Former President Trump’s top Republican rivals on Tuesday endorsed the 2024 candidate, promising he would “make America safe again” from violent criminals and dangerous undocumented immigrants they say are flooding into the nation across an “open” southern border.
After having his abilities and integrity questioned during the primaries, they threw their weight behind a man they had once vociferously criticized, saying that uniting around their former enemy was crucial to the nation’s future. Trump, who entered the convention hall to thunderous applause, watched approvingly as his former opponents urged voters to return him to the White House.
“For over a year, I’ve said that a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris,” said Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. “After watching the debate, everyone knows it’s true. If we have four more years of Biden or one more day of Harris, our country will be much worse off. For the sake of our nation, we have to stand with Donald Trump.”
But Haley said her message was aimed at voters who might have doubts about the former president.
Former Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“We have to recognize that there are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100% of the time. I happen to know some,” said Haley, whom Trump nicknamed “Birdbrain” during the 2024 primaries. “My message to them is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him. Believe me, I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than not.”
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 send Donald Trump back to the White House,” said DeSantis, whom Trump nicknamed “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 failed this nation.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Haley and DeSantis apparently learned a lesson from Cruz, aka “Lying Ted,” whose failure to support Trump after losing to him in the 2016 Republican primary earned him boos at that year’s convention and some enmity from Trump loyalists. He has since realigned himself with the man who suggested his father might be involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Praise for Trump was interspersed with speeches on crime and immigration, and some of the most moving and powerful moments of the night came from the families of crime victims.
On Tuesday, Cruz listed the names of Americans allegedly killed by people in the country illegally, including Kathryn Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who was shot in 2015 while walking with her father on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.
“As a result 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 labeled “regular Americans,” blamed part of the crime in the United States on an “invasion” of criminals crossing into the country from the southern border with Mexico, even though studies over the years have shown that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes here than natural-born U.S. citizens.
Kari Lake, a prominent 2020 election denier who lost a 2022 bid for Arizona governor and is now running for the U.S. Senate, blamed “disastrous” Democratic policies for the rise in deaths from fentanyl and other opioids 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 handed 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 attributed to the “open border” policies of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“It wasn’t an overdose, it was poisoning. His entire future, everything we ever wanted for him, was taken away in an instant, and Joe Biden does nothing,” Fundner said.
She said Trump must be elected to help end the scourge of fentanyl on American families like hers. “This fight is not for me. My son is gone,” she said. “This fight is for his children.”
Crime and homelessness are perennial talking points in Republican campaigns, often portrayed as a result of liberal policies in states like California.
Republicans claim the title of “law and order” party, which has been an especially useful political reorientation point for Trump, who has faced multiple criminal investigations and been convicted of dozens of felonies in recent years.
Democrats dismiss the Republican criticism as inaccurate or exaggerated. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have problems with crime and homelessness, Democrats say, but not to the extent Republicans suggest, and cities in red states have similar problems.
Democrats also criticized Republicans for supporting people at the Republican National Convention who were involved in the January 6, 2021, insurrection and siege at the U.S. Capitol.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone, who was injured in that attack, condemned the presence of rioters at the convention.
“What happened on January 6 nearly cost me my life and brought our democracy to 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 rioted against our democracy on January 6 has the opposite effect.”
Crime data varies across the country and within each state.
But experts say the clearest trend in crime data in recent years nationwide is that violent crime has declined. Republicans often dismiss that data as fabricated or the result of lower reporting rates.
