Donald Trump finally gets the convention of his dreams

The News

The 2024 Republican National Convention is being planned to mark Donald Trump’s full takeover of the Republican Party, setting the stage for behind-the-scenes debates in the coming months over what policies and politics will define Trumpism.

The meeting in Milwaukee from July 15-18 will be the first such show that Trump and his aides truly control. The 2016 event, when Trump was only beginning to consolidate his hold on the party, featured boycotts from prominent Republicans, some onstage mishaps, a delegate protest, and a platform debate over Ukraine that was probed in a federal investigation.

This year, Trump will be able to — for the first time — throw the kind of party hewants.

“We’re exercising complete control over not only just the mechanics and the makeup of the committee, but also in the message,” one person involved in the efforts told Semafor. “And the outfacing message of the convention is Donald Trump — the party’s nominee.”

Trump cleared house at the Republican National Committee in March and installed his handpicked team in leadership positions. That too will be a departure from 2016, when he inherited an RNC dominated by longtime leader Reince Priebus, who served as a key bridge between his campaign and existing party leadership before joining his administration as chief of staff. Priebus will be the Host Committee chairman this time, on behalf of his native Wisconsin.

The most important signal of the party’s future will likely come in the form of a new GOP platform. That will be the first since 2016 because the party made the unusual decision during the COVID-dominated 2020 convention to roll over the previous document, which included some Trump-era changes like support for a border wall and withdrawing support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It also included more traditional talk around issues like NATO and the party’s commitment to thwarting Russia’s territorial ambitions that are now more hotly contested.

The specifics of what this year’s convention will look like are still very much in the works, described as being in its early stages, according to two people involved in the efforts. Details about a potential party platform are murky, although RNC co-chair Lara Trump previously said she believes they will put forth a new one. People close to Trump already have ideas, though: Some hope that he’ll put forward a staunch “America First” platform, though even defining the term could be a process.

“I’m certain, just given the massive level of his popularity in the Republican party, that this will be a Trump convention. It will be a Trump platform,” Newt Gingrich said. “Much like ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘Miss Universe,’ this will be a Donald J. Trump production.”

Gingrich suggested the party should promote a short list of “ten key items that Trump personally wants” as an introduction to the actual platform.

“Platforms get to be very long … and it ends up being both unreadable and unread,” Gingrich said.

The Trump campaign is also actively working with party leadership in some states in order to ensure that those involved in the upcoming event are aligned with the presumptive nominee — though such a process is delicate, and is being looked at on a state-by-state basis, one of the people involved told Semafor. One focus in particular will be the makeup of the Rules Committee, which puts together the governing rules for the party, the RNC, and more: Trump’s team believes it’s crucial for that committee to be made up of staunch supporters after a mini-revolt over the delegate roll call in 2016, and plans to closely track who runs.

There’s also early discussions about whether the convention could be extended to the whole country using modern technology, according to Gingrich. This theory, which is still in an idea stage, would allow local groups to get together and participate in activities in their specific states as the bigger, main event occurs in Milwaukee.

Shelby’s view

A platform debate may help settle — or at least raise — some of the key questions surrounding Trump’s sometimes-contradictory movement and instincts.

On issues like Ukraine, where Trump has been somewhat ambiguous and recently rejected prominent supporters’ calls to oppose the latest aid package, finding a consensus could be difficult. Then there are more traditional policy topics that were sensitive before Trump arrived and are still being debated within his movement: Abortion, where Trump has downplayed a national ban, trade, where he’s called for a global 10% tariff, and entitlements, an issue where he’s sometimes struggled to articulate a position and faces allies calling for cuts to benefits or other changes. There’s also Obamacare, which the 2016 platform said should be repealed, and another area where Trump has sent mixed signals recently.

There are also the Trump-specific interests that make others in his party more uncomfortable. Will the January 6th defendants who Trump and his campaign have personally championed make it onstage — or into the party platform? How prominently will Trump’s claims about the 2020 election be featured in general?

The schedule and mechanics of the convention will also be revealing. One common use of the convention time, especially after a contentious primary, is to spotlight former opponents onstage and give them a chance to make the case to their supporters that it’s time to unite.

There’s virtually no chance this time of a moment like in 2016, when a still-sore Ted Cruz told attendees to “vote your conscience” in November. But there will be questions about how to handle figures like Ron DeSantis, who Trump continues to have a somewhat frosty relationship with, and Nikki Haley, who has not endorsed him and who Trump has shown no interest in courting.

We’ll likely learn the answers in the coming weeks and months, as the Trump campaign and the RNC move forward, but one thing is certain: “Donald Trump now completely controls this,” as one person close to the former president told me.

That fact alone is different from years past, and makes the upcoming RNC Convention one to watch.

Notable

Trump and his allies are hoping Elon Musk will speak at the upcoming convention, CNBC reported last month: “Republican leaders believe that giving Musk a speaking slot at the convention could lead to some of his fans boosting what has been the party’s historically lagging support among young adult voters on Election Day.”

Over at the DNC Convention, protesters recently filed a preliminary injunction against the city of Chicago after being told they are restricted to a location further away from the events center.