GOP candidate Donald J. Trump accepted his party’s nomination for president Thursday night at the fourth and final night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
Introduced to the packed arena of 50,000 delegates, the political novice opened with a small smile, and a question. “Who would have believed when we started this on June 16 that the Republican Party would receive almost 14 million votes — the most in the history of the party? The Republican has party received 60 percent more votes than it received eight years ago,” he said. By comparison, the Democratic Party received “20 percent fewer votes than it received four years ago … not so good. Not so good,” he shook his head.
“Together we will lead our party back to the White House and we will lead our country back to safety and peace… But we will also be a country of law and order,” he said. “Beginning on January 20, safety will be restored,” he said.
But it was in the foreign policy section of his speech, that Trump focused on the issue of world terror, and in particular, the situation in the Middle East. He noted it had become “worse than it has ever been before.”
“After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the entire world,” Trump declared. “Libya is in ruins and our Ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim Brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos. Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis, and now threatens the West.
“This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism, and weakness. But Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy,” Trump said.
“A change in leadership is required to produce a change in outcomes,” he noted.
“Once again, France is the victim of brutal Islamic terrorism. Men, women and children viciously mowed down. Lives ruined. Families ripped apart. A nation in mourning.
“The damage and devastation that can be inflicted by Islamic radicals has been proven over and over — at the World Trade Center, at an office party in San Bernardino, at the Boston Marathon, at a military recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And many many other locations.
“To protect us from terrorism, we need to focus on three things,” Trump said.
“We must have the best — absolutely the best — gathering of intelligence anywhere in the world. The best.
“We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, in Libya, in Egypt and in Syria.
“Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terrorism and doing it now, doing it quickly.
“This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel.
“Recently, I have said NATO is obsolete because it did not properly cover terror, and also that many of the member countries were not paying their fair share. As usual, the United States has been picking up the costs,” he said.
“Shortly thereafter, it was announced that NATO will be setting up a new program in order to combat terrorism.
“A true step in the right direction,” he commented.