WASHINGTON - A triumphant Donald Trump accepted the Republican White House nomination Thursday, promising fearful Americans he would restore “safety” to a country mired in crises that had lost its way.
Trump “humbly and gratefully” endorsed the Republican mantle before 2,000 raucous party activists in Cleveland, in a strikingly populist speech that offered a dark view of today’s America.
Between defining chants of “U-S-A” and “Trump, Trump, Trump” the mogul-turned-TV-star-turned-politico cast himself as the “law and order candidate” and vowed to champion “people who work hard but no longer have a voice.” “I am your voice,” he declared pointing into the cameras, promising a return to more secure times with “millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth.” President Barack Obama on Friday dismissed Donald Trump’s depiction of the United States as a nation in deep crisis as wrong and not the experience of ordinary Americans.
“This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn’t really jive with the experience of most people,” Obama said, referring to the gloomy description of the country Trump gave Thursday in his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican convention. “We’re not going to make good decisions based on fears that don’t have a basis in fact,” Obama said at a joint press conference with visiting Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Accepting Republican party’s presidential nomination Tuesday night, Donald Trump declared himself the law and order candidate, while depicting his rival Hillary Clinton as “dangerous and radical”, particularly when it came to immigration. While much of his speech before thousands of supporters in Cleveland, Ohio, was focused on the struggles inside America’s borders, he said Mrs Clinton had made America and the world less safe during her four years as secretary of state. Hitting Ms. Clinton for foreign policy problems ranging from Libya to the Islamic State, Trump said that Clinton’s legacy is one of “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.”
Citing the recent spate of police killings and terrorism, the businessman who has never held public office promised that “the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end.”
Echoing promises he has made since hitting the campaign trail 13 months ago, Trump said he will stop illegal immigration with a wall along the US-Mexico border and change trade agreements that he claims have sucked manufacturing jobs out of the United States to foreign countries. He again blasted what he called the unfair trade tactics of competitors like China.
While Trump in past months has proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, he said Thursday the suspension would apply only to immigrants “from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism.”
Throughout the day, the Clinton campaign and other Democratic groups sent out statements denouncing various Trump polices as ineffectual, divisive or simply wrong-headed, and accusing him of distorting Clinton’s records. They also cited Republican infighting over Trump, including the refusal of many high-profile Republicans to endorse the party’s new standard-bearer.
After a Trump acceptance speech that appeared to be of record length, Clinton tweeted that “we can’t let him become president.”
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said Trump painted a grim picture of America in a speech featuring “more fear, more division, more anger, more hate.” Trump offered “just more prejudice and paranoia” rather than solutions, Podesta said, adding that “America is better than this.”
Discussing the recent violence against police, Trump declared, “an attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans.”
Addressing the scourge of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) attacks and the recent terror attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, he promised to protect “the LGBTQ community.”
The Republican nominee vowed to fight terrorism in the Middle East, and said this includes working with “our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel.”
He also vowed to clamp down on immigrants from countries that pose a terror threat, without specifically referring to it as a ban on Muslims.
“I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people,” he said, adding, “Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never, never will be!”
Trump then spoke of three American families he had met, who had children killed by illegal immigrants, and pledged, in their honour, that he would save countless more families from suffering the same awful fate.
“We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities.”
He promised to work with US Border Patrol agents to protect the integrity of “our lawful immigration system.”
“On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced.”
Vowing to be considerate and compassionate to everyone, Trump guaranteed the greatest compassion would be for struggling US citizens.
Trump called Clinton’s immigration policy “radical and dangerous” and called himself the antidote to that.
The billionaire businessman said he would now “make our country rich again,” creating jobs all over America.
“I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences.”
He declared he would never sign bad trade deals, but would instead put “America First” even if that meant entering smaller trade deals with individual countries.
“Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America - and we’ll walk away if we don’t get the deal that we want.”
Trump gave his word to reduce taxes, proposing what he called the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has declared for the presidential race this year, Democrat or Republican.
Making some big promises, he affirmed his economic policies would result in trillions of dollars “flowing into our country.”
“This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans - We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow. This, in turn, will create millions more jobs. We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice.”
He also ensured that college students in massive debt would get relief, that he would rebuild the “depleted” military, and that veterans would be taken care of.
“My opponent dismissed the VA scandal as being not widespread,” Trump said, “one more sign of how out of touch she really is. We are going to ask every Department Head in government to provide a list of wasteful spending projects that we can eliminate in my first 100 days.”
Trump claimed that unlike other politicians, he would actually do it, to which the crowd responded in chants of “Yes, you will.”
He thanked the evangelical community for their support, saying humbly he is not sure he deserves it. He said he would work hard to give them their voice back and protect free speech for all Americans.
Coming to the end of his speech, he acclaimed, “it’s time to deliver a victory for the American people.”
He also bashed the naysayers who said he would never become the Republican candidate.
Comparing his pledge to Clinton’s slogan “I’m with her,” he said his pledge reads, “I’m with you, the American people. I am your voice.”
He concluded by saying, “I make this promise: We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again.”
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SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT/Agencies