GOP Convention To Count On Americans’ Collective Amnesia Of Trump's First Term

WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump left the White House with violent crime spiking, thousands of Americans dying each day from a disease he claimed was no worse than the common cold and having attempted a coup to remain in office despite having lost reelection.

The former and would-be future president and the Republican National Committee on Monday released a schedule of convention themes that counts on Americans forgetting all that and instead waxing nostalgic for his years in office.

“President Trump will Make America Great Once Again!” the RNC’s synopsis of the convention theme proclaims.

Each of the first three nights, though, promises a return to a Trump presidential past that did not really happen in the described way.

Monday, July 15, called “Make America Wealthy Once Again,” will focus on the economy under Trump, which it falsely claims was the best ever, thanks in part to “re-worked trade deals” he managed. In fact, the economy during Trump’s first three years ― before the COVID pandemic struck ― was similar to but slightly worse than during the final three years of his predecessor, Barack Obama. And Trump did not “rework” the North American Free Trade Agreement so much as simply rename it the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement. The few changes it did contain were mostly lifted from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Obama had negotiated but Trump then abandoned.

The theme for July 16, “Make America Safe Once Again,” suggests that crime has been rampant under President Joe Biden. In reality, crime rates spiked to their highest levels in years under Trump in 2020 and have been decreasing each of the three years since Biden took office.

And the final night before Trump is to be officially nominated ― labeled “Make