We did it. We survived what may have been the craziest week in American political history.
Days after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt, former President Trump made a triumphant return to the stage Thursday night, accepting his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention.
He stood tall in front of that instantly iconic image of his bloodied face and his fist in the air.
Quite a contrast to the faltering elderly Joe Biden, filmed struggling to get down the short back steps of Air Force One the night before. The president, newly diagnosed with COVID and taking another break at his beach house, didn’t just look lost and confused.
He looked helpless.
Contrast Biden’s physical and political stance with that of a defiant Trump, who literally dodged a bullet and shouted to his supporters: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
That’s Trump’s best campaign ad. Make it a split screen, a meme, an inescapable image.
Who represents American power and supremacy? Big donors, party leaders and George Clooney all admit it: it’s not Joe Biden.
Days after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt, former President Trump made a triumphant return to the stage Thursday night (above), accepting his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention.
Contrast Biden’s physical and political stance with that of a defiant Trump, who literally dodged a bullet and shouted to his supporters: “Fight! Fight! Fight!” (Above) Biden disembarks from Air Force One upon arrival in Dover, Delaware, on July 17, 2024.
But Democrats are discovering that getting rid of him is not so easy.
Unfortunately, they’re stuck with the real Joe, a bitter old man with a lifelong grudge and an ignominious immediate family who cling, for dear life, to the curtains of the Oval Office.
On Friday, Biden released a statement saying he looked forward to “getting back on the campaign trail next week.”
Who is now the president who will never leave? Who is now the real threat to democracy?
Trauma can be enlightening. Perhaps that’s why we saw a calm Trump before that electrified crowd on Thursday night, with a bandage on his right ear, opening his speech with “a message of confidence, strength and hope.”
It was a stark contrast to the “American carnage” Trump pronounced in his 2016 inaugural address, a moment so dark that former President George W. Bush reportedly called it “some weird shit.”
It is true that there were many strange things on Thursday night:
Hulk Hogan, the living avatar of Trump’s inner pro wrestler, ripping his shirt in two and yelling “Let Trump-mania run wild, bro!”
Older people trying to lip-sync to a Kid Rock song. Fake white bandages on ears as a sign of solidarity. Lots of talk about “God” in relation to a billionaire who wasn’t a god before.
Melania Trump, entering the venue performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 solo, to oddly melodramatic effect.
And Dana White, head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, giving a speech that seemed more like a primal cry than a political coronation.
Finally, Trump walked out with his name in lights, like an Elvis Presley in Las Vegas.
Even the most solemn moment of the evening, the tribute to Corey Comperatore, who was shot and killed at Trump’s rally last Saturday, was not without its oddities.
Comperatore’s firefighter’s jacket and helmet had been placed on a mannequin that was at least a foot shorter than Trump. All this had the temporary effect of shrinking this hero, but it didn’t matter: when Trump leaned in to kiss the helmet, the crowd visibly moved.
Call it camping, call it elevated political theater, but it was, without a doubt, a brilliant ending to a week that might otherwise have torn America apart.
Even the most solemn moment of the evening, the tribute to Corey Comperatore, who was shot and killed at Trump’s rally last Saturday, was not without its oddities.
Older people trying to lip-sync to a Kid Rock song. Fake white bandages on ears as a sign of solidarity. Lots of talk about “God” in relation to a billionaire who wasn’t a god before.
Trump feels like he knows and understands this: he expressed not anger or bitterness over his near-assassination, but rather an uncommon humility and calm.
He called for unity and expressed his “gratitude to the American people for their demonstrations of love and support.”
Except, you know, those on the left who found it funny: Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, telling tasteless jokes on their podcast; or Kyle Gass, Jack Black’s bandmate in Tenacious D, whose onstage wish — “Don’t miss Trump next time” — resulted in the cancellation of his tour; or MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who still has her job despite fueling conspiracies that Trump wasn’t actually hit “by a bullet.”
That’s where the moral superiority that liberals love to claim ends.
As for Democrats’ repeated claims that a second Trump presidency is a grave threat to our democracy, well, Ezra Klein of the New York Times just debunked that notion.
“Top Democrats,” Klein said Tuesday, have told him privately that if Trump wins, everything will be fine.
“Some senior Democrats have said to me, ‘I don’t know why all these Democrats who think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy are acting the way they are.’ They are more resigned (…) to a Trump presidency than their public rhetoric suggests.”
Wow. Not only have Democratic voters been lied to about Biden’s health and fitness, but many of their own leaders admit that this “impending dictatorship” story is just bait for their base.
Meanwhile, nothing has united Republicans as much as last Saturday’s atrocity, which left one dead and two seriously injured. Neither the legal war nor the attempts to bankrupt Trump… nothing.
And instead of using this support for his own aggrandizement, Trump once again seized the moment.
We’ve never seen a vulnerable Donald Trump before. On Thursday night, when he delivered a fascinating account of the moment he almost lost his life, we saw it.
“I’ll tell you exactly what happened,” he said, “and you’ll never hear it from me again, because it’s really too painful to tell.”
He spoke of the beautiful weather that day, the palpable joy of the crowd, and how he fed off their energy until he heard a whistle and realized he had been shot. He spoke of luck, of fate, of God… whatever you want to call it.
“If I hadn’t moved my head at that last instant,” Trump said, “the assassin’s bullet would have hit exactly the right target and I wouldn’t be here tonight… I’m not supposed to be here.”
The crowd erupted, chanting, “Yes, you are!”
We’ve never seen a vulnerable Donald Trump before. On Thursday night, when he delivered a fascinating account of the moment he almost lost his life, we saw it.
Contrast that genuine, spontaneous support with the internal party angst over Joe Biden, who has reportedly been told by everyone from Chuck Schumer to Nancy Pelosi to Barack Obama himself that it’s time to go, here’s the door, you’re not supposed to be here anymore, Joe, leading this party or this ticket.
And yet, he keeps digging!
The Republicans now have a real political martyr, whose character has taken a very unexpected turn.
Trump has suppressed his worst impulses and made this shooting not about him but about his supporters and, to adopt a phrase so cynically used by Joe Biden, about the soul of America.
The other side now has a genuine responsibility whose ego, vanity and megalomania prevail far more than duty to the party or the country.
What an unexpected twist! What a week! And we’re not even at the end: just at the beginning of this exciting, dangerous and unpredictable journey.
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