Trump, in big moment, makes peace with teleprompter
In the end, Donald Trump took the conventional route. For one night, the Apprentice host-turned-contender chose to dance not with the fractured rhetoric that brought him, instead embracing that despised machine - the teleprompter - he once said presidential candidates shouldn't be allowed.
In the end, Donald Trump took the conventional route.
For one night, the Apprentice host-turned-contender chose to dance not with the fractured rhetoric that brought him, instead embracing that despised machine - the teleprompter - he once said presidential candidates shouldn't be allowed.
Wearing a shiny red tie and standing behind a lectern trimmed in his trademark gold, Trump accepted the Republican nomination in a speech that departed only occasionally from text released earlier in the day, declaring that for the "people who work hard but no longer have a voice, I am your voice."
If largely missing from that very loud voice were some of Trump's favorite adjectives - sad, lame, crooked, to name a few - the candidate's facial expressions and body language made it clear he was still in there.
"We're going to win, we're going to win fast," he added at one point, as if sensing the crowd needed to hear him say it.
Many have compared Trump's candidacy to a "reality" show, but until its final night, the Republican National Convention had suggested otherwise.
Were Mark Burnett (Survivor, The Apprentice) still Trump's producer, Ted Cruz wouldn't have been speaking on Wednesday, helping with his non-endorsement to push vice presidential nominee Mike Pence's speech past 11 and out of network prime time.
And Trump himself might not have given what C-SPAN said was the longest acceptance speech since at least 1972, which is as far back as its records go.
Unscripted television is way too disciplined - and scripted - for that.
Which isn't to say Trump's RNC hasn't had spectacle. Breaking from the tradition that says a candidate, like a bride, shouldn't be seen till the crowning moment, Trump made his first showy - and much-lampooned - entrance on Monday to introduce his wife, Melania, emerging from silhouette to the strains of Queen's "We Are the Champions."
On Thursday, he skipped the special effects, simply walking onto the stage to kiss his daughter Ivanka, who introduced him, and giving the crowd two thumbs up.
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