don Jr. and his fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle; Eric Trump and his wife, Lara; and Tiffany Trump and her husband, Michael Boulos. (Barron Trump, Donald Trump’s son with Melania, did not appear, but assorted grandchildren did.)She walked in alone, in a red suit and towering red heels, hair down, bestowing queenly waves on an adoring crowd.Melania Trump enters on the red carpet at the final night of the Republican convention.Doug Mills/The New York TimesIf the suit struck a chord, that may be because it had been seen before. Mrs. Trump had worn the ensemble — from Dior, with a New Look silhouette — in 2017, when, as first lady, she visited Paris with her husband for the Bastille Day celebrations. For anyone who remembers that suit, seeing it again was like sliding down a wormhole to the recent past when the Trumps occupied the White House — a further reminder, like the virtual White House projected behind Mr. Trump as he made his speech, of the point of the whole shebang.Mrs. Trump was offering something of a preview of how she may again play her part. (Not to mention the fact that, despite Mr. Trump’s statements about manufacturing in America and buying American, she has never seemed all that interested in that idea.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Melania, Ivanka Take Their Seats at the R.N.C.

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      The tableau of Trump family unity is all but complete: Melania Trump has joined Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, in seats with other V.I.P.s at the back of the arena.At times in the past four years — in January 2021, in November 2022 — it seemed that the Trumps might be banished to the political hinterlands. But this week’s events made it clear that the family is at the center of the modern Republican Party more than ever before.Politics has become the family business. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have been fixtures of the convention. Lara Trump, Eric’s wife, spoke Tuesday as the co-chair of the Republican Party. Donald Trump Jr.’s teenage daughter, Kai, spoke Wednesday night, after the younger Mr. Trump’s longtime fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Tiffany Trump, Mr. Trump’s younger daughter, was in the audience on Monday.But Mr. Trump’s wife, his youngest son and his older daughter have been notably absent — not just this week, but throughout the campaign. (Barron Trump, 18, has not appeared in the family seats Thursday night.)Melania Trump, whose politics and relationship with her husband have long drawn considerable interest, has largely opted out of this campaign. Her last known political appearance with Mr. Trump was when they went together to cast their primary ballots on Super Tuesday in March. The next week, he clinched the nomination.As Mr. Trump took the stage, Mrs. Trump was seated next to J.D. Vance, his vice-presidential pick.Ivanka Trump, 42, introduced Mr. Trump at the conventions in 2016 and 2020. She was a senior adviser to her father in the White House.This time, she said at the outset of his run that she would not be involved. Ms. Trump, a mother of three, has focused on family life and has not appeared on the campaign trail. More

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      Tester of Montana Becomes 2d Democratic Senator to Call on Biden to Step Aside

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      Senator Jon Tester of Montana called on President Biden to drop his campaign for re-election on Thursday night, becoming the second sitting Democratic senator to publicly join the effort to push Mr. Biden out of the race. “I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong,” Mr. Tester, a vulnerable incumbent whose opponent has sought to tie him tightly to Mr. Biden, said in a statement. “And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term.”Mr. Tester’s Washington office said he was also endorsing an open process to select the nominee at the Democratic National Convention, rather than throwing his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.Mr. Tester is locked in a tight re-election race of his own, and he needs all the distance from Mr. Biden he can get in his deep-red state. Even before Mr. Biden’s poor debate performance last month put the spotlight back on his age and mental acuity, Mr. Tester had kept him at arm’s length while working to appear bipartisan and appeal to moderate and Republican voters. Mr. Tester is just the second Democratic senator to call on Mr. Biden to quit, though a group of House Democrats have done so and other senators have been said to be pushing Mr. Biden to the exits behind the scenes.Last month, when Mr. Tester debated Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and businessman who is his Republican rival for the Senate seat, he criticized the Biden administration’s energy policies and its approach toward immigration. “The bottom line is: He doesn’t listen to me enough,” Mr. Tester said of Mr. Biden. “He needs to.”But Mr. Sheehy has hammered at Mr. Tester, tying him to Mr. Biden and accusing him of being “the deciding vote for Biden’s America-Last agenda.” One of his recent advertisements played a clip of Mr. Tester vouching for Mr. Biden’s mental competency: “He’s absolutely 100 percent with it,” Mr. Tester says. Polls of the Montana Senate contest have shown a close race, with Mr. Sheehy often narrowly ahead.Mr. Sheehy immediately slammed Mr. Tester’s statement on Thursday night, which was reported by a local Montana news outlet moments before the senator released it publicly.“Is Jon Tester finally admitting he lied when he told us Biden is 100% with it?! And does this mean he’s endorsing his former colleague Kamala Harris??” Mr. Sheehy wrote on X. “Two-Faced Tester is desperately trying to distance himself from the train wreck he’s enabled and forced on Montanans.” More

