Donald Trump's one-time rivals in the race for president lined up behind him at the Republican National Convention, calling for unity in the wake of an assassination attempt but lambasting Democrats as a party of destruction that is allowing illegal immigrants to overwhelm the country.
Vivek Ramaswamy was the first of several contenders who had battled Trump for the 2024 nomination to take the stage on the second night of the convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. He said Trump would unite the country while painting Democrats as eager to ostracize Christian Americans for their faith and to use immigrants to sway the election.
"We do not have to be ancient Rome, we don't have to be a nation in decline, we can still be a nation in ascent," Ramaswamy told the crowd.
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He was followed by Nikki Haley, the last major rival of Trump's to exit the primary, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once seen as the strongest challenger to the former president.
Haley wasn't originally scheduled to speak at the convention but agreed to after her team and Trump's discussed her appearing at the event in recent days. Haley walked on stage to applause, telling the audience she had been invited by Trump to speak "in the name of unity."
"For the sake of our nation, we have to go for Trump," Haley said, casting her support for him as strong and leading Trump to stand up with others in the audience.
He smiled politely when Haley noted their differences, saying "I haven't always agreed with President Trump. Though we agree more often than we disagree. We agree on keeping America strong."
He also appeared to mouth the word "true" when Haley suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attack Ukraine under the former president's watch because Trump was tough. During the primary, Haley split with Trump over Ukraine, backing continued US assistance to Kyiv.
The former UN ambassador under Trump said her speech was aimed at those voters still skeptical of backing the former president.
"We should acknowledge that there are some Americans who don't agree with Donald Trump 100 per cent of the time," Haley said. "My message is simple, you don't need to agree with Trump 100 per cent of the time to vote for him."
DeSantis urged voters to "make the 45th President of the United States, the 47th president." Meanwhile, DeSantis at the convention met with Iowa Republicans, a sitdown that was seen as an audition to court the early caucus state in a potential bid to become the 48th president.
Trump's party
Both Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, appeared on the convention floor Tuesday night. Trump still wore the square white bandage over his right ear three days after it was grazed by a would-be assassin's bullet at a Pennsylvania rally.
The evening offered a chance for Trump to broaden his appeal beyond his most loyal supporters, with Haley and others expected to make the case for why their supporters should switch allegiance to Trump. But the scheduled appearances by his challengers, along with 2016 opponents Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz "- sent the unmistakable signal of Trump's total control over the party.
The former president has flexed his hold in recent months, tapping his daughter-in-law as a co-chair of the Republican National Committee and by helping draft the convention's platform.
Successive speakers touched on the evening's theme "- "Make America Safe Again" "- with repeated criticisms of President Joe Biden's border policy, painting his presidency in apocalyptic terms, including with a video that accused the incumbent of allowing sex traffickers, drug gangs and terrorists to cross the border.
Cruz said the US is "facing an invasion on our southern invasion." "Not figuratively. A literal invasion," he added.
The tone of the evening signaled that Republicans, while calling for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump, would only go so far.
The surge in migrants has proven to be one of Biden's most vexing challenges. Republicans have seized on the crisis, which polls show is a defining issue for voters, rejecting at Trump's urging a bipartisan Senate compromise that aimed to bolster border security and in the process denying Biden a political win.
The president has turned to executive action to crack down on the border with new restrictions that seek to deter migrants' ability to seek asylum.
Trump is vowing to enact sweeping immigration reforms if elected that would test the boundaries of US law, including mass deportations. During the campaign, the former president has seized on violent crime allegedly committed by migrants, dubbing it "Biden migrant crime."
