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Former President Donald Trump has a chance to effectively end the 2024 presidential race on Thursday, with a speech underscoring a theme he has already said he would prioritize: unity.
Not unity for unity’s sake, but the notion that the American experiment and Americans’ basic sense of freedom, free speech – indeed, our core values – need to be respected and appreciated by all.
This does not preclude Trump from articulating the “MAGA” agenda of reducing inflation, closing the border, cutting taxes, and reducing foreign involvement. Rather, Trump would do himself – and the country – a great service if his agenda is put in the context of uniting the nation.
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To be sure, Trump has been engaging in polarizing and divisive rhetoric to his political success for most of his career, so this will be a considerable shift for the former president. I say that in no way suggesting that he is responsible for anything other than an approval rating that has been lower than most presidential frontrunners.
At this point, given the tragedy of what happened last Saturday, and Trump’s admittedly heroic response, he has a chance to, in a lasting way, make clear where he stands in terms of American democracy and the interests of the broad mass of the American people of all races, genders and nationalities.
Indeed, in different ways and in different times, prior Republican presidents, from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan, and both Bushes, were able to unify the country in the wake of crises that required leadership above and beyond attack ads and snide reposts about their opponents.
Donald Trump now has a singular, and arguably unique, opportunity to accomplish an equivalent goal in the coming days.
This may sound like a set of homilies, but it is clear, given the polarization and division that has existed, as well as President Biden’s Oval Office address on Sunday, that Trump, commanding the attention of virtually the entire country during his RNC speech on Thursday night can wipe the slate clean.
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Moreover, Trump can build a new narrative about himself in a way that was virtually impossible before the assassination attempt.
As a Democrat who has not been one of his supporters, I very much hope Trump embraces this approach fully and wholeheartedly. It is in his own interests and those of the country and our democracy that he does so.
A unity message provides the additional benefit of helping him electorally with swing voters, suburban women and independents.
In that same vein, emphasizing unity is more important than ever in the wake of Trump’s pick for vice president, JD Vance, who singled out President Biden after the assassination attempt on Trump.
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But most important, Trump can fundamentally alter his image and improve the stature of the U.S. throughout the world with a ringing endorsement of our values, our culture, and the urgency of unity in the face of horrific division and a horrifying incident last weekend.
For his part, President Joe Biden remained conciliatory in his interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday night, stressing how grateful he is that Trump is OK and reminding Americans of the need to lower the temperature, while condemning any political violence.
That being said, while Biden expressed regret for his comment that it was “time to put Trump in the bulls-eye” just days before the shooting, the president’s credibility in terms of toning down the temperature himself is, frankly, not all that high.
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However, the fact that Biden embraced Trump, called him last Saturday, and suspended parts of his own campaign while eschewing the kind of rhetoric he has used previously is a step in the right direction.
Yet, given that this is Trump’s week at the RNC, and Trump has proven himself to be, in many ways, heroic, the onus is on the former president to prove that he can once again rise to the occasion.