Trump serves usual menu, but with a different flavor

The advance word from Team Trump was that his brush with death, and a feeling that he was spared by God’s hand, has changed him, and he rewrote the acceptance speech he had planned for Thursday night.

Daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Republican National Committee co-chair said we may see a “different” version of Donald J. Trump, “softer” than in the past.

And we did, and didn’t.

The meal was the same as Donald J. Trump has served countless times on the campaign trail, with less spice.

The server, the former President, spoke in a quiet tone, at a moderate pace, minus the usual bombast and braggadocio.

The highlight was the first 15 minutes in which he detailed the attempted assassination, saying he will tell the story only once, and never again because “it is too painful to tell.”

[Side bet: He will tell it again.]

“I felt safe because I had God on my side,” he said.

In a savvy touch of stagecraft, on the edge of the stage to Trump’s right — the direction from which shots were fired — was the helmet and protective coat of firefighter Codey Comperatore, who was murdered by assassin Thomas Crooks. After offering condolences to his family and two others who were wounded, Trump walked over and kissed the dead firefighter’s helmet.

Conventional wisdom, no pun intended, is that acceptance speeches are supposed to be about the future, and he did that after airing, several times, his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

The promises? Respect for America, end inflation, lower interest rates, increase affordable housing, promote economic expansion, build a  border wall, “drill baby drill,” end the electric vehicle mandate, and, of course, many mentions of the “invasion of our Southern border.” He said, falsely, “hundreds of thousands” of Americans have been killed because of porous borders. (Maybe he was including fentanyl deaths.) For a change, he said the U.S. welcomes legal immigrants.

He offered safety, prosperity and freedom.

He called upon Democrats to stop weaponizing the Department of Justice, and for the United Automobile Workers to fire their president (who endorsed Joe Biden). 

As usual, he meandered a bit with asides that thanked friends or looped around, but the convention delegates didn’t mind.

He got a laugh when he said the next convention would be held in Venezuela, which is safe because it sent all its criminals here.

The speech clocked in at about an hour and a half.

The tone was indeed softer, until he reached the finish line of the marathon speech, but the attitudes remained the same. Perhaps God needs to try again.