• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, July 11, 2024

Four summers ago when he was still President, Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for a second term on the White House lawn, as custom-made fireworks exploded over the National Mall to form the letters (and numbers) “Trump 2020” in the nighttime sky.

This display was criticized for using the National Mall -- a place of memorials and vast lawns set aside ideally for the enjoyment of all Americans -- as the backdrop for this partisan political messaging.

I believe the word some people used was “tacky.” Tacky? Donald Trump? People can be so harsh!

Trump’s Barnum-like pyrotechnics back in late August 2020 were made possible by the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented both parties from staging actual conventions that summer.

So, Trump and the GOP staged Trump’s nomination on the White House grounds. The nation watched on TV as he delivered his acceptance speech, running well over an hour, on the South Lawn.

But that was then and this is now. Next week, the Republicans will get together, live and in person, to anoint the man they hope will become only the second U.S. President in history (after Grover Cleveland) to win two non-consecutive, four-year terms.

When it dawned on me sometime this week that the GOP convention was just days away, I asked myself a key question: This again?

Yes, and unlike the virtual conventions of the summer of 2020, the Republicans will be gathering face to-face and shoulder-to-shoulder at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee for four nights of prime-time hoopla and hysteria -- Monday, July 15, through Thursday, July 18.

Like the debate held June 27, the Republican Convention holds the potential to provide entertainment for all.

Any minute now (and possibly even before this TV Blog gets published Thursday morning), Trump is expected to name a running mate in advance of the convention.

He’d better do it soon. Tradition calls for the Veep-to-be to give a convention speech on Wednesday. The GOP speech-writing elves have to get cracking on that.

The GOP quadrennial party also comes just weeks after President Biden’s woeful performance in the June debate threw the Democrats into turmoil over the viability of his candidacy.

Why, just yesterday came the news that George Clooney came out in favor of Biden dropping out of the race. You know what they say: If you’ve lost George Clooney, you’ve lost the nation!

Four years ago, the lineup of the virtual GOP convention went like this: On Night One, Donald Trump Jr. was the featured speaker.

On Night Two, it was Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump and First Lady Melania Trump making her speech from the White House Rose Garden.

On Night Three, it was Vice President Mike Pence speaking from historic Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, preceded by a lineup that included Lara Trump and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who is now best known for killing her own dog.

Night Four belonged to Donald Trump, as it will next Thursday when he accepts the nomination.

But what of Biden and the Democrats? The President fared badly in the June 27 debate and in last Friday’s prime-time interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC.

If he stays in the campaign, the President will have to come out in public at least two more times before Election Day in November, starting with the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Monday, August 19, through Thursday, August 22.

If nominated, Biden will have to deliver an acceptance speech on TV and all other platforms on that Thursday -- the fourth day of a convention that most observers have predicted for months would be chaotic. 

And that was before the Biden campaign was beset with doubts about the President’s fitness for office.

If candidate Biden can remain in the race long enough, he is scheduled to debate Trump again on September 10. 

But before that, we must all grapple with the third nomination of Donald J. Trump for President of the United States.  

Above photo: Donald Trump accepts the Republican nomination for President in 2016 at the GOP convention in Cleveland.