Tiffany Trump speaks as she tapes her speech for the second day of the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. Photo / AP
Tiffany Trump speaks as she tapes her speech for the second day of the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. Photo / AP
COMMENT:
Tiffany Trump's speech to the Republican National Convention yesterday blindsided pretty much everyone, myself included.
Four years ago, the US President's youngest daughter delivered the sort of effective, humanising speech we have come to expect from a presidential nominee's child.
Tiffany, then 22, avoided partisan politics entirely. Instead of attacking Hillary Clinton, she focused on introducing Americans to the softer, more relatable side of her famously combative father.
"It's often said that with enough effort and determination you can do anything you put your mind to. But saying those words and living them are different things, and my father has lived them," she said.
"It's one of his defining qualities and I've seen it in action all of my life. Whatever he does, he gives his all and does it well.
"His desire for excellence is contagious, he possesses a unique gift for bringing that trait out in others, starting with those closest to him. He's always helped me to be the best version of myself.
A collection of Trump’s top female aides cast him as a “champion for women” in a video.
"He draws out the talent and drive in people so that they can achieve their full potential. That's a great quality to have in a father, and better yet in the President."
I remember Tiffany's speech well, because I covered it at the time. She was impressive enough to be one of the 2016 convention's biggest highlights.
She recounted fond memories of Donald Trump from her childhood, mentioning – to pick out one example – that she still kept her report cards from school so she could look back at the "sweet notes" he wrote on them.
"Natural charm, no facade," she said of her father, describing him as "so friendly, so considerate, so funny and so real".
This is all pretty standard stuff for a family member at one of America's political conventions. The focus tends to be on heartwarming anecdotes, which show the candidate is actually a real human being with empathy, as opposed to a power-hungry egotist.
Compare Tiffany's words in 2016 to the praise Joe Biden's son Hunter and daughter Ashley showered on him last week, and you'll find little difference.
But compare that Tiffany to the one who addressed Americans yesterday and there is hardly any resemblance.
Tiffany Trump stands on stage before she tapes her speech. Photo / AP
The quietest and least political of Trump's children barely mentioned him. Instead, she unleashed a conspiratorial rant against the media and big tech companies, which she said were "mentally enslaving" Americans.
"People must recognise that our thoughts, our opinions, and even the choice of who we are voting for may and are being manipulated and visibly coerced by the media and tech giants," Tiffany said.
"This manipulation of what information we receive impedes our freedoms. Rather than allowing Americans the right to form our own beliefs, this misinformation system keeps people mentally enslaved to the ideas they deemed correct.
"This has fostered unnecessary fear and divisiveness amongst us. Why are so many in media and technology and even in our own government so invested in promoting a biased and fabricated view? Ask yourselves, why are we prevented from seeing certain information? Why is one viewpoint promoted, while others are hidden?
"The answer is control. Because division and controversy breed profit."
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who is always admirably understated, politely described Tiffany's speech as "a little bananas".
I'll go further – this is the sort of nonsense you might read on a QAnon forum, or on an anti-masker's Facebook page, or on Pete Evans' Instagram, right next to his recipe for pan-fried ocean prawns.
Tiffany Trump speaks as she tapes her speech for the second day of the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. Photo / AP
Check out Facebook's most-shared stories on any given day and you will see a bunch of posts from conspiratorial, right-wing sites. Next on the list will be similarly conspiratorial posts from left-wing sites.
Trust me, if you want to find crazy stuff on the internet, very little is stopping you. However unconventional or even balls-to-the-wall insane your opinion might be, somewhere you will discover someone who agrees with it. No one is "mentally enslaving" you.
Goodness knows why Tiffany, a recent law school graduate whose only other qualification is being Donald Trump's extraordinarily privileged daughter, saw fit to lecture the rest of the United States on the evils of big tech, or why she thought it would help her father's re-election prospects.
I might not have been so surprised if her words had come out of Donald Trump Jr's mouth, or even Eric's. Both of them have a record of saying pretty wild stuff on television. Tiffany? Not so much.
"Whether you realise it or not, you are a Trump supporter," she said at one point, to which an untold number of Americans presumably replied: "Umm, no, actually I'm not."
Another Trump, however, deserves credit for her speech yesterday.
First lady Melania Trump speaks on the second night of the Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden of the White House. Photo / AP
First Lady Melania Trump had the guts to do what no other speaker in either of the convention's first two days had done – mention the country's ever-growing coronavirus death toll, which currently stands at 182,000.
Melania Trump expressed sincere sympathy for Americans who had lost loved ones to the pandemic.
"I want to acknowledge the fact that, since March, our lives have changed drastically. The invisible enemy, Covid-19, swept across our beautiful country and impacted all of us," she said.
"My deepest sympathy goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one, and my prayers are with those who are ill or suffering.
"I know many people are anxious and some feel helpless. I want you to know you are not alone. My husband's administration will not stop fighting until there is an effective treatment or vaccine available to everyone. Donald will not rest until he has done all he can to take care of everyone impacted by this pandemic."
There was something to be said for facing the subject head-on, instead of awkwardly avoiding it like everyone else at the convention.
President Donald Trump leaves with first lady Melania Trump after her speech to the 2020 Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden of the White House. Photo / AP
The Republicans' dominant approach so far has been to pretend everything is fine and dandy, thanks to Trump. And if, perchance, anything has gone wrong, it's certainly not his fault.
On Tuesday, for example, viewers were shown a compilation of Democratic governors downplaying the threat of the virus in the early weeks of the pandemic. It would have been a fair critique – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been particularly nauseating in his eagerness to rewrite history on the matter – but there was no mention whatsoever of the similarly complacent comments Trump kept making much deeper into the crisis.
Another example, lest you think I'm being nitpicky. Before Melania Trump spoke yesterday, her husband's chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow addressed the convention. He referred to the pandemic in the past tense.
"It was awful. Health and economic impacts were tragic. Hardship and heartbreak were everywhere. But presidential leadership came swiftly and effectively with an extraordinary rescue for health and safety to successfully fight the Covid virus," Kudlow said.
More than 1000 Americans died from the virus on Tuesday. Excuse the flippant analogy, but talking about this disease in the past tense is akin to me talking about how my unhealthy obsession with peanut butter "was making me fat" and "had detrimental effects on my nutrition", even though I'm still addicted to the stuff.
The battle against the virus continues. At least Melania Trump was willing to acknowledge reality.
