Rebranding the brand man, softer Trump vs. fighter Trump, regular mentions of Harris: RNC Takeaways

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Republicans are wrapping a nominating convention that has celebrated former President Donald Trump not just as a party leader but a living martyr who survived a would-be assassin’s bullet and is ready to work for everyday Americans after a sweeping victory in November.

The unified portrayals sought to erase the image of a man whose presidency often swirled in chaos and infighting and ended with a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Democrats have repeatedly wielded images of that day to try to thwart his return and spotlighted his recurring use of inflammatory and hardline rhetoric.

There’s plenty of campaigning left between now, early voting windows and Election Day. So the effectiveness of the messaging effort remains to be seen. But it’s been a striking four days for a Republican Party that over three presidential elections has been reshaped by Trump’s personality and his politics.

Here are some takeaway from the closing stanza of the GOP gathering in Wisconsin.

The brand man is being rebranded (kind of)

Trump, the name and the man, has been ubiquitous for decades. Americans and the world recognized those gold letters, T-R-U-M-P, and watched him say, “You’re fired!” on his hit show “The Apprentice” long before Trump first ran for president. He took over the GOP and won the presidency in 2016 as the unapologetically bombastic political outsider. He was engaging in the same kind of rhetoric and showmanship last Saturday when he was nearly assassinated in Pennsylvania.

But over four days in Milwaukee, speaker after speaker pitched the former president as a softer, more compassionate man who helps people individually and is determined to help Americans across the country in another White House term.

On Thursday, ahead of Trump’s nomination acceptance speech, his personal friend Steve Witkoff described a lover of music, “a man whose truth is marching on … a man who in the darkest hours shows up, listens and always acts.”

Alina Habba, a Trump attorney, talked of “his character, his kindness, his commitment to saving this great country.”

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell talked of Trump visiting his mostly Black congregation: “He came to the ‘hood because he cares about average, everyday Americans.”

That’s a different version of Trump from the finger-pointing, podium-pounding figure who rails through stemwinding rally speeches about his political opponents and recirculates his lies that President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was fraudulent.

The delicate balance for Republicans was illuminated in the middle of all those speeches hailing a softer Trump, when a video and voice of the 45th president filled the arena. “We must use every appropriate tool available to beat the Democrats,” a stern-looking Trump said. “They are destroying our country. … They do cheat. And, frankly, it’s the only thing they do well. … Swamp them — they can’t cheat.”

Another video montage featured a Trump diatribe promising to “destroy the deep state” and attack “the fake news media” and “the sick political class that hates our country.”

It added up to a confusing message. Certainly, you can square the image of an aggressive politician and a compassionate man who loves music, his friends, his family and even Americans he does not know.

But there’s a difference in selling Trump as someone who leverages his aggressiveness on behalf of those “everyday Americans” and one who uses hyperbolic attack lines on whole classes of Americans and is still fighting over a presidential election that he lost. Voters who believe Trump’s false assertions about 2020 and relish his attack lines are already in his corner. He’s trying to grow his coalition, or at least he needs to if Republicans want to have the kind of November sweep they’ve talked about in Milwaukee.

From women validators to fighting men, literally

The sometimes contradictory branding continued with the choice of speakers going into the final hours of the convention.

Earlier in the week, Trump deployed females to soften his image: his former press secretary and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders; former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway; his 17-year-old granddaughter, Kai Trump.

But on the RNC’s biggest night, Trump lined up a number of figures from the world of professional fighting, including Hulk Hogan, a telling choice for someone who has long admired traditional masculinity, praised tough guys and embraced a combative, no-holds-barred style of politics.

That image of toughness is one that Trump summoned immediately after the attempt on his life days ago, when, right after he was shot and injured, he thrust his fist into the air and mouthed, “Fight!” — a call his supporters have taken up as a chant.

Trump, giving his first speech after the assassination attempt, chose Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White to introduce him before his party’s presidential nomination. That’s a sharp departure from the typical choice of a family member or prominent politician.

The connection between Trump and the mixed martial arts world is not new: Trump is a longtime friend of White and frequently attends UFC fights. His chief spokesman, Steven Cheung, used to work for UFC, and his campaign has used Trump’s appearances at the combat sport to try to appeal to younger, male voters.

The choice of White to introduce him before such a historic moment is instructive. In 2016 and 2020, Trump was introduced at the GOP conventions by his daughter Ivanka Trump, who has distanced herself from her father’s political ambitions since he left office and did not speak this year.

Thursday’s lineup also included figures from the world of wrestling, including retired wrestler Hogan, Linda McMahon, the former president and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., and a musician Kid Rock, who has ties to WWE and was inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame.

McMahon made perhaps the most overt attempt to straddle the competing messages about Trump: “Donald Trump is not only a fighter, ladies and gentleman,” she said. “He is a good man.”

Prominent mentions of Kamala Harris

Republicans on Thursday made a point not just of blasting Biden but also Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s an obvious move to position the party for the possibility that the 81-year-old Biden ends his campaign and Democrats turn to Harris.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listed Biden and Harris as joint owners of various bad policies. “He and Vice President Harris are providing appeasement to the pro-Hamas radicals” in the U.S., Pompeo said at one point, naming the No. 2 Democrat but not the president.

Those kinds of rhetorical efforts stood out even further because of the relatively few mentions early Thursday of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance. The Ohio senator gave his acceptance speech Wednesday and was welcomed as a potential Trump successor in the “Make America Great Again” movement. But it’s Trump’s movement.