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      Edgy and Unscripted, Tucker Carlson Fires Up the Convention Crowd

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      The former Fox News host, who is now firmly a part of Donald Trump’s inner circle, appeared to relish his return to the limelight.Tucker Carlson’s return to prime time kicked off with a roar.Mr. Carlson, a Fox News star until his firing 15 months ago, brought the Fiserv Forum to its feet when he emerged onstage at the Republican convention on Thursday evening, his support from the Make America Great Again crowd clearly intact. The grin on his face suggested just how much he relished his return to the limelight.Mr. Carlson is freshly embedded in former President Donald J. Trump’s inner circle, and he delivered an unscripted monologue straight out of his old Fox News show, complete with off-color jokes and dark visions of a nation at risk of falling into tyranny should Mr. Trump not prevail in November.And on a night when convention organizers were keen to present a softer, more humanized version of Mr. Trump — emphasizing his love of family and music — Mr. Carlson broached harder-edged topics, making thinly veiled cracks about President Biden’s age and nodding to Republican conspiracy theories that the 2020 election had been stolen.“You could take, I don’t know, a mannequin, a dead person, and make them president,” Mr. Carlson said to laughter. “You could. You could! I’m just saying, it’s theoretically possible. With enough cheating, that could happen.”The audience loved it, bathing Mr. Carlson in cheers. There were whoops when he dropped the fact that he was speaking extemporaneously, a rhetorical flourish meant to underscore an image of authenticity. (His teleprompter stayed blank throughout his nearly 12-minute appearance.)Mr. Carlson went on to praise Mr. Trump as “the funniest person I ever met in my life,” adding a line that chimed with the softer themes of the evening: “You can’t be funny without perspective or without empathy.”Mr. Trump, though, did not hear the plaudits in person: He was not in the hall for Mr. Carlson’s appearance.One of Mr. Carlson’s attempted jokes did seem to fall flat. With a smirk, he called Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, whom he lobbied for as a Trump running mate, “one of the only politicians in Washington who is actually very close to his own wife.”The line landed awkwardly, given the conspicuous absence of Melania Trump from this week’s convention, although the former first lady arrived at the convention hall later in the evening. More

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      Pelosi Tells Biden She Is Pessimistic About His Re-election Chances

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      Representative Nancy Pelosi has told President Biden and House Democratic colleagues in recent days that she is pessimistic about his chances of beating Donald J. Trump as the highest levels of the party leadership intensify pressure on Mr. Biden to reconsider his candidacy.Ms. Pelosi, according to those who have talked with her, conveyed her sentiments in phone calls with the president and with alarmed colleagues who have reached out to her for guidance on what to do. The former speaker is intimately familiar with the minutiae of campaigns from her years following House races district by district, and she has been marshaling her knowledge of the political map, polling data and fund-raising information to press her case with Mr. Biden.One ally said that Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Biden in a recent call that she had seen polling data suggesting that he could not win, and the president pushed back, saying he had polls showing otherwise.Ms. Pelosi challenged him on that.“Put Donilon on the phone,” Ms. Pelosi asked the president, referring to Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime aide, according to people familiar with the exchange, which was reported earlier by CNN. “Show me what polls.”Aides to Ms. Pelosi, a prodigious fund-raiser and a firm believer in the power of money in campaigns, have also sought detailed fund-raising information from the Biden campaign in recent days to help the former speaker assess the status of the campaign, according to two people familiar with the request.“She does not think he can win,” said one Pelosi confidant who asked not to be identified. People interviewed for this article spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tucker Carlson, Ousted by Fox, Roars Into Milwaukee as a Top Trump Ally

