RNC 2024 Day 4 updates: Trump pitches unity, but revives old grievances in longest acceptance speech in history
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.
Latest headlines:
'He's playing the greatest hits from 2016': Biden adviser
An adviser to President Joe Biden further criticized Trump's speech.
"He's playing the greatest hits from 2016," the adviser told ABC News. "Trump has not changed, he has not moderated, he has gotten worse, and he is making no appeal to moderates."
-ABC News' Mary Bruce
Trump vows to end 'men playing in women's sports'
Trump brought up the topic of transgender rights in sports in his speech, repeating a transphobic rhetoric that other convention speakers, including Eric Trump, brought up during the week.
"We need a leader that will ... not have men playing in women's sports," he said to a roaring crowd. "Let's end it already."
'Almost there' attendee says
While the stadium is still full, Trump's long speech -- with him going off teleprompter to ramble on various topics -- has some in the crowd weary and the applause is now more scattered.
"I think we're almost there," one attendee told the woman next to her.
Fact-checking Trump’s claim U.S. left behind $85 billion in equipment in Afghanistan
Discussing U.S. engagement in Afghanistan, Trump said, “We also left behind $85 billion worth of military equipment.”
That’s wrong.
The United States spent $88.6 billion in Afghanistan providing security assistance over the course of two decades, and only a fraction of it was for hardware. The lion’s share of that is for salaries for members of the Afghan army and national police, reported.
As of June 30, 2021, there were 167 usable aircraft, including 23 A-29 attack planes and 33 UH-60 Black Hawk military helicopters in Afghanistan, according to a July 2021 report released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
But there has been no full accounting of how much aircraft or other military equipment was still there in mid-August, when the Taliban regained control. Defense expert John Pike, director of , told PolitiFact "very little" of the $88.6 billion would have been spent on equipment. He estimated that the military equipment remaining is worth less than $10 billion, though virtually all of it could be considered under the category of weapons.
—PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharockman