For those conservative voters long turned off by former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, his somewhat softened tone in accepting the Republican nomination Thursday night was a welcome relief.
“He’s much improved,” Dave Struthers, a 57-year-old farmer from Collins, Iowa, said as he watched Trump’s speech in the basement of his farmhouse. “The thing I’ve had against him is he’s been so egotistical — ‘I, I, I. Me, me, me.’ I’m not hearing that tonight.”
Trump, who has a long history of divisive commentary, has said shoplifters should be immediately shot, suggested the United States’ top general be executed as a traitor and mocked Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband, who was beaten with a hammer by a far-right conspiracy theorist.
But on Thursday night in Milwaukee, he sported a white bandage over his right ear, which was pierced by a bullet from a would-be assassin just days earlier, and spoke in a quieter, more relaxed tone for at least the first part of the speech. He described his experience of the shooting and called for an end to discord, division and demonization in national politics.
Nevertheless, many of his talking points remained familiar. He claimed Democrats are destroying America, derided the prosecutions against him as a partisan witch hunt, warned of an “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border and insisted, without evidence, that murder rates in Central and South American countries were down because they were sending their killers to the U.S.
Struthers, a Republican who raises pigs and grows soybean and corn, supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during the caucuses. He said that while he believed Trump did some good things as president, his trade war with China hurt agriculture — including soybean sales, as that country is an important customer.
In his view, Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention was “more of a conversation with the American people, rather than yelling at them.”
As for Trump surviving the assassination attempt: “That’s just one more reason to support him. He’s not going to give up. He’s going to keep going.”
Alex Bueneman, 28, a maintenance technician from Oak Grove, Missouri, also said he appreciated a more moderate approach.
“While he still has the fiery words and the appearance, I really think they’re trying to tone it down,” Bueneman said. “I think that’s a good thing.”
The speech didn’t win over everyone, however.
“I don’t think he sounds any different than he did before the assassination attempt,” said John Frank, a 25–year-old designer in Milwaukee and self-described libertarian.
Frank said he does not plan to vote in November but nonetheless met up with a friend to watch the speech because “we didn’t want to miss something big happening in Milwaukee.”
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Rio Yamat and Jake Offenhartz in Milwaukee; Jeff Roberson in St. Charles, Missouri; and Charlie Neibergall in Collins, Iowa, contributed.