Democrats would love for the 2020 election to be a referendum on the person of Donald Trump. So, apparently, would Mr. Trump. Typically, a political convention is a dayslong crescendo, rising steadily in intensity until the nominee takes the stage on the final night. Not this year.
On Monday evening, when the Republican National Convention began broadcasting its TV-palooza, the speeches by Tim Scott and Nikki Haley were delivered in the expected tone. But President Trump isn’t a man content to wait for cues. Hours before prime time, Mr. Trump surprised GOP delegates in Charlotte, N.C., where he delivered almost an hour of freewheeling observations in his usual style.
He called Bernie Sanders “the greatest loser I’ve ever seen.” He promised to put a man on Mars. He predicted that his price controls on drugs will cut the cost of a patient’s prescriptions by perhaps 70%. He warned that Democrats are “using Covid to steal an election.”
Mr. Trump enthused that, “Air Force One has more televisions than any plane in history.” Responding to chants of “four more years,” he joked that, “If you want to really drive them crazy, you say ‘12 more years.’ ” As for the Democratic agenda, he said: “They want no guns. They want no oil and gas. And they want no God.”
When the prime-time program started, Mr. Trump was there, too. In two segments, he moderated group conversations, including one with “front-line” workers, where he name-checked the “China virus” and made a joke about hydroxychloroquine. Several montages showed the president shaking hands, flashing thumbs-up, signing documents, laying wreaths, and so forth. Mr. Trump reportedly will be playing some kind of role in every nightly TV broadcast this week.
It’s a curious strategy, given the polling. In 2016, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were the two most intensely disliked presidential nominees in Gallup’s historical data, which goes back to the 1950s. Four years on, Mr. Trump’s net approval has improved somewhat—to minus 15, or 42% favorable to 57% unfavorable. Joe Biden, by comparison, is about even, 47% favorable to 48% unfavorable. Among independent voters, Mr. Biden is 11 points underwater, but Mr. Trump is 20 points in the drink.
Monday’s lineup included speakers who could theoretically reach waffling voters. “I am living my mother’s American dream,” said Sen. Tim Scott. He talked about opportunity zones, school choice and “the evolution of the Southern heart.” His grandfather, Mr. Scott explained, was “forced out of school as a third-grader to pick cotton” but lived to see his grandson sitting in the U.S. Senate.
Maximo Alvarez, who called himself Cuban-born “but 100% American,” evoked “the sound of waves in the ocean, carrying families clinging to pieces of wood” and “the sound of tears hitting the paper of an application to become an American citizen.” Mr. Trump “may not always be politically correct,” but Mr. Alvarez said he believes in a president who will protect the country’s freedoms, since “there is no other place to go.”
Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, cast Mr. Biden as weak on foreign policy, saying that the previous administration “let Iran get away with murder, and literally sent them a planeful of cash.” She praised Mr. Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a shift that other presidents had promised but failed to deliver.
Undecided voters who are weary of Mr. Trump could be moved by these varied attestations to his administration’s record. Maybe Mr. Trump should sit back and let them be persuaded.
Peterson serves on the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal.
