Day 4 of the 2024 Republican National Convention

Our live coverage has moved. You can find the latest updates on the 2024 campaign and the RNC here.

US President Joe Biden speaks on economics during the Vote To Live Properity Summit at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 16.

Multiple leading Democrats tell CNN they feel caught in what one described as a “doom loop,” with every move to keep President Joe Biden in or push him out further destroying their chances against Donald Trump.

It’s breaking the resolve of even staunch allies. It’s feeding bad polls. It’s turning off more donors. It’s sustaining a media atmosphere where no matter what Biden does, he comes off looking like a failure.

And for those who were hoping Biden would quit, the public and private pressure, several top Democrats worry, has been backfiring.

“His last act will not be getting knocked down,” said one longtime Biden 2020 campaign aide of the family and the inner circle. “They won’t allow it.”

Even several Democrats who want Biden to go acknowledge they’ve created a situation where he will never able to satisfy the “tests” skeptics have said he must pass to stay their nominee. They are buckling down harder, especially when the critiques are more based on vibes, like when Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin suggested in a session between top aides and Senate Democrats last week to “put him in a muscle shirt, like Reagan chopping wood,” according to one person briefed on the discussion.

CNN’s conversations with two dozen Democratic officials, aides in the White House and the campaign reelection headquarters and supportive groups demonstrate just how dark and confused the situation has become even with Trump’s rambling and combative convention speech on Thursday night giving the Biden campaign glimmers of hope for the first time in weeks.

Read the full story.

Former President Donald Trump, speaking at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, formally accepted his party’s presidential nomination for a third straight election.

“With faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States,” Trump said to applause.

Here are some photos from CNN photographers on the ground. See more photo from the RNC.

Trump and former first lady Melania Trump were joined on stage by vice presidential nominee JD Vance and his wife, Usha.

Wags the dog wears a Trump pin outside the convention on Thursday.

WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan addresses the crowd Thursday. “When I came here tonight there was so much energy in this room. I thought maybe I was in Madison Square Garden getting ready to win another world title,” the retired pro wrestler said. 

Trump listens to convention speakers with members of his family and special guests.

Rapper Forgiato Blow wears a Trump medallion around his neck on Thursday. 

Trump asked the crowd to hold a moment of silence for Corey Comperatore, the man who was killed during the assassination attempt at Trump's campaign rally on Saturday. Comperatore was a firefighter.

Convention attendees take photos and videos at the end of Trump's speech on Thursday.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 18

Former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday with the most dishonest speech in the four-day Republican National Convention, making more than 20 false claims by CNN’s count.

Trump has made many of these false claims before, some of them for years. They spanned topics including the economy, immigration, crime, foreign policy and elections.

Some of them were total lies, others smaller exaggerations. Some were in his prepared text (like the claim that he left the Biden administration a world at peace), while he ad-libbed others (such as his lies that Democrats cheated in the 2020 election and that the US is experiencing the worst inflation it has ever had).

Here are some of the claims CNN fact-checked Thursday:

Trump’s misleading claim about North Korean missile launches during his presidency

Trump’s claims of defeating ISIS in a “couple of months”

Trump on the impact of immigration on Medicare and Social Security

Trump’s exaggeration about gas prices

Trump’s claims about military equipment left in Afghanistan

Trump’s false claim that the ‘world was at peace’ during his administration

Read all the fact checks.

Presidential historian Allan Lichtman on CNN Thursday night harshly criticized Democrats for so publicly casting doubt on President Joe Biden’s ability to serve a second term – a move the historian said is “making it much easier for Donald Trump to win.”

“At the first sign of trouble they have publicly trashed their incumbent president. … Of course his poll numbers are going to go down if his own party is attacking him. Why would voters think they ought to support him?” Lichtman argued.

If Democrats are set on pushing Biden out, he said, the president should “resign the presidency for the good of the country.” Next, Democrats should nominate Vice President Kamala Harris to be the presidential candidate, allowing the party to maintain the advantage of running an incumbent, he said.

