Former President Donald Trump played a big part in putting the final touches on the overwhelmingly successful Republican National Convention, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Whatley said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily on Friday, explaining that it was Trump’s idea to show up to the convention — which focused on the forgotten men and women of America — every single night.
Whatley said he was originally slated to be in Pennsylvania on Saturday — the day Trump narrowly escaped certain death — but he had to be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for convention prep.
“So, I was on the floor — just going through some last-minute checklists and templates and talking to some folks — when I got the word that he had been shot, you know, and, of course, at that point, we kind of go into, you know, a different mode here,” he said, explaining what it was like that weekend to get the later call, signaling that Trump still planned on heading to the convention and attending every night despite what he just went through.
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“Because he was not supposed to be here until Thursday. … He was flying home from Butler to Bedminster Saturday night. And they said, ‘He’s gonna be there. He’s coming tomorrow.’ And, so, for him to fly in here on Sunday,” he said, recounting the moment Trump first walked out on Monday night — a moment he said he would never forget.
“I will never forget. We were backstage. Just before he came out on Monday, I said, ‘Sir, when you walk through that door, this place is gonna melt,’ and the reaction was stunning. I mean, just, wow. And I think it affected him. I think you could see it on his face. The love that he got was powerful,” Whatley said.
Indeed, the emotion in the room was palpable, as many even said Trump seemed different, soaking it all in just two days after nearly losing his life. Trump has attributed his survival to “God alone,” telling the crowd on Thursday that he was only standing there by the “grace of Almighty God.”
“As someone said yesterday, that it was almost like he needed to be there each of the days. It was good for him to be there and see what was happening in our country in light of what happened,” host Mike Slater remarked.
“And that first walk out that you spoke of, that was when the whole country saw him just look different. Maybe choking back tears, I don’t know, but I would be — I wouldn’t be able to choke them back,” he added.
“It was really a powerful moment,” Whatley agreed, adding that Trump wanted to signal to the American people that “‘I’m here. I’m not going away. And I am going to be here.'”
“This guy literally wakes up every morning wanting to fight for the American people,” he said, noting that Trump could do anything in the world, but he “wants to wake up every day and put on that suit and go fight for the American people.”
“And that’s what we wanted to show about Donald Trump, right?” he said, noting that the convention was not necessarily all about Trump — it was about the American people — but they wanted to frame the discussions about Trump to show him as a true man of the people.
“We wanted to show them he’s authentic and he’s a fighter,” he said, noting that Trump played a part in other aspects of the convention, including stage design.
“He had a direct hand. I mean, we put stage layouts in front of him and let him pick the stage. We were going through the lineup of the speakers with him on a daily basis. This was a show that — this is Trump the showman, and he really, truly, was very involved in an unbelievable amount of it,” he added.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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