MILWAUKEE: Donald Trump’s former leading rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, offered full-throated endorsements of his candidacy at the party’s convention, a display of unity three days after Trump survived an assassination attempt.
Indian-American Haley, who had described Trump as unelectable and unfit for office during her campaign, nevertheless urged her supporters to vote for him over Democratic President Joe Biden “for the sake of our nation.”
“You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him,” the former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor said, after taking the stage to a mixture of cheers and boos.
DeSantis, the conservative Florida governor whose campaign sputtered early in the year, received a warm welcome from the crowd as he attacked Biden as too old for the job.
Trump smiled and applauded from his box in the arena, where he sat alongside the running mate whose selection he unveiled on Monday, US Senator JD Vance, himself a former fierce Trump critic who has become a staunch supporter.
Many of the Tuesday evening’s speeches — centered on the theme of law and order — were infused with Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, with speakers angrily denouncing Biden’s southern border policies as putting the country’s security at risk.
Trump has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration and pledged to launch the largest deportation effort in US history.