“Congratulations, Dad. We love you,” Donald Trump Jr, said after casting 89 delegate votes from the state of New York that formally secured Donald J Trump the Republican nomination for president on Tuesday. "It is my honor to be able to throw Donald Trump over the top in the delegate count tonight,” he said, surrounded by siblings - Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany. Mr. Trump needed 1237 votes to win the nomination.
The 70-year old real estate baron and reality TV star, who has never been elected to an office, will faceoff with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November for the most powerful office in the world. Critics find his nebulous political ideas xenophobic and dangerous but Mr. Trump says he has no patience for “political correctness.”
“This is the party of (Abraham) Lincoln,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is also the chairman of the convention, said in his address. But the Republican convention has become a Trump show, with his wife, children, friends, and even business managers stealing the limelight. All spoke only on one theme – Mr. Trump’s greatness and qualities. Presidential campaigns by nature are personality centric, but Mr. Trump has put the spotlight on himself and his family so much that the party may appear ‘for the Trumps, by the Trumps and of the Trumps.’
Painting a commoner image of his billionaire dad, Trump Jr said in his speech: “He didn’t hide out behind some desk in an executive suite. He spent his career with regular Americans. He hung out with the guys on construction sites, pouring concrete and hanging sheetrock. He listened to them and he valued their opinion as much, and often more, than the guys from Harvard and Wharton locked away in offices away from the real world.” Tiffany Trump, the 22-year-old daughter of the candidate, spoke of the qualities that made Mr. Trump a “great dad.” He's always helped me be the best version of myself," she said. "That's a great quality to have in a father, and better yet, in the president of the United States.
Kerry Woolard, manager of the Trump Winery and Hotel, was another speaker who endorsed the qualities of the presidential candidate. “(He) is a man of vision: he isn’t a wide-eyed dreamer, but someone who sees what others don’t,” she said, detailing who he turned around he winery after buying it in 2011.
Political leaders who addressed the convention on the second day – Speaker Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and New Jersey Governor Chris Christy – focused more on Ms. Clinton, and the dangers her presidency may pose to conservatism in America. “Hers will be a third Obama term delivered by a Clinton,” Mr.Ryan said. Party leaders mentioned Mr. Trump in muted tone, and more as the only alternative to Ms. Clinton.
What is clear is the emergence of a two-pronged campaign strategy, going ahead. The GOP leaders will continue to keep a distance from the controversial positions that Mr. Trump continues to propagate and focus on the adversary who can unite all segments of the Republican Party. They will likely ignore their own candidate for most part, and trains the guns on Ms. Clinton.
Mr. Trump himself, and his family, friends and business associates will focus on promoting the personality of the candidate – “who has a track record of accomplishing the impossible,” according to his son. “He changed the skyline of New York,” the Trump Jr pointed out.
