EDITORIAL: Donald Trump makes unifying pleas before turning to familiar territory

In the days after he was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet, Donald Trump’s Republican allies spoke of a change in the former president.

After all, he had been through a life-changing, almost life-ending, experience.

Trump himself said the incident had caused him to junk the speech he had planned to deliver at the party’s national conference. Instead, the master of division and discord would focus on the need for unity.

He started out true to his word.

Trump promised those assembled in Milwaukee a “new era of safety prosperity and freedom, for citizens of every race colour and creed”.

“I’m running for all of America, not half of America,” he said.

“In an age when our politics too often divide us, now is a time to remember that we are all American citizens.

“We must not criminalise dissent or demonise political disagreement.”

And as he gave his account of his brush with death — and paid tribute to Corey Comperatore, the Republican supporter killed at the weekend rally — the crowd hung from Trump’s every word.

It was a genuinely engrossing and powerful speech that perhaps gave the rest of the world an insight into just what Trump’s many devotees see in him.

But around the 20-minute mark, things took a turn back to the familiar.

Prior to the convention Trump had pledged he wouldn’t even mention his opponent by name.

But he couldn’t help doing so once, after first speaking of the need to “rescue our nation from failed and incompetent leadership”.

“If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States … added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done,” Trump said during that singular mention.

There were references too to “crazy” former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose husband Paul, like Trump, is a victim of politically-motivated violence, having been seriously injured during a home invasion of which Ms Pelosi was the target.

By the end of the 92-minute speech, Trump’s promise to be a unifying force for Americans was left as tattered as Hulk Hogan’s shirt.

And while Trump took his moment in the sun, forces continued to gather against Mr Biden.

With the exception of the man himself, Democrats appear to have come to terms with the fact that the ailing President will not be able to stop a re-energised Trump.

Ms Pelosi is reported to be leading a number of high-profile Democrats in a behind-the-scenes bid to convince Mr Biden to put the interests of his nation and democracy ahead of his own self-interest and step aside. Barack Obama too is reported to have privately expressed concerns about the viability of Mr Biden’s campaign chances.

The President’s recent COVID diagnosis provides an opportunity for him to give up the nomination, without enduring the embarrassment of admitting he is suffering cognitive decline associated with age.

In a campaign that has been marred with deceits, the lie that Mr Biden is fit for another term is one of the biggest of all.