Trump accepts nomination in 90-minute speech pledging healing

Washington: The speech began with uplifting sentiments and words around the theme of unity and healing. Then his natural instincts took over and gripes, grievances, and threats flowed. Recounting his narrow escape from an assassin’s bullet in excruciating detail, former US prez Donald Trump initially pledged to launch “a new era of safety, prosperity and freedom for citizens of every race, religion, colour and creed” in a 90-minute nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention finale in Milwaukee.
But he reflexively kept revisiting divisive issues, exaggerated threats, and old grievances, including falsehoods about a stolen election in 2020 that he lost by nearly 7 million votes, suggesting that his promise to heal the country is incumbent on being recognised as the victor in 2024 regardless of the outcome. “The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate... We rise together. Or we fall apart,” he said in an address that had a few lofty moments amid many meandering digressions.
“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” he said, adding, “To every citizen, whether you’re a young or old, man or woman, Democrat, Republican or Independent, black or white, Asian or Hispanic, I extend to you a hand of loyalty and of friendship. Together, we will lead America to new heights of greatness.”
But all this was subject to his getting a free pass on any purported misdemeanours and convictions because, he said, the Democratic Party has “weaponised the justice system”. “If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts, which I’ve been going through for approximately eight years. We’re going to win it anyway,” Trump, whose supporters have often threatened retribution if he returns to power, said.