Trump’s 'boring' RNC speech ruined what could have been his 'most triumphant moment': column

19 July 2024

As he officially accepted the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nomination on Thursday night, former President Donald Trump had a chance to build on the momentum the GOP has been enjoying for the last month. Instead, one commentator is arguing that the ex-president put everyone to sleep.

In his most recent column for the Toronto Star, writer Richard Warnica opined the 45th president of the United States wasted a major opportunity to fire up his base and make his case in front of a national audience of millions. But instead, he "sounded like a podcast being played at half speed."

"[Trump] had presided all week over the most ebullient Republican convention in 40 years. His opponents were in complete disarray. He had even survived an assassin’s bullet. He was all set up for the most triumphant moment of his political career," Warnica wrote. "And then he stepped on stage and did the one thing no one, absolutely no one, expected him to do: He bored everyone in the room."

"It was admirable, in an odd way. After nine years in politics, after endless hours of speeches in three presidential campaigns, Trump found a new way to surprise," he continued. "I almost literally couldn’t believe how boring it was. He may have set a new world record for bathos, which is a fancy word for letting all the air out of the room."

Warnica contrasted Trump's 93-minute speech with the raucous speeches delivered by singer Kid Rock, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White and retired professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, who at one point even tore off his shirt during his speech. Warnica went on to posit that, rather than motivate Republicans to turn out in November, the former president may have inadvertently given a much-needed jolt in the arm of his opponents.

"Democrats watching Trump ramble on and on (and on and on. He finished after midnight Eastern Time) may have felt an unusual stirring Thursday, something that has been in short supply in Blue circles for the past month: Hope," he wrote. "The Trump who ambled through his greatest rally hits Thursday — 'illegal migrant invasion,' 'China virus,' 'we had the greatest economy in the history of the world' — seemed eminently beatable."

"This man they face is no unstoppable juggernaut. He has not changed. All his manifest flaws are still there," he added.

Though according to the columnist, Trump's underwhelming speech on Thursday night could also be a double-edged sword. He argued that President Joe Biden would need to step aside the nominee in order for Democrats to have the best chance to defeat Trump in November, and that Biden may now have a renewed determination to cling to his campaign.

"The nightmare scenario for the party now is that the Biden, isolating at home with COVID-19, watched Trump speak Thursday, that he listened to him rasp and whisper and carry on and decided not to quit after all. Because as a bad as Trump was, Biden was still much worse in the debate a month ago," he wrote. "And if Trump sleepwalking through one speech keeps Biden in the race, it could turn out to be a victory for the Republicans after all."

Click here to read Warnica's column in full (subscription required).

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