Donald Trump issued a plea for American unity as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination before swiftly falling back into barbed attacks on Democrats and hyperbolic claims.
After surviving an assassination attempt, he initially struck a different tone from his usual divisive rhetoric as he told the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that he was only there “by the grace of Almighty God”.
In his first speech since the attack, he said: “I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear.
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.”
The first half an hour of his address to his faithful supporters was unusually conciliatory.
“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, a thick bandage still covering his right ear.
However, as if he could not restrain himself for long, Trump, the first former US president to be convicted of a crime, then reverted to his trademark bellicose verbal onslaughts.
In a rambling 92-minute address that broke the record for the longest convention speech in history, Trump branded Joe Biden the worst president in US history as the latter comes under pressure to pull out of the presidential race.
Trump slammed former Democratic House Speaker “crazy Nancy Pelosi,” and accused Democrats of launching judicial witch hunts against him and creating a “planet of war.”
He claimed he could stop Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine with a phone call, as Britain is warning that withdrawing support for Kyiv would be a huge mistake for America.
He bragged that he was “saving democracy for the people of our country”.
In comments which brazenly flew in the face of the truth, he claimed illegal immigration to the United States was “the greatest invasion in history” and was leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.
He painted a dark picture of a crumbling America, a nation in decline, its cities crime-ridden and economically depressed, a staple image of his stump speech in which he presents himself as the country’s saviour.
“We had been told this was going to be a different Trump, a softer side,” said Mary Anna Mancuso, a Republican strategist and Trump critic.
“Trump’s speech was not about unifying the nation. It was the same Trump that we’ve seen and there was no difference.”
Frank Luntz, another Republican strategist, said the speech was so long and started so late that many viewers would only have seen the first 30 minutes.
He described it as “perfect,” with the softer message at the beginning which could appeal to swing voters so crucial to winning the November 5 presidential election.
“It was traditional, typical Trump without as many of the usual hard edges,” he said.
After Trump concluded his speech, his family and that of his running mate, Senator JD Vance, walked onto the stage as balloons dropped from the ceiling.
His wife Melania Trump, who is rarely seen on the campaign trail, joined him for the first time this week.
Vance, at 39 half Trump’s age, is widely seen as the ideological heir to Trump’s Make America Great Movement.
“JD, you’re gonna be doing this for a long time,” Trump said. “Enjoy the ride.”
