By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MILWAUKEE, USA (Worthy News) – Donald J. Trump thanked “almighty God” for saving his life when an assassin’s bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear and pledged to be the leader of all Americans while accepting the Republican nomination for president of the United States.

“I am here for a vision, whatever your color. I extend my hand to you in friendship,” he said at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee.

With his ear in a bandage, he asked for a moment of silence for Corey Comperatore, the former firefighter chief who died while shielding his family from flying bullets fired by a gunman during Saturday’s Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

He asked for the moment after kissing his helmet, which was brought to the stage along with his uniform.

Comperatore, 50, worked as a project and tooling engineer, was an Army reservist, and, after serving as chief, spent many years as a volunteer firefighter.

Earlier, thousands of mourners filed into a Pennsylvania banquet hall Thursday to remember the former fire chief, and Trump sent a note of condolence hailing him as a hero.

Trump recalled how Comperatore spent his final moments shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at the campaign rally. He said they had raised millions of dollars for his family and the relatives of two other seriously injured people hit by bullets during the rally.

IMPORTANT ELECTION

However, Trump soon looked to the future, saying the nation would soon face the “most important election in history.” He pledged to “drill, baby drill,” suggesting the opening of pipelines closed under the Biden administration.

He also pledged to finish his anti-migration wall near Mexico “to stop the invasion that is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year.”

“The damage Biden has done is unthinkable,” he claimed amid indications the 81-year-old frail leader will drop out of the race.

In his lengthy speech, which often went off script, Trump said he has the credentials to make America great again.

Trump, who seeks a second term, recalled that his administration showed strength. “We defeated 100 percent of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, something that was going to take five years, sir… we did it in a matter of a couple of months.”

Critics said the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, was indeed beaten back during his first year in office, but by April 2017, the group had lost most of its territory in Iraq.

That territorial loss had already started under U.S. President Barack Obama. The fight in Syria continued with intensity until late 2017, critics say.

LEADER KILLED

However, Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a U.S. Special Forces raid in Syria in October 2019 while Trump was commander in chief.

Trump returned to a favorite promise of “the largest deportation operation in history” and launched into stories about crimes whose suspects are migrants. “We are not against migrants but against those who come here illegally,” he said.

Trump’s latest riff was him mentioning Hannibal Lector as he talks about criminals entering the country. “Has anyone seen Silence of the Lambs?” he asked. The crowd laughed.

Trump said a chart showing illegal crossings under Biden “saved his life” because he was looking at it and craning his head during the assassination attempt.

“I never got to look at it,” he added. “But now I can,” he told the crowd as the charts were shown on stage. The “lowest level in recorded history,” he said happened in March 2020 when the COVID-19!pandemic hit, and crossing dropped before rising again.

Trump used the term “China virus” during the convention to refer to COVID— a term he and others began using in 2020.

He referred to indications that the virus originated from Wuhan in China, with at least some investigators suggesting a laboratory may have been the source.

Yet in early 2020, the World Health Organization urged people to avoid terms like the “Wuhan virus” or the “Chinese virus,” saying it could spike a backlash against Asians.

CALLING NAMES

Trump called Democratic Representative Nancy Pallosi “crazy” during his speech, prompting her spokesman to say on social media platform X that it was proof the former president had not changed his tone as promised.

“There is no new tone. There is no new shift. There is no new candidate,” Ian Krager, the spokesman, said. “Donald Trump remains what he has been and always will be: a disaster for our country and our democracy.”

Trump strongly disagreed, saying he loves democracy but has to fight what he views as the deep state. He said it was important that everyone benefits and that one of his proposals would be to end taxes on tips.

Trump said he got the idea after talking to a waitress at a “very nice restaurant” in Senator Sam Brown’s home state of Arkansas. “I asked this very nice waitress what she was doing. And when talking about good, told me that much was being reduced.”

He said they agreed that removing the tax on tips would be a good idea.

“You don’t need to pay millions to expensive consultants. This waitress knew better,” Trump said.

Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.

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