In the days preceding Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, the media generously regurgitated the GOP fairy tale that Trump would be rebranding himself as a uniter with a calm, rational approach to governing. Never mind that this is the umpteenth time that Trump was supposedly going to pivot to a new persona that is light years from anything he has shown for decades.

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How the press justified spreading that malarkey is a mystery considering that Trump has never been anything but a divisive purveyor of rabid hostility and infantile insults aimed at anyone – Democratic or Republican – who was not sufficiently worshipful. His idea of unity means to unite behind his messianic eminence. It is not so much about bringing people together as it is about purging every dissenter.

SEE THIS: Felonious Trump Says Uniting the Nation Means Giving Him the Freedom to Commit Crimes at Will

When it came time for Trump to deliver his highly anticipated unification speech, he didn’t disappoint the critics who knew at the outset that he couldn’t pull off that sort of transformation. What he unleashed to the glassy-eyed cult disciples in the convention hall was a stream-of-consciousness harangue that went on for 96 minutes without ever providing a single policy proposal or affirmative vision for the future. It was nothing more than a rehash of his America-bashing rally rants, except spoken in a slower, more stodgy style.

So no one should be surprised that Trump was ecstatic about his own performance. He posted a couple of comments on his floundering social media scam, Truth Social, exalting himself and lying about his reception by the public. He began by bragging about…

“Big TV RATINGS last night for the Republican Convention, the best and most successful in history! Fox led the way. MSNBC was dead last. Four Great Days!!!”

Fact Check: FALSE! The ratings for Trump’s speech were less than stellar. The first three nights of the MAGA-fest were not exactly barn burners. And while the final night’s tally was an improved 25.38 million viewers, that’s only 6% more than the COVID-hampered 4th night of the 2020 RNC convention. Even worse, it was about 20% lower than the 2016 affair.

Speaking of Fact checks, Trump was found to have lied more than twenty times during his speech.

Gee… Ya mean Trump lied a whole bunch? Who'da thunk it? https://t.co/X8MDdEJN69

— News Corpse (@NewsCorpse) July 19, 2024

The only plausible claim of historical success was that Fox News drew its highest number ever for a nomination acceptance speech. But it isn’t exactly news that Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda did well while airing their Dear Leader. Even so, more people watched on networks other than Fox.

What’s more, Trump’s viewership was likely lower than these numbers represent because he didn’t begin his marathon monologue (the longest ever at 96 minutes) until about 10:30 ET, and didn’t finish until after midnight. These ratings don’t detail any viewing after primetime, which ends at 11:00. And the audience generally declines as it gets later in the evening.

The other Trump comment on Truth Social was his expression of gratitude for the reception he received…

“Thank you to all for the great reviews of my speech last night. It was my great honor to make it!!! DJT”

As usual, Trump is wallowing in pool of narcissistic delusion. What follows are just a few of the reviews of Trump’s widely panned spiel…

• Politico: “Trump Derailed His Own Convention Speech”
• New York Times: “One of the Truly Awful and Self-Indulgent Performances of Our Time”
• Mediaite: “Trump ‘Diehards’ at RNC Get ‘Restless’ as Subdued and Rambling Trump Speech Runs Over 90 Minutes”
• Washington Post: “Donald Trump missed his chance with his convention speech”
• Daily Beast: “Donald Trump’s RNC Speech Wasn’t Just Bad and Mad, it Was Boring”
• Fox News: “Trump’s lengthy RNC speech ripped by ‘The View'”
• The Hollywood Reporter: Donald Trump Returns to Bad Form — and Gives the Democrats Hope
• Newsweek: “Donald Trump’s RNC Speech Appears to Send Attendees to Sleep”

Ironically, the musical coda to Trump’s speech was the aria “Nessun Dorma” from the final act of Puccini’s opera “Turandot.” The title translates from Italian to “No one sleeps.” If that was intended to be an order, they should have done it before Trump started talking.

For the record, Trump’s speech underperformed similar public addresses by President Biden, whose final night in 2020 drew 24.6 million viewers. That’s slightly less than than Trump’s, but it was delivered during a virtual convention due to COVID. More recently, Biden’s State of the Union address drew more than 32 million viewers earlier this year. The Biden/Trump debate had an audience of 51 million.

All in all, Trump’s ratings are nothing to brag about. But that doesn’t stop him from doing so. He is obsessed with numbers, whether it’s ratings, or net worth, or crowd size at his cult rallies. And he will lie profusely in order pump himself up. It’s the one thing we can rely on from Trump.

• Trump Spokesmodel Tells Fox News that ‘the Left is Godless’ in Post-Shooting Play for – Unity?
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• Nearly 70% are More Worried About a President Who is a Liar than One Who is Old – Trump is Both

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