“The feckless Democrats have been playing right into the hands of Donald Trump by creating all of this internal chaos within their party without a good plan.”

Former President Donald Trump is joined by his family at the 2024 Republican National Convention on July 18.

Thousands of supporters chanted “fight, fight, fight” and pumped their fists Thursday night as Donald Trump basked in the love of the new Republican Party he built and that hails him as a superhero touched by God.

States away, Joe Biden sat isolated and sick in his Delaware beach house as the party he led to victory just four years ago turned on the 81-year-old president, and the possibility grew that a humiliating final chapter may be opening in his storied political life.

Trump and Biden have been locked in a bitter political clash ever since Biden vowed to launch a battle for the soul of the nation when White supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, seven years ago.

Their fates diverged sharply Thursday.

Trump accepted the nomination of a united party convinced it’s cruising to victory in November, while Democrats splintered, with some fearing that their president could lead them to a landslide defeat after a cataclysmic debate performance sent his reelection campaign into freefall three weeks ago.

Many senior-ranking White House and campaign officials have come to believe the president must abandon his campaign for a second term.

“People see and feel the walls closing in,” one senior Democrat said, CNN also reported.

Read the full analysis.

Wisconsin cheeseheads, Texans with cowboy hats, all kinds of images of former President Donald Trump and many attendees wearing bandages on their right ears: It was a colorful scene on the final day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Here are some photos from CNN photographers on the ground. See more photos from the RNC here.

Delegates hold up cheese hats — a Wisconsin tradition — at the convention.

A woman wears a hat with Trump's name on it.

Betty “Ginger Betty” Venetian holds up a Donald Trump-themed cookie.

A member of the Iowa delegation wears an assortment of buttons featuring Donald Trump and previous Republican presidents.

Brian Bodine of Texas attends the 2024 Republican National Convention. He's wearing a bandage, as some other attendees did, to mark the bandage worn by former President Trump after the assassination attempt last week.

A woman with a dress featuring a photo of former President Donald Trump and Melania walks through the 2024 Republican National Convention.

See more photos from the RNC.

Rep. Byron Donalds joins Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention on July 15.

Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds told CNN on Thursday night that the image projected by tonight’s Republican National Convention speakers, including former President Donald Trump himself, presented viewers with “a Donald Trump that people needed to see.”

Amid turmoil among Democrats over whether President Joe Biden should drop out of the race, Donalds said the Trump campaign was focused on “beating whoever the Democrat party puts up.”

Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung answers a question from a CNN reporter during a press conference on July 19.

Taiwan will “not be complacent” and will “not solely rely on others” in its defense, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung told CNN on Friday.

The remarks were in response to Donald Trump’s comment to Bloomberg this week that the island should pay the US for its defense.

“On defense, we need to rely on ourselves, this is a prerequisite,” Lin told CNN’s Will Ripley when asked whether he finds Trump’s statements on Taiwan alarming. 

Lin noted that Taiwan primarily purchases its arms from the US, and that between 2016 and 2024, the democracy has “nearly doubled” its defense spending, from 349.7 billion New Taiwan Dollars (about $11.6 billion) to NTD 606.8 billion (about $20.2 billion).

 “The number shows that Taiwan is paying what we should pay for defense,” Lin said, adding that he anticipates Taiwan’s defense spending will continue to rise.

Lin also said that, given China’s ascent and growing defense budget, “all countries” should increase their defense spending accordingly. 

In the interview with Bloomberg, Trump said the US was “no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn’t give us anything.” 

During his speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Trump said China is circling Taiwan” with a “growing specter of conflict” hanging over “Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, and all of Asia,” as “our planet is teetering on the edge of World War Three.” 

Some background: China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as part of its inalienable territory – despite having never controlled it – and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its fold. 

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 18.

The final night of the Republican National Convention included incendiary figures like Tucker Carlson, lots of jabs at Democrats, and a long, wide-ranging speech by former President Donald Trump, featuring off-script political attacks and rare moments of vulnerability.