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      After time away from the spotlight, the right-wing host is increasingly welcomed by Trump’s inner circle. He also made a surprise visit to Fox’s convention studio.All of a sudden, Tucker Carlson has roared back to the forefront of Republican politics.Once the top-rated anchor on Fox News — only to be abruptly ousted 15 months ago, his national platform yanked out from under his feet — Mr. Carlson has made an improbable re-emergence into America’s living rooms at this week’s Republican National Convention.He was the first person to greet Donald J. Trump after the former president’s dramatic entrance in the convention hall on Monday, and cameras later caught them joking together in Mr. Trump’s friends and family box, just two seats apart. He is even returning to prime time: Mr. Carlson is set to deliver a televised address to the convention on Thursday in a coveted slot shortly before Mr. Trump accepts his party’s nomination.Mr. Carlson once electrified Fox viewers with racial grievances and flimflam conspiracy theories. Spurned by the network, he found mixed success with a self-produced video series on X and a subscription streaming service that failed to generate much buzz, although a recent pivot to lengthy, Joe Roganesque podcasts has attracted more listeners.But behind the scenes over the past year, Mr. Carlson has become more deeply allied with Mr. Trump than at any point in his long relationship with the former president, a man for whom the broadcaster once expressed deep ambivalence.Mr. Carlson lobbied Mr. Trump to select Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, who had been a frequent guest on his Fox show, as his running mate, and he helped broker a meeting in Milwaukee between Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate.He and a longtime producer of his shows, Justin Wells, recently visited Mar-a-Lago to pitch Mr. Trump on a fly-on-the-wall docuseries about his campaign. Mr. Trump granted access, and the series is set to be released on Mr. Carlson’s streaming platform before the election; Mr. Wells and a cameraman were filming several feet away from the former president in Pennsylvania on Saturday when he was shot by a would-be assassin.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Here Are the Speakers at Tonight’s 2024 Republican Convention

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      The Republican National Convention will end Thursday night with Donald J. Trump formally accepting the party’s presidential nomination.Before that, the night will include leaders of the Republican Party’s efforts to retain its House majority and retake the Senate, as well as former Trump administration officials and celebrities — among them the wrestler Hulk Hogan.The programming will begin around 5:30 p.m. Central time. Here are the major speakers on the agenda, in the order they are scheduled to speak, according to a person briefed on the planning.5 o’clock hourSenator Steve Daines of Montana, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial CommitteeRepresentative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee6 o’clock hourDiane Hendricks, billionaire businesswoman from WisconsinDiane Evans, member of the “Trumpettes” group of female Trump supportersLinda McMahon, former head of the Small Business AdministrationMike Pompeo, former secretary of stateLorenzo Sewell, “everyday American” and pastorJohn Nieporte, top golf professional at one of Mr. Trump’s clubsSteve Witkoff, real estate investor7 o’clock hourAlina Habba, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyersTucker Carlson, former Fox News hostCarrie Ruiz, golf general manager at one of Mr. Trump’s clubsHulk Hogan, retired wrestlerAnnette Albright, former school board candidate in Charlotte, N.C.8 o’clock hourFranklin Graham, evangelical leaderEric Trump, Mr. Trump’s sonDana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship9 o’clock hourFormer President Donald J. TrumpMaggie Haberman More