Former President Trump’s top rivals in the Republican Party lined up behind the 2024 nominee on Tuesday, promising he would “make America safe again” from violent criminals and dangerous undocumented immigrants who they suggested are invading the nation via an “open” southern border.

After questioning his abilities and integrity during the primaries, they gave full-throated backing to a man they once loudly reviled, saying that unifying behind their former foe was crucial for the nation’s future. Trump, who entered the convention hall to thunderous applause, looked on approvingly as his former opponents urged voters to return him to the White House.

“For more than a year, I said a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris,” said Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. “After seeing the debate, everyone knows it’s true. If we have four more years of Biden or a single day of Harris, our country will be badly worse off. For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump.”

But Haley said her message was aimed at voters who may have qualms about the former president.

“We should acknowledge there are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100% of the time. I happen to know some,” said Haley, whom Trump nicknamed “Birdbrain” during their 2024 primary contest. “My message to them is simple. You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him. Take it from me, I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree.”

Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, entered the Milwaukee arena shortly before speeches by Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom he bested in a testy 2024 GOP primary, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of his opponents in the 2016 election.

“Let’s send Joe Biden back to his basement and let’s send Donald Trump back to the White House,” said DeSantis, whom Trump nicknamed “Ron DeSanctimonious.” “Our border was safer under the Trump administration and our country was respected when Donald Trump was our commander in chief. Joe Biden has failed this nation.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Haley and DeSantis apparently learned a lesson from Cruz — aka “Lyin’ Ted” — whose failure to endorse Trump after losing to him in the 2016 GOP primary earned him boos at that year’s convention and some enmity from Trump loyalists. He has since fallen back in line with the man who suggested his father was potentially involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The praise of Trump was interspersed with speeches about crime and immigration, and some of the most moving and powerful moments of the night came from families of crime victims.

On Tuesday, Cruz listed the names of Americans allegedly killed by people who are in the country illegally, including Kathryn Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who was shot in 2015 while strolling with her father on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

“As a result of Joe Biden’s presidency, your family is less safe. Your children are less safe. The country is less safe. But here’s the good news: We can fix it. And when Donald Trump is president, we will fix it,” Cruz said. “We know this because he’s done it before.”

Tuesday night’s convention theme was “Make America Safe Again.”

Speaker after speaker, from politicians to law enforcement officials to people labeled “everyday Americans,” blamed crime in the U.S. in part on an “invasion” of criminals crossing into the country from the southern border with Mexico — though studies for years have shown immigrants are less likely to commit crimes here than natural-born U.S. citizens.

Kari Lake, a prominent 2020 election denier who lost a 2022 bid to become Arizona governor and is now running for the U.S. Senate, blamed “disastrous” Democratic policies for the surge in fentanyl and other opioid deaths in the country and along the southern border — which she said Trump would end.

Kari Lake speaks at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Lake said President Biden and Democrats “have handed over control of my state, Arizona’s border, to the drug cartels,” and that “because of them, criminals and deadly drugs are pouring in and our children are dying.”

Anne Fundner, a mother from California, said her 15-year-old son, Weston, died from fentanyl in 2022 — which she blamed on the “open border” policies of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“This was not an overdose, it was a poisoning. His whole future, everything we ever wanted for him, was ripped away in an instant — and Joe Biden does nothing,” Fundner said.

She said Trump must be elected to help end fentanyl’s scourge on American families like hers. “This fight is not for me. My son is gone,” she said. “This fight is for your children.”

Crime and homelessness are perennial campaign talking points among Republicans, often couched as the result of liberal policies in states such as California.

Republicans claim the title of the “law and order” party, which has been a particularly useful point of political redirection for Trump as he has faced multiple criminal investigations and been convicted of dozens of felonies in recent years.

Democrats dismiss the Republican criticisms as inaccurate or overblown. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco do struggle with crime and homelessness issues, Democrats say, but not to the extent Republicans suggest — and cities in red states struggle with similar issues.

Democrats also blasted Republicans for platforming individuals at the RNC who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and siege on the U.S. Capitol.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Officer Michael Fanone, a Capitol Police officer who was injured in that attack, condemned the presence of insurrectionists at the convention.

“What happened on January 6th almost cost me my life and brought our democracy to the brink,” Fanone said in a statement. “This is a moment to come together and oppose those who call for violence in politics, but the RNC’s decision to give a platform to the same people who rioted against our democracy on January 6th does the opposite.”

Crime data vary across the country and within individual states.

However, the clearest trend in crime data in recent years nationwide, experts said, is that violent crime is down. Republicans often dismiss such data by saying they are fabricated or the result of lower reporting rates.

MILWAUKEE – South Carolina GOP Senator Tim Scott is pushing back after the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee said “I don’t buy it” when asked about former President Donald Trump gaining popularity with Black voters. 

“Well, November 5th, you will have to buy it. It’ll be sold,” Scott told Fox News at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin.

“I think there’s probably a reason why Tim Scott wasn’t selected to be the vice president even though Mr. Trump is supposedly trying to make inroads with African Americans,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said Tuesday during a press conference when asked about Scott’s outreach to the Black community. “I don’t buy that, I just don’t.”

Johnson added that he doesn’t think Scott has “the juice” to convince Black voters to vote for Trump.

TIM SCOTT DELIVERS ROUSING RNC SPEECH AFTER TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: ‘DEVIL CAME TO PENNSYLVANIA’

“I think black people across the United States know that President Joe Biden’s agenda has been delivering not just for the United States, but specifically for Black people,” Johnson said. 

Scott, who held an event at the RNC promoting voter outreach to the Black community, told Fox News that “if we market our message” Trump will “see the highest turnout of African-American voters we’ve seen since he’s been running for president.”

“President Trump has been very successful and very effective in meeting the moment for African-American voters like he has for the rest of the country,” Scott said.

POLITICO SEEMS BAFFLED AT REPUBLICANS CREDITING ‘DIVINE INTERVENTION’ FOR SAVING TRUMP FROM ASSASSINATION

Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, attends the Independence Day parade in Merrimack, New Hampshire, US, on Tuesday, July 4, 2023. (Mel Musto/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Scott acknowledged to Fox News that it is difficult for Republicans to make inroads with Black women, who he called the most “loyal” and “fierce” voters in the Democratic Party. However, he argued that Black men are “very different.”

“They are what I call gettable,” Scott said. “If we sell our message sincerely, accurately, with passion, I believe that selling our message to the African-American community will result in a lot of strong turnout. 15%. I do not think it is unrealistic. We could go higher. But if we get to 15%, this game is all over.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said he doesn’t think SEn. Tim Scott has “the juice” to convince Black voters to vote for Donald Trump. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

A USA Today/Suffolk University poll released last month found that support for Biden among Black voters has dropped roughly 20 percentage points in the swing states of Michigan and Pennsylvania since the last election. 

Fox News polling showed that Biden led Trump by 64 points with Black voters in July 2020. Today, Biden’s lead has shrunk to 42.