A sea of Republicans greeted former President Donald J. Trump with cheers and thunderous applause as he appeared at the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee, just days after his attempted assassination. He responded by pumping his fist in the air.
For the first three days of the convention, the former president appeared in the stands and basked in the moment before taking his seat. The people who gathered to celebrate their nominee were true believers, there to rally around him. Members of the party were energized and unified, while their Democratic counterparts seemed increasingly fractured as concerns about President Biden’s candidacy deepened.
The nominating convention was the latest step in a once-improbable comeback, an unlikely political resurrection of a man whose followers thought had been cheated out of a second term and who was now officially entering his third general election as their nominee. Mr. Trump’s agenda, values and beliefs, including his false claims about the 2020 election, were on full display throughout the week and were prominently featured in speeches by his supporters and former rivals.
And while political conventions can sometimes be staid affairs, with delegate meetings and discussions about the party’s platforms, make no mistake about why these Republicans were there: It was all about Mr. Trump. He had seized control of the party and remade it in his image, galvanizing his followers in a way that few politicians can. For those assembled, it was a moment, and Mr. Trump was at the center of it.
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