Former President Trump, in a rambling speech at his election watch party, claimed he would unite the country, following his increasingly demonizing attacks on his critics over the last few months.
“Success is going to bring us together,” he said.
Despite his calling critics “evil,” “sick,” “enemies from within” and using coarse terms for his Democratic rival, he said the time had come to “put the divisions of the past four years behind us.”
Trump’s supporters who gathered at the convention center in West Palm Beach, Fla., hugged one another and threw their MAGA hats in the air before he arrived, celebrating as results showed him leading in the presidential race.
“We’re going to make America better than it’s ever been,” Trump said in an address that frequently diverged from prepared remarks and followed some of the themes from his campaign rallies.
He praised his wife and children, running mate JD Vance, his late mother-in-law, UFC chief executive Dana White, a pro golfer, Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump has said Kennedy will play a role when it comes to health policy but has not specified what that would be. Kennedy, who launched his own presidential bid as an independent before dropping out of the race and endorsing Trump, joined him at several rallies in the last stretch of the campaign.
“He’s going to make America healthy again,” Trump said of Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who has promoted falsehoods about the subject.
“He wants to do some things and we’re going to let him go to it,” Trump added, before telling Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, to stay away from Trump’s oil plans.
“Stay away from the liquid gold,” Trump said. “Other than that, go have a good time, Bobby.”
Trump called Musk — the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire who helped und a super PAC supporting Trump and used his following on his social media platform X to boost the former president — a “super genius” and “a new star.”
Before Trump arrived at his watch party, a Trump campaign spokesperson weighed in mockingly on the falling mood at the event Vice President Kamala Harris had planned at Howard University in Washington, D.C. “Sounds like the joy has left the building,” Karoline Leavitt posted on X.
Echoes of 2016 in Harris’ 2024 election night
Forgive Democrats if they are having a bit of déjà vu.
There were noticeable similarities between then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s election night in 2016 and Tuesday’s Harris event.
Neither Clinton nor Harris appeared at their election night party, despite both heading into election day believing they were about to defeat Donald Trump.
Both sent top aides to inform the demoralized audience that the candidate would not speak. And there were noticeable similarities between what each man said.
“We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted,” Cedric Richmond, Harris’ campaign co-chair, told the audience Tuesday. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow.”
“We’re still counting votes,” John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, said in 2016. “And every vote should count. Several states are too close to call. So we’re not going to have anything more to say tonight.”
