Trump leaned into his usual talking points during his RNC speech.
On the fourth and final day of the Republican National Convention, former President Donald Trump gave a highly anticipated speech, which he said beforehand would call for unity following his assassination attempt.
However in his first speech since the incident, Trump leaned into his usual talking points, slamming President Joe Biden, Democrats and other critics on a wide variety of issues from the economy, immigration and crime.
For over an hour, Trump went off script much to the crowd's delight. The former president told them he was grateful for their support after his brush with death but argued that the country needed to be fixed due to Biden's policies.
The night also included wild speeches from guests such as Hulk Hogan and Eric Trump, who echoed some of the former president's rhetoric bashing Biden and the Democrats.
Occasionally, Trump is undercutting his own pitch for unity by continuing to claim there was "cheating" in the 2020 election or calling Nancy Pelosi "crazy."
At these times, the teleprompter loaded with his speech is stopped as he makes off-the-cuff remarks.
Trump said he would end the immigration crisis "by closing our border and finishing the wall, most of which I have already built."
Contrary to Trump’s claim that he built more than 500 miles of border wall, by the end of his term, and after various funding fights in Washington, he had actually implemented roughly 450 miles of barriers – much of which was just upgrading existing barriers that already existed, according to the Government Accountability Office’s report.
Of that, roughly 50 miles were new walls constructed where no barriers previously existed, roughly 30 miles were “secondary walls” built along existing walls and roughly 370 miles were upgrading previous barriers.
-ABC News' Armando Garcia
Trump argued there was "a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease, and destruction to communities all across our land."
The reality is that there is no evidence that points to a major surge in crime caused by recent arrivals, and Trump's claims ignore the fact that overall, crime is down across the country.
Violent crimes were down 6% in the fourth quarter of 2023 (through December 2023) compared to the same time frame last year, according to the latest FBI statistics. There is also no evidence to show that any significant number of migrants are coming from mental institutions or prisons. for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes” than undocumented immigrants.
There was a 13% decline in murders, and a 4% drop in property crimes across the country, the data showed.
U.S. Citizens also commit crimes at higher rates than undocumented immigrants.
A 2020 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed U.S.-born citizens “are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes” than undocumented immigrants.
Trump implies that Vance has a long political future ahead of him: "JD, you're going to be doing this for a long time. Enjoy the ride."
But a lot of that is up to Trump himself: As I wrote a few weeks ago, losing vice-presidential candidates never become president themselves. Even winning vice-presidential candidates find it difficult to climb that last rung of the latter; only two of the last 10 vice presidents (not counting Harris) eventually became president.
—538's Nathaniel Rakich
