A year ago, few imagined Donald Trump as a headline speaker at the Republican National Convention – let alone as its star. Back then, maybe the billionaire New Yorker was alone in thinking he would arrive in Cleveland this week as the GOP’s presumptive nominee for president. There are still some Republicans trying to stop him, but the party’s four-day coronation of its unlikely White House hopeful will complete his rise from real estate mogul to potential leader of the free world.
“It was quite a journey,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said. “Not just what he was able to do in getting more votes than any Republican in the history of our party, but do it with 16 people running. It is a remarkable thing.”
Indeed, the man who opened his campaign as a late night TV punchline will face the nation as the Republican Party standard-bearer, delivering what could be the most watched convention speech of all time.
Trump will do so in a time of tumult at home and abroad, punctuated yesterday by the fatal shooting of three police officers in Baton Rouge, La.
Earlier this month the slaying of a black man in Baton Rouge by white officers led to protests nationwide and heightened concerns about the state of race relations in America. President Obama, responding to the shooting Sunday, noted that the incidents had come just before political conventions that tend to involve “overheated” rhetoric, and he urged both parties to avoid “careless accusations” intended to score political points.
“Everyone right now, focus on words and actions that can unite this country, rather than divide us further,” Obama said.
But Trump, insinuating that Obama held some responsibility, earlier blamed a “lack of leadership” for that shooting and added on Twitter, “We demand law and order.” Democrat Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, echoed Obama’s words in a statement urging Americans not to “turn our backs on each other.”
In the days before the convention was set to open, Trump’s choice of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate was overshadowed by a terror attack in France and attempted coup in Turkey.