• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic

2

The Pentagon said Iran War costs $29 billion, but the real cost is closer to $200 billion—and counting

3

Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less

1

Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic

2

The Pentagon said Iran War costs $29 billion, but the real cost is closer to $200 billion—and counting

3

Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less
Leadership

Accepting Nomination, Donald Trump Depicts U.S. as Lawless at Home, Disrespected Abroad

By
Ben Geier
Ben Geier
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Ben Geier
Ben Geier
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 22, 2016, 12:02 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Donald Trump brought a close to the Republican National Convention on Thursday night by delivering a dark assessment of the country he hopes to lead, promising to restore safety and prosperity largely through the strength of his will.

The address played to his favorite issues, focused on the candidate’s bold, if vague, core principles, and included many of his standard campaign lines.

Trump talked once again about his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border. “We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities,” he said.

Trump attacked Hillary Clinton in unusually vicious terms for a nominee’s acceptance speech, focusing on the presumptive Democratic nominee’s foreign policy record and the scandal regarding her use of a private email server. On her tenure as Secretary of State, Trump said that Clinton’s legacy was “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.”

And, of course, the Republican presidential candidate emphasized his own success as a businessperson as a key qualification for his election.

Trump referred to himself as “the law and order candidate,” promising that Americans would feel safer under his leadership.

“On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced,” Trump said. “We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone.”

At the top of his speech, Trump pledged to lay out some harsh realities. “We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else,” he said, before launching into a litany of crime statistics chosen to conjure a scary picture of rising lawlessness. It was a theme he returned to later in his speech: “I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order our country. Believe me, believe me.”

But the national crime wave Trump presented isn’t backed up by the numbers, which show violent crime has dropped significantly since the early 1990s. A recent fact-check of Trump’s claims by the Associated Press, citing FBI data, found the violent crime rate topped out in 1991 with 758 attacks per 100,000 people and had dipped by more than half to 366 per 100,000 by 2014, the last year for which numbers are available. Further, there’s little evidence that voters see a threat as dire as the one Trump depicted. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found the issue didn’t rank in the top 14 concerns that voters listed as very important to their decision in the presidential race.

In full, Trump’s speech refuted the old saw that pols campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Implicit in that formulation is a recognition that candidates have to inspire with uplift and then, once in office, lead by reconciling their vision with the demands of the opposition. But Trump, in accepting the Republican nomination, offered a different model – he’s campaigning with fear and pledging to govern with blunt force.

In place of proposals he’ll pursue to advance his agenda, he offered QVC-worthy guarantees that things will turn around — “quickly” — as soon as he’s inaugurated, a point he frequently punctuated by adding one of his signature rhetorical flourishes, “Believe me,” though it never appeared in the draft version of his speech.

Otherwise, Trump mostly stuck to the script, avoiding his frequent pitfall of riffing extemporaneously to sometimes disastrous results. And, in a departure from his behavior during the campaign so far, Trump responded to chants of “lock her up” regarding Clinton by simply nodding and then saying that Republicans should “defeat her in November.”

As is tradition, the speech ended with Trump and his family on stage, along with vice presidential nominee Mike Pence and his wife and children. The balloons fell from the rafters of the Quicken Loans Arena. The delegates cheered, screamed, clapped, and danced.

After a convention that was beset with a number of high-profile distractions — Ted Cruz’s non-endorsement, threats of revolt from delegates, and the plagiarism in Melania Trump’s speech — the event came to a fairly traditional ending.

The end of the convention, though, is where the real campaign begins. And with Hillary Clinton and the Democrats set to have their own four-day party/infomercial next week, the Trump campaign now faces the real test of both maintaining GOP unity and keeping its organization intact all the way to November.

About the Author
By Ben Geier
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Leadership

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Leadership

nido
Commentary250 Years of Innovation
As an immigrant turned entrepreneur and college president, here is why I celebrate our nation as it turns 250
By Nido R. QubeinJune 25, 2026
2 hours ago
A 6 year study shows which CEOs are pushing RTO mandates: The ones with the biggest egos
NewslettersCEO Daily
A 6 year study shows which CEOs are pushing RTO mandates: The ones with the biggest egos
By Claire ZillmanJune 25, 2026
4 hours ago
Jen Wong, chief operating officer at Reddit, speaks during the OMR digital and marketing trade fair
Big TechReddit
Reddit COO targets 1 billion users as internet’s ‘odd duck’ aims for new heights
By Sam BirchallJune 25, 2026
5 hours ago
Ikea’s billionaire founder was so frugal that he bought clothes from flea markets and took free salt and pepper from restaurants
SuccessBillionaires
Ikea’s billionaire founder was so frugal that he bought clothes from flea markets and took free salt and pepper from restaurants
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 25, 2026
7 hours ago
Fortune 500 bosses demanding staff return to the office share one trait: narcissism, research finds
C-SuiteLeadership
Fortune 500 bosses demanding staff return to the office share one trait: narcissism, research finds
By Claire ZillmanJune 25, 2026
7 hours ago
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America’s $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
SuccessMacKenzie Scott
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America’s $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
7 hours ago

Most Popular

Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic
Success
Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 24, 2026
1 day ago
The Pentagon said Iran War costs $29 billion, but the real cost is closer to $200 billion—and counting
Economy
The Pentagon said Iran War costs $29 billion, but the real cost is closer to $200 billion—and counting
By Jacqueline MunisJune 24, 2026
1 day ago
Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less
Retail
Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less
By Nick LichtenbergJune 24, 2026
23 hours ago
Ray Dalio just finished a 10-day trip to China. He says global leaders know America ‘doesn’t have what it takes to fight to maintain its empire’
Asia
Ray Dalio just finished a 10-day trip to China. He says global leaders know America ‘doesn’t have what it takes to fight to maintain its empire’
By Nick LichtenbergJune 24, 2026
1 day ago
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
Success
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
2 days ago
Trump’s international student crackdown kicked off a domino effect that could shave nearly $500 billion off the economy
Economy
Trump’s international student crackdown kicked off a domino effect that could shave nearly $500 billion off the economy
By Tristan BoveJune 24, 2026
20 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.