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

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

Last Updated: July 18, 2024, 10:03 PM 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, 10:03 PM EDT

'We no longer trust our elections': Eric Trump slams father's critics

Eric Trump, the former president's second oldest son, took the stage and went after his father's critics and Democrats.

He cited the "made up Russia hoax, sham impeachments" and "the efforts to cancel us, to silence him, to gag his free speech, and to drag him through every radical left courthouse in America," and last week's assassination attempt as examples of how his father was attacked.

"The swamp is terrified of this movement," Eric Trump said.

Son of Former President Donald Trump Eric Trump speaks during the last day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 18, 2024.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Eric Trump did not directly name President Joe Biden or former President Barack Obama in his speech.

Eric Trump argued that his father was "censured" and "persecuted" referencing his removal from social media platforms following the Jan. 6 attacks.

"We no longer trust our elections. We no longer trust our judicial system, and we no longer believe that our government is working in our best interest," he claimed.

"The greatest retribution will be our success," Eric Trump added.

Jul 18, 2024, 9:53 PM EDT

Fact-checking the repeated economic comparisons during the RNC

It’s been a frequent theme over four days in Milwaukee: The economy was roaring in the Trump years, and is flailing today. But the facts aren’t so simple.

Here are few examples.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said: "They claim that our economy is thriving, yet hundreds of thousands of American-born workers lost their jobs these past few years."

PolitiFact rates that Mostly False.

People are constantly leaving jobs and taking new ones. But the average monthly number of layoffs was higher under Trump than it’s been under Biden. Leaving out the coronavirus pandemic months of March 2020 to December 2021, the number of monthly layoffs under Trump averaged 1.81 million. Under Biden, that number has been 1.52 million.

GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance said: "There’s this chart that shows worker wages, and they stagnated for pretty much my entire life until President Donald J. Trump came along. Workers’ wages went through the roof."

This is exaggerated; while wages were stagnant for much of Vance’s life, there was no sharp divide after Trump’s election when wages skyrocketed.
A key metric for inflation-adjusted worker pay — median usual weekly inflation adjusted earnings for full-time wage and salary workers — shows that this figure stagnated from 1984, when Vance was born, until the mid-2010s.

Then, after about 2014, when Democrat Barack Obama was president and Vance was in his early 30s, they started rising, by about 4% for the final three years of his term. From the roughly three years between Trump’s inauguration to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, this figure also rose about 4%.

Vance also said that Trump "created the greatest economy in history for workers."

That’s False.

The strongest evidence in favor of Vance’s claim is the unemployment rate. During Trump’s presidency, the unemployment rate fell to levels untouched in five decades. But his successor, Biden, matched or exceeded those levels. The annual increases in gross domestic product — the sum of a country’s economic activity — were broadly similar under Trump to what they were during the final six years under his predecessor, Obama. And GDP growth under Trump was well below that of previous presidents.

—PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharockman and Louis Jacobson

Jul 18, 2024, 9:51 PM EDT

Trump sitting with Eric’s family, granddaughter on lap

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, Lara Trump, Eric Luke Trump, and Carolina Dorothy Trump look on on Day 4 of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 18, 2024.
Jeenah Moon/Reuters

As Eric Trump speaks, Trump is sitting with his son’s wife Lara Trump and his grandchildren.

Carolina Trump, the youngest child of Eric and Lara, is sitting on her grandfather's lap.

Many members of the Trump family -- including his oldest granddaughter Kai -- have spoken about his softer side this convention.

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, Lara Trump, Eric Luke Trump, and Carolina Dorothy Trump look on on Day 4 of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 18, 2024.
Jeenah Moon/Reuters

Jul 18, 2024, 9:46 PM EDT

'God spared his life,' evangelist Franklin Graham says

Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, remarked on the attempted assassination on Trump during his speech.

"Last Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, President Trump had a near-death experience. No question, but God spared his life," Graham said.

Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, speaks on Day 4 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 18, 2024.
Jeenah Moon/Reuters

Speaking on Trump's time in office, Graham said the former president followed through on his promises to appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court and "defend religious liberty."

The president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association also offered a prayer at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
The president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association also offered a prayer at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.