Former President Trump’s top Republican rivals lined up behind the 2024 candidate Tuesday, promising he would “make America safe again” from violent criminals and dangerous undocumented immigrants who they say are flooding the country through an “open” southern border.
After questioning his abilities and integrity during the primaries, they threw their full support behind a man they once reviled, saying that uniting behind their former foe was crucial to the nation’s future. Trump, who entered the convention hall to thunderous applause, watched approvingly as his former adversaries urged voters to return him to the White House.
“For over a year, I have said that a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris,” said Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations. “After watching the debate, everyone knows that’s true. If Biden stays four more years or Harris stays one more day, our country will be much worse off. For the sake of our nation, we must vote for Donald Trump.”
But Haley said her message was aimed at voters who might have doubts about the former president.
Former Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“We have to acknowledge that there are Americans who disagree with Donald Trump 100 percent. I know some,” said Haley, whom Trump nicknamed “Birdbrain” during their 2024 primary. “My message is simple. You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent to vote for him. Believe me, I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree.”
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, entered the Milwaukee arena shortly before speeches by Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom he defeated in a tense 2024 Republican primary, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of his opponents in the 2016 election.
“Let’s send Joe Biden back to his basement and let’s send Donald Trump back to the White House,” said DeSantis, whom Trump has dubbed “Ron DeSanctimonious.” “Our border was more secure under the Trump administration and our country was respected when Donald Trump was our commander in chief. Joe Biden has betrayed this nation.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Haley and DeSantis have apparently learned a lesson from Cruz, aka “Lyin’ Ted,” whose refusal to endorse Trump after his 2016 Republican primary loss earned him boos at that year’s convention and some enmity from Trump loyalists. He has since taken up the mantle of the man who suggested his father was potentially involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Trump’s praise was interspersed with speeches about crime and immigration, and some of the most moving and powerful moments of the evening came from the families of crime victims.
On Tuesday, Cruz listed the names of Americans who were allegedly killed by people in the country illegally, including Kathryn Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who was shot and killed in 2015 while walking with her father on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.
“Because of Joe Biden’s presidency, your family is less safe. Your children are less safe. The country is less safe. But here’s the good news: We can fix this. And when Donald Trump is president, we will fix this,” Cruz said. “We know this because he’s done it before.”
The theme of Tuesday night’s convention was “Making America Safe Again.”
Speaker after speaker, from politicians to law enforcement officials to people who described themselves as “ordinary Americans,” blamed crime in the United States in part on an “invasion” of criminals crossing into the country from the southern border with Mexico — even though studies over the years show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes here than native-born U.S. citizens.
Kari Lake, a prominent 2020 election denier who lost her bid for Arizona governor in 2022 and is now running for the U.S. Senate, blamed “disastrous” Democratic policies for the surge in fentanyl and other opioid-related deaths in the country and along the southern border — which she said Trump would end.
Kari Lake speaks at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Lake said President Biden and Democrats “have given control of my state, the Arizona border, to drug cartels” and that “because of them, criminals and deadly drugs are pouring in and our children are dying.”
Anne Fundner, a California mother, said her 15-year-old son, Weston, died from fentanyl in 2022, which she blamed on the “open borders” policies of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“It wasn’t an overdose, it was poisoning. His future, everything we ever wanted for him, was taken away from him in an instant – and Joe Biden is doing nothing,” Fundner said.
She said Trump must be elected to help end the scourge of fentanyl for American families like hers. “This fight is not for me. My son is gone,” she said. “This fight is for your children.”
Crime and homelessness are recurring talking points in Republican campaigns, often portrayed as the result of liberal policies in states like California.
Republicans claim the title of the party of “law and order,” which has been a particularly useful political reorientation point for Trump as he has faced multiple criminal investigations and been convicted of dozens of crimes in recent years.
Democrats dismiss Republican criticism as inaccurate or exaggerated. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco do face crime and homelessness problems, Democrats say, but not to the extent Republicans suggest — and cities in Republican states face similar problems.
Democrats also lambasted Republicans for giving a platform to individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, insurrection and siege of the U.S. Capitol during the RNC.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Officer Michael Fanone, a Capitol Police officer injured in the attack, condemned the presence of insurrectionists at the convention.
“What happened on January 6th nearly cost me my life and put our democracy on the brink,” Fanone said in a statement. “This is a time to come together and oppose those who call for violence in politics, but the RNC’s decision to give a platform to the very people who protested our democracy on January 6th has the opposite effect.”
Crime data varies across regions of the country and within states.
But the clearest trend in national crime data in recent years, experts say, is a decline in violent crime. Republicans often dismiss the data as fabricated or the result of lower reporting rates.
