RNC 2024 Day 4 updates: Trump pitches unity, but revives old grievances

Trump leaned into his usual talking points during his RNC speech.

ByMeredith Deliso, Ivan Pereira, Alexandra Hutzler, Chris Boccia, and Tal Axelrod
Last Updated: July 19, 2024, 12:29 AM EDT

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.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing.
Jul 18, 2024, 11:17 PM EDT

A look at political violence after the Trump assassination attempt

The former president spent the first part of his speech delivering a dramatic retelling of his experience of being shot during an assassination attempt against him last weekend, an event that has loomed over the convention all week.

Though some polls show a growing share of Americans saying they’re OK with political violence, research shows those polls are likely overestimating that support. Polls with a lot of disengaged respondents (i.e., those who were not totally paying attention when taking a survey) are susceptible to overestimating support for violence, and vague questions that don’t specifically spell out what exactly is meant by “political violence” can also skew the results. I wrote more about that for 538 this week, showing that the vast majority of Americans reject political violence.

—538's Kaleigh Rogers

Jul 18, 2024, 11:16 PM EDT

Trump takes direct jab at Biden

For most of the speech, Trump did not mention Biden by name until he brought up the "shame of this administration."

"I say it if you take the worst 10 presidents in the history of the United States, 10 worst, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done.

The crowd responded by shouting, "Fire him."

Trump claimed that was the only time he would refer to Biden.

The former president said the damage Joe Biden has done to the U.S. is "unthinkable."
1:06

Trump takes direct jab at Biden at RNC

The former president said the damage Joe Biden has done to the U.S. is "unthinkable."
ABCNews.com

Jul 18, 2024, 11:15 PM EDT

Trump goes off script from unity pitch

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.

Jul 18, 2024, 11:12 PM EDT

Fact check: The border wall

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