A Tale of Two Trump Speeches

Rarely has the appearance of a party’s nominee on a convention stage been as intensely anticipated as that of Donald Trump in Milwaukee.

Nearly assassinated last Saturday and still bandaged from his wound to his ear, Trump was rapturously greeted each time he entered the convention hall this week, and his speech was tantalizingly teased as completely reworked after the shooting last weekend.

The emotional centerpiece of the address, of course, was Trump’s riveting account of his near-assassination. He delivered it in a soft, earnest tone that we’ve never heard before. He seemed genuinely moved and humbled, and attributed his survival to the grace of God. He paid tribute at length to the firefighter who was killed at his rally, the former fire chief Corey Comperatore, and two others who were seriously injured. This was, indeed, a different Trump.