• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, July 19, 2024

Watching Donald Trump give his acceptance speech Thursday night was like watching one of those interminable playoff baseball games that everybody complains about.

Like those games, Trump’s speech went well past midnight -- at least here in the East -- on what is commonly referred to as a “school” night for regular people who have to get up in the morning and have a workday.

Although it was not as long as one of those baseball games, Trump’s speech nonetheless ran for an hour-and-a-half and ended just as late. 

For the record, the acceptance speech clocked in as the longest ever delivered at a convention, according to NBC News. It broke a record that Trump himself set in 2016.

Since this year’s speech consisted solely of Trump standing at a podium for almost the entire 90 minutes, the visual effect was one of monotony, which is not exactly conducive to keeping a casual viewer awake.

His delivery Thursday night was conversational. There was no fire and brimstone, no slamming of his fist on the podium.

Rather than fire away directly at President Biden, Trump chose a strategy that was even more effective. He was dismissive of him, as if Biden presented no opposition at all. 

Trump uttered the word “Biden” only once early in his speech, and then vowed never to do so again.

It was a promise kept, and a far cry from the attention he paid to President-to-be Joe Biden in his 2020 acceptance speech in which he said “Biden” more than 40 times, NBC News reported.

Certainly, the crowd of delegates, well-wishers and supporters in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum Thursday night soaked it all up. 

Such is their evident adoration of Trump that the speech’s length was likely not a problem for them. 

Besides, Milwaukee is in the central time zone, which means it ended an hour earlier for them.

Trump’s speech was aimed squarely at the faithful. So confident is he of victory in November that his speech gave no opening or opportunity to bring undecideds into the Republican tent, which could be a mistake when the final tallies are made on Election Night. 

On the other hand, maybe he doesn’t need to bring anyone else on board, at least not at the present moment, given the turmoil in the Democratic party over their weakened candidate, who is now under pressure to quit the race.

Elsewhere in Thursday’s final evening of the four-day Republican Convention, speakers included Tucker Carlson, Eric Trump and Franklin Graham.

But at least three supporters who came onstage seemed jarring, out of place and ill-considered.

One was Hulk Hogan, whose “speech” was so dramatic that it came across as cult-like. 

Later, a performance by rapper Kid Rock seemed incongruous for this audience of conservative Republicans, many of whom were older and unlikely to appreciate Kid Rock’s music, much less understand the lyrics.

Then there was the man chosen to do the introduction speech for Trump’s big onstage entrance -- Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and owner of something called Power Slap, which promotes “slap fights,” which were once confined solely to schoolyards.

He is a guy who is evidently well-known in his field, but little known outside of it -- at least not well-known enough to be handed this crucial slot in the convention schedule.

Besides, not everyone is on board with ultimate fighting, which to many is an odious pastime.

The message from the worlds of pro wrestling and the UFC seemed to be that a new Trump administration would pursue its goals as if the process were a fake wrestling match, an “ultimate” fight with few rules and/or a schoolyard slap match.

Maybe these presenters were in keeping with the new motto of the Trump campaign adopted last Saturday -- “Fight! Fight! Fight!”