US election: Trump declares himself 'law and order' candidate in acceptance speech

Donald Trump declared himself the law and order candidate on Thursday in an acceptance speech that took a sharply authoritarian turn and that was aimed at stoking the fears of an angry Republican convention.

Promising supporters that “safety will be restored” once he becomes president, Trump sought to harness concern over terrorism and domestic crime to challenge Hillary Clinton on territory that has long proven a reliable rallying cry for parties of the right.

“In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate,” he claimed, encouraging and directing loud chants of “USA, USA” like the conductor of an orchestra.

“Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country,” he added.

The four-day convention in Cleveland has seen repeated cries of “lock her up” when Clinton’s name is mentioned, but Trump waved these chants aside as if granting mercy with his hands and urged instead: “Let’s defeat her in November.”

The 75-minute speech pushed familiar buttons. “Illegal immigrants are roaming free to threaten innocent citizens,” Trump told the booing crowd, which responded by chanting “build the wall”.

The world reacts to Donald Trump's "America first" acceptance speech at the #RNCinCLE https://t.co/LXXRISzUBe pic.twitter.com/rFzB7M5fOE

— CNN (@CNN) July 22, 2016

Another theme of the week in Cleveland has been loud cheers whenever speakers replace the “black lives matter” slogan with “blue lives matter” to signify sympathy for police over African American shooting victims and Trump received a standing ovation when he declared: “An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans”.

The interruption of a protester 23 minutes in prompted Trump to ad-lib: “How great are our police?” as the cries of a woman being removed could still be heard dimly in the distance.

But as the giant Quicken Loans Arena eventually filled with thousands of red, white and blue balloons to signify the end of what has been something of an awkward convention, the party’s once unthinkable nominee sought to strike a message of unity too.

Drawing a contrast with Clinton’s campaign slogan “I’m with her,” he declared: “I am with you.”

“I am your voice,” he pledged, stressing each word carefully as if claiming the popular will as his own.

Introducing Trump, his daughter Ivanka also sought to reach out to female voters – a group who rate the Republican nominee particularly poorly in opinion polls. In a polished and warmly received speech, she rejected repeated suggestions of Trump’s sexism, insisting: “My father is colour blind and gender neutral.”

 “He will focus on making quality childcare accessible and affordable to all,” she added, arguing that motherhood, not sexism, was “the greatest factor in gender pay discrepancy”.

Ivanka Trump introduced her father in a speech in which she reached out to female voters

Trump said his business experience had given him the skills to fix a rigged country. “Nobody knows the system better than me,” he shrugged with smirk. “Which is why I alone can fix it.”

Amid a backdrop of terrorist attacks and police shootings, the celebrity billionaire seized on the theme of law and order as a potential rallying cry for a party bruised by internal feuds and a chaotic convention.

The torrent of violent news flooding into American TV screens in recent months was used to boost his own campaign at the expense of Democrats.

“Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims,” he said.

“America is far less safe – and the world is far less stable – than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America’s foreign policy,” added Trump.