Trump delivers longest-ever convention acceptance speech: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the a special edition From the Politics Desk, bringing you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Tonight, senior national politics reporter Matt Dixon wraps up former President Donald Trump's lengthy GOP convention speech, his first since the shooting at his Pennsylvania campaign rally. Plus, we fact-check Trump's claims on taxes, crime and foreign policy.

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Trump savors convention crowd in lengthy acceptance speech

By Matt Dixon

MILWAUKEE — Donald Trump on Thursday night formally accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in a speech heavy with references to the shooting he survived last week and elongated by ad-libbed applause lines and riffs — capping a long-anticipated moment that came only after a winding and dramatic campaign.

Trump, now the first major-party presidential nominee who has been convicted of felonies, took the stage days after a 20-year-old gunman nearly assassinated him during a rally in Pennsylvania, firing a bullet that clipped his right ear and left it bloodied. He wore a white square bandage over his wounded ear throughout the convention, with some attendees wearing their own in solidarity during the weeklong event.

While Trump is known for his off-the-cuff public remarks and social media posts, he has given highly planned convention speeches in the past. Thursday’s speech started that way, but he soon detoured to give lengthy thanks to the speakers and attendees and then to engage the crowd with asides, impressions and sometimes hard-to-follow deviations.

His speech as written could have come from any number of Republicans, but the