MILWAUKEE — ANALYSIS — Lawmakers, speakers and delegates at the Republican National Convention have not exactly filled the Fiserv Forum with deep policy proposals. But when some have vaguely delved into issues, they’ve uttered some brow-furrowing contradictions.
Unlike past GOP and Democratic presidential-nominating events, those here mostly have avoided offering detailed blueprints for how Trump might, if elected, follow the convention’s nightly themes by making America wealthy, safe, strong and great “once again.” Their collective focus has been on heralding their positive assessments of his term in office — especially after he has entered the arena both nights.
An exception, however, was House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. On Tuesday night, the Louisiana Republican offered a detailed list of legislation House GOP leadership would quickly pursue, should Trump win in November.
Delegates and others in the arena that is home to the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks applauded as Scalise vowed in a second Trump term to not only extend his 2017 tax law, but also pass another bill to slash middle-class tax rates and deliver on Trump’s promise that tips would not be taxed. He also promised that the former president would be ready and willing to sign House Republicans’ hardline border and immigration bill, known in Washington simply as H.R. 2.
It was as close as anyone here has come to laying out a legislative plan for a second Trump administration. Here are some of the convention’s “Wait, what?” moments.
‘We are blessed’
Just like Trump has since he first became a candidate in 2015, lawmakers, speakers and delegates this week have described the United States as a crime-riddled country in which the American dream has been squashed by Democrats.
Speaker after speaker described America under the Biden administration as something of an economic and cultural hellscape.
Nikki Haley, Trump’s former United Nations ambassador and 2024 GOP primary rival, on Tuesday night urged the party to unify because “right now, we need to be strong to save America.”
“This is a defining moment, not only for our party, but for our country. Our fellow Americans are fearful right now. Families are suffering from inflation and wages that don’t keep up with prices, young people are being indoctrinated to think our country is racist and evil,” Haley said to boos. “The Jewish community is facing an obscene rise in antisemitism. Too many minorities are trapped in communities devastated by our foreign enemies, when they see Americans hate each other.”
But she also ended her remarks by declaring: “We are blessed to live in America.”
One speech wrap-up. Two very different Americas.
Infrastructure week
The Republican Party and the Trump campaign have used a country music song extolling the virtues of blue-collar America as the walk-in music for the Trump family’s hand-picked vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.
Among its lyrics is a plea to “rebuild America first,” the slogan most associated with Trump’s governing philosophy and worldview. It also includes this head-tilting line: “Our highways and bridges are falling apart.”
Remember “infrastructure week?” That’s a trope commonly associated with the Trump White House, which would — when things got politically rocky — trot out a vague “plan” to rebuild roads, bridges, tunnels, ports and other crucial foundational parts of the country. But Trump never signed an infrastructure bill into law — and never submitted a draft proposal to Congress.
President Joe Biden did both, signing a bipartisan infrastructure measure into law during his term. Signs now dot roadways reminding motorists and passengers (read: voters) that the Biden administration is the one doling out the federal dollars for improvement projects. And Biden typically mocks Trump over the difference at least once or twice a week on the campaign trail, making the lyric a rather odd choice.
JD Vance, USMC
The song also seems a bad fit for Vance, a retired Marine, because it references the U.S. Army. In the American military, a soldier is a reference to an Army trooper.
“God bless the Army,” the singer croons, never mentioning the United States Marine Corps.
Ask any Marine if he or she is or was in the Army. They will quickly inform you, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”
Criminal conundrum
During the middle portion of Tuesday evening’s main program, convention attendees were milling about the arena floor when Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird declared Republicans “put criminals in prison.”
Democrats, including Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, she declared, “stand with criminals.”
Only that Biden has caught political backlash for his major role in crafting a 1990s crime bill many on the left have since deemed too tough on minorities.
And Harris, as a prosecutor and later California’s attorney general, was criticized during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary for helping put thousands of Black and other minority men behind bars.
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