At the Republican convention on Tuesday night, one by one, Donald Trump’s defeated rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination took the stage to praise him.
In a box above the convention floor, Trump smiled at times as his former opponents Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy expressed their full commitment to his campaign. support.
If anyone had any doubts that this was Trump’s party, Tuesday’s show put their doubts to rest.
“Let me be clear about one thing first: Donald Trump has my strong support, period,” said Haley, the former U.N. ambassador who launched her strongest challenge to Trump earlier this year.
She said Trump asked her to speak at the Milwaukee event in the name of “unity.”
“For the good of our country, we must choose Donald Trump,” she told the crowd.
Ms Haley said in May she would vote for the former president, but her headline speech on Tuesday was her most direct endorsement of the Republican nominee yet.
Trump gave her a standing ovation when she announced her support.
However, Ms Haley’s arrival was not universally welcomed by the industry. There was a visibly bated breath when she admitted that she and Trump had differences.
Some Republicans have struggled to forgive her for launching an aggressive campaign against their favored candidate. Late in the campaign, she questioned whether Trump had the mental stamina to serve as president.
A round of boos greeted her as she walked onto the stage, but they were quickly drowned out by cheers and chants.
“She deserves it,” said Gregory Switzer, a conservative activist from Texas.
Washington State Representative Matt Bumela predicted the boos, saying, “She stayed in that game much longer than she needed to and delayed the inevitable.” And he said negative things about Trump from beginning to end.”
Haley made a clear break with Trump when she called for continued U.S. support for Ukraine’s war with Russia.
When she later said she would vote for him in November, she said the former president would “wisely reach out to the millions of people who voted for me.”
On Tuesday night, she told supporters who might be on the fence: “You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent to vote for him — leave that to me.”
“Tonight is our night of unity,” said New Hampshire Senator William Gannon, who has represented Ms. Haley. He believed Trump made the right choice in inviting her to speak.
“I want to win the national election,” he said. “Bringing her in was a smart move.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the third-place finisher in the primary, received an even warmer welcome from the crowd.
He touched on several conservative social issues, including diversity initiatives, which he called “indoctrination.”
He urged the crowd to unite behind Trump — even though they were already solidly behind the current nominee. “We can’t let him down, and we can’t let America down,” DeSantis said.
He also blasted Biden’s age, an issue currently plaguing Democrats. “We need a commander in chief who can lead 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.
Daniel Willis, 25, chairman of the Delaware Young Republicans, said DeSantis and Ms. Haley had done enough to “heal” their differences with Mr. Trump’s supporters.
The rest of the night was dominated by discussion of more common points in the Republican campaign, such as migrant crossings at the border, crime and the overall promise of defeating Biden.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas said it was a “literal invasion” of the United States. Dr. Ben Carson, who served in Trump’s cabinet, accused Democrats of “tearing up the Constitution.”
Trump himself gave a standing ovation to Madeline Brame, whose son was killed in New York in 2018 and who has since called for tough-on-crime policies.
Delegates on the scene said they were prepared to look beyond the party’s divisions in the primaries and focus the party’s energy on President Joe Biden.
“At the end of the day,” said Georgia Representative Pam Lightsey, “we are all Republicans.”
