Politics
Column: We were promised a 'softer' Donald Trump. What we got was a fully Trumpified Republican Party
Donald Trump couldn’t restrain himself.
The former president’s aides had promised that his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention would showcase a “softer,” more conciliatory Trump — and, for perhaps 20 minutes, it did.
But for viewers who watched the whole 92-minute stem-winder, which devolved into a meandering list of bogus claims and well-worn grievances, the lesson was that there is no New Trump. If anything, this year’s version of Trump is even Trumpier than before — one committed to cementing the populist transformation of the GOP for at least another generation.
So the convention in Milwaukee ended with its mission only half accomplished.
Political conventions are lumbering anachronisms, but they survive because they serve two purposes. First, they ratify a choice of nominee and unify and inspire party activists. Then they take advantage of free television time to present their message to the uncommitted but persuadable voters they need to win.
This week’s convention ratified not only Trump’s third nomination, but also the lasting triumph of his grievance-based MAGA ideology over the rest of the GOP. It brought skeptical holdouts like former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley back into the Trumpist fold (even though she drew boos) and produced a show of party unity.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s chief primary rival, was one of the former foes who fell in line behind the ex-president during the Republican National Convention this week.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
But when it came to a message that might persuade suburban voters, women and others in the center of the electorate that this year’s Trump is an improvement over previous models, the convention fell short — a missed opportunity for a candidate who has never won more than 47% of the popular vote.
The first time Trump won the GOP nomination, in 2016, it was a hostile takeover by an insurgent with weak Republican credentials. Dissidents like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio’s then-Gov. John Kasich warned that the New York real estate mogul was taking the party down a path to destruction.
The second time, in 2020, Trump’s nomination was automatic, the traditional act of a party denominating an incumbent president.
This time, the convention made it clear that the old business-dominated, “country club” Republican Party of Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the two George Bushes is long gone.
“Trump has realigned the parties in a way that wasn’t there before,” said Geoffrey Kabaservice, author of “Rule and Ruin,” a history of modern Republicanism. “Almost every white working-class voter is going to be a Republican. Almost every college-educated voter is going to be a Democrat” — a reversal of the norm for more than half a century. “That realignment appears likely to last several decades at least.”
The most striking evidence is the nominee’s choice of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance for vice president.
The 39-year-old populist was the Trumpiest of the three finalists; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had roots in the party’s pre-Trump establishment.
In his convention speech, Vance made it clear that, like Trump, he blames old-style Republicans like the Bushes for the nation’s ills as much as he blames Democrats.
“From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again,” he said.
Vance’s selection may have partly reflected electoral strategy: He could help the ticket win white working-class voters in the industrial swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. But it was also a signal of the direction Trump wants the party to take in 2028.
“Vance is a generational play, not an electoral play,” Democratic strategist David Axelrod said.
In a second Trump administration, Vance would not act as a restraining influence, as Burgum or Rubio might have, but as an intensifier of Trump’s populist instincts.
Vance has been more explicit than Trump on his desire to end U.S. aid to Ukraine immediately. “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine, one way or the other,” he said in 2022.
Intriguingly, Vance has broken from GOP orthodoxy — and from Trump’s positions — on several economic issues. He has said he does not think cuts in corporate taxes, a key part of Trump’s agenda, are necessary. He has suggested he could support a $20 minimum wage, anathema to most business leaders.
Some of the most interesting battles of a second Trump administration could center on those issues.
“What you have in this ticket is a weird amalgam of plutocratic populism,” Kabaservice said. “It’s incoherent and inconsistent. It’s not clear which parts Trump has signed onto. After all, which part of his agenda is most likely to pass? I think the answer is big corporate tax cuts.”
Trump’s acceptance speech was also a weird amalgam — between the kinder, gentler nominee his aides had hoped to showcase and the angry, resentful candidate he has been for most of the last decade.
On Thursday morning, daughter-in-law Lara Trump, vice chair of the GOP, promised that the acceptance speech would reveal “a bit softer version” of the nominee, who she said had been deeply affected by his brush with death after being wounded in a gunman’s assassination attempt.
But after a long description of the assassination attempt and a brief appeal to national unity — “We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement,” Trump said — he resumed demonizing President Biden and other Democrats, including “crazy Nancy Pelosi,” accusing them of “destroying our country.”
Trump’s definition of “unity,” it turned out, did not include mutual respect or bipartisan cooperation. It boiled down to accepting his policies and dropping every federal prosecution he faces.
“If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts,” he said.
Most of the address — much of which departed from his written text, as Trump usually does — was a loop of greatest hits from Trump’s stump speeches. It included a torrent of bogus claims, accusations and yet another admiring mention of the “late, great” fictional cannibal, Hannibal Lecter. The only sign of restraint was that this time, he did not use the word “vermin” to describe his political opponents or promise to prosecute them if he reaches the White House.
If he had accomplished the change in tone that his aides sought to broaden his appeal, he might have paved a path for his party to a popular-vote majority and control of the House of Representatives and Senate. But the speech he gave probably kept alive the doubts many voters have about his fitness for office.
And he gave Democrats an opening they can exploit — but only if they can settle on a nominee of their own.
