Trump Makes His Case

President Trump brought the Republican convention to a close with a night long on pageantry, and longer on words.

Trump’s acceptance speech went on for more than an hour. It bore more of a resemblance to a State of the Union address — a lengthy catalogue of goals and successes, as well as presidential recognition of people in the audience — than to a convention speech. All week, Trump shamelessly used his presidential powers and the White House itself to add drama to the convention, and last night was no different. He transformed the White House lawn into a substitute for the floor of convention hall, a misuse of that setting, although the White House was the third option for Trump’s speech after two other venues and cities didn’t work out. (A president hadn’t given an acceptance speech at the White House since FDR in 1940.)

Amid all the words and the Trumpian bluster, the speech hammered away at what will be the main lines of attacks against Biden in the fall: He can’t be trusted with the economy; he’s been in Washington forever and has a terrible record; he is a vessel of an increasingly radical Democratic Party; and he is soft on disorder and crime in the cities.