Here are five takeaways:

Trump details shooting: Trump appeared solemn are he narrated the “painful” events of his Saturday rally in minute detail. He insisted, despite chants from the audience, that he wasn’t supposed to be at the convention. “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God,” he told the crowd.

Little mention of Biden (by name): Trump said he would use President Joe Biden’s name only once. But he used it twice: once to describe Biden as the worst president in history, and again to say it would be the only time it was used.

It was, in part, because Trump’s campaign wanted to showcase a unified and forward-looking Republican Party. But it’s also because Trump might not face Biden again, after all.

A rare Melania sighting: Melania Trump has kept a low profile since the Trump administration ended, choosing not to attend Trump’s hush money trial or the CNN debate.

She appeared at the RNC for the first time on Thursday night, though, unlike in previous election years, she did not give a speech.

“Trumpamania” running wild: The theme of Thursday night’s lineup in the lead-up to Trump’s speech was testosterone — culminating in Hulk Hogan ripping off his T-shirt and declaring Trump “a real American hero.”

A nearly policy-free convention: Political conventions rarely include wonky policy chatter. But even by the usual standards, which typically involve acknowledging a problem and then short-handing a solution, the 2024 RNC was perplexing. And especially so on its final night, when the politicians mostly gave way to right-leaning celebrities.

Read more takeaways.

Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon blasted Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention, saying it’s “an even more extreme vision for where he wants to take this country.”

“Tonight, Donald Trump rambled on for well over an hour and failed to mention Project 2025 even once,” O’Malley Dillon said.

“He sought to find problems with America, not to provide solutions.” 

Former President Donald Trump claimed Thursday at the Republican National Convention that there is record inflation under President Joe Biden.  

Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. The current inflation rate, 3% in June 2024, is nowhere near the all-time record of 23.7%, set in 1920.  

Trump could fairly say that the inflation rate hit a 40-year high in June 2022, when it was 9.1%, but it has since plummeted. 

Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday, July 18.

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he “got along with” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and “we stopped the missile launches from North Korea.”   

Facts First: Trump’s claim that he “stopped the missile launches” from North Korea is misleading. While missile launches did pause from North Korea for a period of time during his administration, they started up again before he left office.   

A May 2019 launch of what was assessed to be a short-range ballistic missile was North Korea’s first since 2017, which was seen as a sign of growing frustration from Kim on the state of talks with the US.

North Korea later launched two more missiles in July 2019, a month after Trump’s high-profile meeting with Kim in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

North Korea conducted four missile tests in 2020. 

Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday, July 18.

Former President Donald Trump spoke for one hour and 32 minutes at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night — making it the longest major-party acceptance speech in recent US history.

Trump also delivered the second- and third-longest convention acceptance speeches, going back to 1976. He spoke for one hour and 15 minutes in 2016 and one hour and 10 minutes in 2020.

That includes convention speeches by both Republican and Democratic nominees.

Only two other speeches were longer than an hour: Bill Clinton talked for an hour and five minutes in 1996 and George W. Bush’s remarks in 2004 were one hour and two minutes long.

Here’s a look at other nominee’s convention speeches:

Former President Donald Trump claimed in his speech at the Republican National Convention that “we defeated 100% of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, something that was going to take five years… We did it in a matter of a couple of months.” 

Facts First: Trump’s claim of having defeated ISIS in “a couple of months” isn’t true; the ISIS “caliphate” was declared fully liberated more than two years into Trump’s presidency, in 2019. 

Even if Trump was starting the clock at the time of his visit to Iraq in late December 2018, as he has suggested in past remarks, the liberation was proclaimed more than two and a half months later.

Trump also gave himself too much credit for the defeat of the so-called caliphate, as he has before, when he said he defeated the terror group with no caveats or credit to anyone else.

Kurdish forces did much of the ground fighting, and there was major progress against the caliphate under President Barack Obama in 2015 and 2016. 

