His Republican National Convention speech was billed as the debut of a Donald Trump changed by near-death experience, a man who sees the world differently and approaches politics more maturely. Gone would be the divisive demagogue, awakened would be a unifier.
For the first chunk of the address Thursday night, you could almost see it in calmer rhetoric delivered in a softer tone. But as his speech continued and Trump veered off script, he morphed back into the man he has always been and, at 78, will always be: a devious liar and a dangerous divider.
We aren’t alone in being sorely disappointed about Trump’s lost opportunity to stick with the promised unity theme at least to the end of his speech. He had the nation’s attention to recast his campaign — and expand his base of voters — but he didn’t have the discipline to stick with it.
Trump said an invasion of migrants is bringing violent crime. It’s a lie. One truth is that illegal border crossings have been plunging — yes, you read that right. A second truth is that foreign-born people are less likely to commit crimes than the native-born. A third truth is that the country is in the midst of a rapid crime decline, and violent crime under Trump was higher than it’s been under President Biden.
Trump said that during his presidency, we had “the best economy in the history of our country, in the history of the world…We had no inflation, soaring incomes.”
Actually, by most measures, the economy is stronger now than it was under Trump. Biden’s economy has produced 15.7 million jobs. In his term, Trump saw 6.7 million jobs produced before the pandemic — then nearly 3 million lost after COVID hit. Unemployment is lower today than it was then. Wage growth is higher.
Inflation is a weak point for Biden, as rising prices have hurt families and hurt him politically.
But Trump promised to bring back manufacturing to America; it didn’t much happen. Under Biden, factory construction is surging. Joblessness is low. The stock market is reaching new levels. The share of Americans without health insurance is falling again.
Domestic oil production has hit record highs, while overall American energy production is now exceeding use by the highest margin in recorded history.
Trump added nearly $5 trillion in non-COVID debt; Biden has added a bit more than $2 trillion.
Trump’s biggest and most consequential lie of all, of course, is that the 2020 election was stolen. “We’ll never let that happen again. They used COVID to cheat.” The 2020 election was won fair and square by Biden. Biden’s victory withstood recounts, audits and court challenges because he had more votes.
He didn’t just make things up in these three essentially important issue areas. Trump’s speech was overflowing with falsehoods.
And the unity at the beginning melted into division. Trump called Nancy Pelosi “crazy,” saying “I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.” It’s only democracy provided he wins. He said of Joe Biden, “If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it. The 10 worst. Added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done.” That’s just drivel.
Donald Trump is Donald Trump is Donald Trump is Donald Trump. That’s the same guy who will say and do anything.