Following last week’s assassination attempt against Trump, the expectation was that his supporters, who are quite a religious group, might be in a grim and even threatening mood.  But that has not proven to be the case.  If anything, Trump’s I’m-lucky-to-be-alive sentiment seems to have pervaded the entire Republican event in Milwaukee, resulting in a rather joyous, even worshipful vibe.  Five days after narrowly escaping assassination, Donald Trump accepted his presidential nomination last night in his first speech after Saturday’s attempted assassination, in front of an adoring crowd of supporters, the final act in his transformation of the Republican Party into the party of Trump. Jason Aldean was there sitting with Trump, Tucker Carlson made an amazing speech, Hulk Hogan spoke to the crowd and ripped his shirt off for the fans, Kid Rock entertained, and Dana White from the UFC introduced Trump to the audience for the final speech of the night, which according to officials, was the longest acceptance speech ever performed by a Presidential nominee.  The second longest speech on record was also by Trump in 2016.  At the end of the speech, Trump’s family gathered on stage while the balloons began to fall in great numbers.

Trump’s brush with death has fueled the growing quasi-religious fervor among the party faithful; elevating him from political leader to a man they believe is protected by God.  “Trump, Trump, Trump,” attendees roared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee when he appeared each night this week, his right ear bandaged, to listen to speaker after speaker intone reverentially about him and reference God’s hand in his survival from a would-be assassin’s bullet.  Republicans are uniting behind him this week. With most dissent quelled and his grip on the party never tighter, Trump will be in a much stronger position than in his 2017-2021 term to follow through on his agenda if he wins the November 5 election. Untrammeled by the internal divisions that sometimes stymied him in his first term, Trump would be freer to pursue hard-edged policies that include mass deportations as part of a crackdown on illegal migration, aggressive trade policies, and dismissing government officials seen as insufficiently loyal. 

Even if Trump retakes the White House, Republicans take control of both houses of Congress, and conservatives go on holding a Supreme Court super majority, there would still be institutional checks on a second Trump term. He could be kept in check by Congress, the courts and a public that elects a new Congress every two years and a president every four years, constitutional experts say.  Nevertheless, many Trump supporters want to see a powerful president.  “You need a strong leader at the top,” said Bill Dowd, a 79-year-old lumber business owner who was a guest of the Colorado delegation in Milwaukee.  “I’m a very, very big Ronald Reagan fan. Ronald Reagan pulled the party together also,” Dowd said.  In Milwaukee, nearly all of the 30 delegates, guests and elected Republicans that were interviewed, acknowledged that their party had become the party of Trump but dismissed any suggestion that it had become cult-like.

Georgia, Arizona and Nevada — all claimed by Biden in 2020 – in addition to North Carolina which Democrats had hoped at one point to take back from Trump have grown more challenging, as reported by more than a dozen campaign officials and senior Democrats in these battleground states.  Trump, 78, had been leading the polls in all four states well before he was grazed by a bullet last weekend, a position that consolidated after Biden’s disastrous debate performance on June 27.  Calculations can change before Election Day. But the campaign officials’ latest assessment allows for almost no margin of error.  Biden, 81, can only cobble together the 270 Electoral College votes needed to clinch the presidency if he wins the Rust Belt manufacturing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan and a congressional district in Nebraska that could also soon be at risk.  

Nancy Pelosi has privately told Biden that he will lose to Trump and take Congress down with him, according to CNN. Pelosi is being joined by Barack Obama and a host of other high ranking Democrats.  The Biden’s may be waiting for a deal that they can’t refuse, in order to step down.