On the opening night of the Republican National Convention, the party painted a bleak picture of the United States, describing it as a country teetering on the brink of riots and communism, capable of salvation only through President Donald Trump.
Unlike its Democratic counterpart last week, which intercut speeches from hundreds of locations across the country with prepackaged segments and musical performances, most of the RNC’s first night consisted of speakers appearing one by one from the same ornate, empty auditorium in Washington, D.C., interspersed with a handful of campaign ads.
And while the Democratic National Convention tried to pull together a broad and sometimes contradictory ideological coalition, the RNC mostly bet on motivating its base of supporters with a non-stop stream of hard-right rhetoric.
“Trump is the bodyguard of Western civilization,” student group leader Charlie Kirk said in the night’s first speech, setting the event’s nationalistic tone.
The evening frequently had an alternate-reality feel, with Mr. Trump depicted as having deftly handled the COVID-19 pandemic, despite a death toll of 177,000; the U.S. as having no problem with racism, despite persistent police killings of unarmed Black people; and Democratic nominee Joe Biden as a left-wing ideologue, despite his decades-long reputation as a middle-of-the-road moderate.
In this image from video, Mark and Patricia McCloskey speak from St. Louis during the first night of the Republican National Convention, on Aug. 24, 2020.The Associated Press
The anxieties of wealthy, white America
Mark and Patty McCloskey, the St. Louis lawyers who face criminal charges for pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their white marble mansion in June, called on Americans to vote for Mr. Trump to stop the wave of anti-racism demonstrations sweeping the country.
Mr. McCloskey described the protesters as an “out-of-control mob.” Ms. McCloskey claimed that demonstrators aimed to “abolish the suburbs” and bring “crime, lawlessness and low-quality apartments” into affluent residential communities.
The evening was replete with such language – Mr. Kirk described a “vengeful mob that wishes to destroy our way of life,” while Donald Trump Jr., the President’s son, said the Democrats were bringing “rioting, looting and vandalism” to the country – then repeated the message that only Mr. Trump can stop it.
In this screenshot from the RNC livestream of the 2020 Republican National Convention, U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with freed hostages Joshua and Tamara Holt and Pastor Bryan Nerran in a prerecorded video.Supplied/Getty Images
The not-so-physically-distanced meetings
Mr. Biden tried to showcase his empathy last week with a series of panel discussions on emotionally charged topics. True to the pandemic era, Mr. Biden sat alone, surrounded by a Stonehenge-like arrangement of televisions on which the panelists appeared.
Mr. Trump tried something similar Monday but dispensed with the COVID-19 precautions. In two discussions, he met in person with several panelists at the White House; no one wore a mask or stayed six feet from the other panelists.
In the first of the meetings, with people on the front lines of the pandemic, Mr. Trump touted a series of unproven and potentially dangerous treatments. The President has been criticized for downplaying the seriousness of COVID-19 and leaving individual states to fend for themselves. But his guests repeatedly praised his leadership, while he referred to the illness as “the China virus.”
In the second panel, with Americans formerly held hostage abroad, the President praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to a pastor who was held for two years in one of the Turkish autocrat’s prisons.
“I have to say that, to me, President Erdogan was very good,” Mr. Trump said.
Maximo Alvarez, founder of Sunshine Gasoline. Alvarez, a Cuban-American who fled Fidel Castro’s regime, compared Joe Biden with the late communist dictator.Supplied/Getty Images
Did we mention the socialism?
Second only to linking the Democrats to rioters was an effort to depict them as “Marxists,” “socialists” and “radical.”
One pre-recorded segment claimed that leftists “have already taken over Joe Biden.” Chicago businesswoman Madeline Lauf warned that the Democrats are attacking American capitalism – over video footage of former Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg, who once worked for management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. And Maximo Alvarez, a Cuban-American who fled Fidel Castro’s regime, compared Mr. Biden with the late communist dictator.
“I have seen people like this before,” he said. “We cannot let them take over our country.”
Kimberly Guilfoyle, the national chair of the Trump Victory Finance Committee and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr.KEVIN LAMARQUE/Reuters
In case you missed the shouting
With Mr. Trump’s first-night appearances confined to his relatively subdued panel discussions, it was up to Kimberly Guilfoyle to bring the decibels.
In a speech so loud it often seemed to reverberate through the auditorium, the Fox News host-turned Trump campaign official shouted as she waved her hands in the air.
“Do you support the cancel culture?” she said. “Do you think America is to blame?”
Ms. Guilfoyle used some of her darkest rhetoric to describe California – whose Governor, Gavin Newsom, is her ex-husband – as a state turned by the Democrats “into a land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets and blackouts in homes.”
Donald Trump Jr. speaks as he tapes his speech for the first day of the Republican National Convention, from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, in Washington, on Aug. 24, 2020.Susan Walsh/The Associated Press
CanCon klaxon
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, made a brief appearance early in the night. A segment highlighting Mr. Trump’s accomplishments included a clip of the signing of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American free-trade agreement this year.
Later in the evening, Mr. Trump Jr. returned to the theme in an attack on Mr. Biden’s history of backing free-trade agreements.
“He supported the worst trade deals in the history of the planet,” the younger Mr. Trump said. “He voted for the NAFTA nightmare. Down the tubes went our auto industry. He pushed for [the Trans-Pacific Partnership]. Goodbye manufacturing jobs.”
What Mr. Trump Jr. did not mention is that the USMCA is almost identical to NAFTA, with some elements of the TPP added in.
The convention continues for the next three nights, with Mr. Trump formally accepting renomination Thursday.
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.