“Every one of them said this could be the best convention of either party that they have ever seen,” Donald Trump declared midway through his marathon convention speech, pointing to the boxes of journalists and TV cameras before him.
If it wasn’t the greatest Republican convention ever, then it was surely the most fun, energetic, optimistic and unique in the history of a Grand Old Party once associated with stuffy political conservatives and business elites.
Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt off, Ultimate Fighting Championship chief executive Dana White helped introduce the former president, Amber Rose, a model and founder of the Slut Walk movement, made a cameo appearance and Kid Rock belted out tunes.
Trump merchandise was selling like hotcakes outside the packed Fiserv arena every night (it was all about prime-time TV after all), including MAGA hats at $US32 ($48) a pop.
There’s no denying Trump has become a cult figure and the Republican Party its organising committee.
In 2016 the Trump family were nervous interlopers in a party still beholden to the style and substance of the Bushes and Ronald Reagan. Now they have become the royal family. The reclusive Melania Trump entered the arena just after 9pm to the soaring sounds of Beethoven’s Symphony Number 9, as if she were a Habsburg empress.
For four days Milwaukee had become a Republican Versailles. “Right-wing” media celebrities paced the halls of the vast Fiserv arena, and the even more enormous Baird Centre (where thousands of journalists from around the world had practically camped out for days), with entourages in tow, eager to curry favour with the Trump family and prospective members of his cabinet.
Hundreds of red, blue and white balloons descended on the adoring crowd after Trump finished his indulgently long address, as Puccini’s Nessun Dorma blared, and Trump’s picture-perfect extended family ascended the stage to wave to the crowd.
Trump’s speech included promises that couldn’t possibly be fulfilled: slashing the public debt, increasing wages, reducing inflation and interest rates, world peace, cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s, even construction of a giant “iron dome” to protect the US from missile attack.
But it didn’t matter: here were America’s new Kennedys, minus the bad luck.
The Democratic Party convention, still a month away, will surely have the atmosphere of a funeral by comparison, whatever Joe Biden ultimately decides to do. The contrast between the commanding, powerful Trump and the moribund, increasingly decrepit Biden, could not have been stronger.
The convention signalled not only a permanent change in GOP style, but substance too.
Trump promised to slash immigration and boost tariffs, the opposite of what his predecessors would have advocated.
The speech of JD Vance, his vice-presidential candidate and budding heir, a night earlier, could have been penned in part by Bernie Sanders, the left-wing senator Hillary Clinton’s establishment Democrats successfully sidelined in 2016.
The people and businesses of downtown Milwaukee weren’t wholly impressed by the four-day extravaganza. The heightened security created a city within a city, causing most businesses to shut for four days. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of local and state police walked the streets, as if the city was expecting a military attack.
The Democrats would have been wholly impressed too, but for all the wrong reasons. They know they are facing a formidable political force that will require a miracle of their own to counter.
Duke sought billions from China with help from alleged spy
New documents raise concerns about Prince Andrew’s links to Yang Tengbo and his willingness to use his royal status despite the security risk.
Jet crashes in Philadelphia, sparking blazes
The crash in the east coast US city comes just two days after the deadly Washington air crash that killed 67 people. The victims are said to be all Mexican nationals.