Trump lauded by former rivals Haley, DeSantis in show of unity at Republican convention

MILWAUKEE – Donald Trump’s former rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Mrs Nikki Haley and Mr Ron DeSantis, offered full-throated endorsements of his candidacy at the party’s convention, in a display of unity days after he survived an assassination attempt.

Mrs Haley, who had described Trump as unfit for office during her campaign, urged her supporters to vote for him over Democratic President Joe Biden “for the sake of our nation”.

“You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 per cent of the time to vote for him,” Mrs Haley, a former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor, said after taking the stage on July 16 to a mixture of cheers and boos. “Take it from me.”

Mr DeSantis, the conservative Florida governor whose campaign sputtered early in the year, received a warm welcome from the crowd as he attacked Mr Biden, 81, as too old for the job.

Trump, with his right ear bandaged after July 13’s assassination attempt, applauded from his box in the arena, where he sat alongside running mate, US Senator J.D. Vance. Mr Vance, himself a former fierce Trump critic who has become a staunch supporter, will headline the convention’s third night on July 17.

The show of harmony was intended to contrast with Democrats, who have spent weeks mired in intra-party tensions over whether Mr Biden should abandon his re-election bid after his halting June 27 debate performance against Trump, 78.

Many of the evening’s speeches in Milwaukee – centred on the theme of law and order – were infused with Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, with speakers angrily denouncing Mr Biden’s southern border policies.

Ms Kari Lake and Mr Bernie Moreno, who are running in high-profile US Senate races in Arizona and Ohio, respectively, and US senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas all called the flow of migrants an “invasion”.

While border crossings reached record highs during Mr Biden’s tenure, arrests dropped sharply in June after the President implemented a broad asylum ban.

Others are also pointing their finger at the Democrats. Ms Anne Fundner said she held Democrats responsible for her teenage son’s death from fentanyl poisoning. The family of Ms Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman who the authorities say was raped and killed by a Salvadoran immigrant who had crossed the US-Mexico border illegally several times, blamed Biden policies as well.

Trump has highlighted Ms Morin’s murder on his campaign trail, where he frequently demonises migrants as violent criminals. Studies show immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans. He has pledged to launch the largest deportation effort in US history.

Some of the heated attacks contradicted the message of national unity Trump had promised to deliver after the attempt on his life at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13.

But Mrs Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, closed the night with a shift in tone, saying Americans should remember there is more that unites them than divides them.

In the wake of the shooting, however, voter fears about the deeply polarised nation ahead of the Nov 5 election seem only to have deepened.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this week found 80 per cent of voters – including similar shares of Republicans and Democrats – agreed “the country is spiralling out of control”.

The authorities have yet to identify a motive for the shooting. The 20-year-old gunman was killed at the scene by the US Secret Service.

In his first campaign speech since the assassination attempt, Mr Biden told black voters in Las Vegas on July 16 he was all in for re-election, again dismissing calls to step aside from some Democrats.

The four-day convention will culminate with Trump’s prime-time address on July 18, when he formally accepts the party’s nomination to face Mr Biden in a rematch of 2020. REUTERS