Politics
Federal judge blocks Trump from cutting childcare funds to Democratic states over fraud concerns
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A federal judge Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from stopping subsidies on childcare programs in five states, including Minnesota, amid allegations of fraud.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, a Biden appointee, didn’t rule on the legality of the funding freeze, but said the states had met the legal threshold to maintain the “status quo” on funding for at least two weeks while arguments continue.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it would withhold funds for programs in five Democratic states over fraud concerns.
The programs include the Child Care and Development Fund, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and the Social Services Block Grant, all of which help needy families.
USDA IMMEDIATELY SUSPENDS ALL FEDERAL FUNDING TO MINNESOTA AMID FRAUD INVESTIGATION
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it would withhold funds for programs in five Democratic states over fraud concerns. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
“Families who rely on childcare and family assistance programs deserve confidence that these resources are used lawfully and for their intended purpose,” HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a statement on Tuesday.
The states, which include California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, argued in court filings that the federal government didn’t have the legal right to end the funds and that the new policy is creating “operational chaos” in the states.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian at his nomination hearing in 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In total, the states said they receive more than $10 billion in federal funding for the programs.
HHS said it had “reason to believe” that the programs were offering funds to people in the country illegally.
‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’: SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESS GOV WALZ OVER MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL
The table above shows the five states and their social safety net funding for various programs which are being withheld by the Trump administration over allegations of fraud. (AP Digital Embed)
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a “critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a “critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.” (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital has reached out to HHS for comment.
In what might be the most decisive critique yet of President Trump’s remake of the Kennedy Center, the Washington National Opera’s board approved a resolution on Friday to leave the venue it has occupied since 1971.
“Today, the Washington National Opera announced its decision to seek an amicable early termination of its affiliation agreement with the Kennedy Center and resume operations as a fully independent nonprofit entity,” the company said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Roma Daravi, Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, described the relationship with Washington National Opera as “financially challenging.”
“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with the WNO due to a financially challenging relationship,” Daravi said in a statement. “We believe this represents the best path forward for both organizations and enables us to make responsible choices that support the financial stability and long-term future of the Trump Kennedy Center.”
Kennedy Center President Ambassador Richard Grenell tweeted that the call was made by the Kennedy Center, writing that its leadership had “approached the Opera leadership last year with this idea and they began to be open to it.”
“Having an exclusive relationship has been extremely expensive and limiting in choice and variety,” Grenell wrote. “We have spent millions of dollars to support the Washington Opera’s exclusivity and yet they were still millions of dollars in the hole – and getting worse.”
WNO’s decision to vacate the Kennedy Center’s 2,364-seat Opera House comes amid a wave of artist cancellations that came after the venue’s board voted to rename the center the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. New signage featuring Trump’s name went up on the building’s exterior just days after the vote while debate raged over whether an official name change could be made without congressional approval.
That same day, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) — an ex officio member of the board — wrote on social media that the vote was not unanimous and that she and others who might have voiced their dissent were muted on the call.
Grenell countered that ex officio members don’t get a vote.
Cancellations soon began to mount — as did Kennedy Center‘s rebukes against the artists who chose not to appear. Jazz drummer Chuck Redd pulled out of his annual Christmas Eve concert; jazz supergroup the Cookers nixed New Year’s Eve shows; New York-based Doug Varone and Dancers dropped out of April performances; and Grammy Award-winning banjo player Béla Fleck wrote on social media that he would no longer play at the venue in February.
WNO’s departure, however, represents a new level of artist defection. The company’s name is synonymous with the Kennedy Center and it has served as an artistic center of gravity for the complex since the building first opened.
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Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leveling a stunning accusation at Vice President JD Vance amid the national furor over this week’s fatal shooting in Minnesota involving an ICE agent.
“I understand that Vice President Vance believes that shooting a young mother of three in the face three times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, and I do not,” the four-term federal lawmaker from New York and progressive champion argued as she answered questions on Friday on Capitol Hill from Fox News and other news organizations.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good after she confronted ICE agents from inside her car in Minneapolis.
RENEE NICOLE GOOD PART OF ‘ICE WATCH’ GROUP, DHS SOURCES SAY
Members of law enforcement work the scene following a suspected shooting by an ICE agent during federal operations on January 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Video of the incident instantly went viral, and while Democrats have heavily criticized the shooting, the Trump administration is vocally defending the actions of the ICE agent.
HEAD HERE FOR LIVE FOX NEWS UPDATES ON THE ICE SHOOTING IN MINNESOTA
Vance, at a White House briefing on Thursday, charged that “this was an attack on federal law enforcement. This was an attack on law and order.”
“That woman was there to interfere with a legitimate law enforcement operation,” the vice president added. “The president stands with ICE, I stand with ICE, we stand with all of our law enforcement officers.”
And Vance claimed Good was “brainwashed” and suggested she was connected to a “broader, left-wing network.”
Federal sources told Fox News on Friday that Good, who was a mother of three, worked as a Minneapolis-based immigration activist serving as a member of “ICE Watch.”
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Ocasio-Cortez, in responding to Vance’s comments, said, “That is a fundamental difference between Vice President Vance and I. I do not believe that the American people should be assassinated in the street.”
But a spokesperson for the vice president, responding to Ocasio-Cortez’s accusation, told Fox News Digital, “On National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, AOC made it clear she thinks that radical leftists should be able to mow down ICE officials in broad daylight. She should be ashamed of herself. The Vice President stands with ICE and the brave men and women of law enforcement, and so do the American people.”
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