IHS Markit, an information company that studied the changing size of the caliphate, reported two days before Trump’s 2017 inauguration that the caliphate shrunk by 23% in 2016 after shrinking by 14% in 2015.

David Axelrod, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, noted Thursday night that former President Donald Trump spent a significant amount of his approximately 90-minute speech “riffing” off-script — a move that may work in Democrats’ favor.

“This is the first good thing that’s happened to Democrats in the last three weeks,” Axelrod said on CNN after the speech.

Donald Trump said Thursday that the Florida federal judge overseeing the classified documents case against him dismissed the criminal charges against the former president, finding “that the prosecutor and the fake documents case against me were totally unconstitutional.” 

Facts first: Trump’s claim is misleading. District Judge Aileen Cannon wrote in her ruling that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith, who was prosecuting the case, violated the Constitution. But Cannon specifically did not comment on the validity of the charges Trump was facing, or whether Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents was proper. 

In a 93-page ruling, Cannon said Smith’s appointment violated the Constitution. Cannon said that Smith’s position as special counsel “effectively usurps” Congress’ “important legislative authority,” because Congress should have the authority – not the head of the Justice Department – to appoint such an official. 

Cannon also said that Smith’s office was being funded improperly. 

But Cannon also specifically noted that she was not deciding any “other legal rights or claims” brought by Trump or his co-defendants in the case. 

The judge also said that the Justice Department could potentially revive the case by funding the special counsel through different means. Prosecutors from outside the special counsel’s office could also refile the charges.

The Republican National Convention played a biographical video about former President Donald Trump before he began his speech.

The video included several false and misleading claims:

The Trump tax cuts 

The video featured a narrator making a claim that Trump, himself, frequently utters. The narrator said “the Trump tax cuts: largest in America’s history.”

This is false. Analyses have found that Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was not the largest in history, either in percentage of gross domestic product or inflation-adjusted dollars. You can read a detailed fact check here. 

 Global conflict under Trump 

The video’s narrator also delivered a version of another claim Trump has made repeatedly, saying Trump’s “strength and resolve” produced “a stable world at peace.”

This claim about world peace under Trump is false, too. There were dozens of unresolved wars and armed conflicts when Trump left office in early 2021.

US troops were still deployed in combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq; civil wars in Syria, Yemen and Somalia continued, as did the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was also ongoing, as were the conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, between Israel and Syria and between Israel and Iran; Islamist insurgents continued their fight in Africa’s Sahel region; there was major violence in Mexico’s long-running drug wars; fighting continued between Ukraine and pro-Russian forces in Ukraine’s Donbas region; and there were lots of other unresolved wars and conflicts around the world.  

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks armed conflict in countries around the world, said in a June email that it estimates there were active armed conflicts in 51 international states in 2020 and again active armed conflicts in 51 international states in 2021.   

Americans’ incomes

While attacking President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, the video featured on-screen text that said “US incomes fall for third straight year,” attributing those words to a Wall Street Journal article in 2023. An image of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris was shown on screen at the same time.

This combination of words and images is misleading. The video didn’t acknowledge that the first of the three straight years in which the Wall Street Journal article reported that inflation-adjusted median household income went down was 2020, when Trump was president. (The Covid-19 pandemic played a major role in the decline.) 

Real median household income fell from $78,250 in 2019 to $76,660 in 2020 (all under Trump), then edged down to $76,330 in 2021 (mostly under Biden) and fell more substantially to $74,580 in 2022 (all under Biden). Figures for 2023 and 2024-to-date are not available. 

During his RNC speech, former President Donald Trump again said that Democrats are harming Social Security and Medicare by letting migrants into the US.  

Facts First: Trump is wrong. In fact, the opposite is true, particularly in the near term, multiple experts say. Many undocumented immigrants work, which means they pay much-needed payroll taxes, and this bolsters the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and extends their solvency. Immigrants who are working legally typically won’t collect benefits for many years. As for those who are undocumented, some are working under fake Social Security numbers, so they are paying payroll taxes but don’t qualify to collect benefits. 

The Social Security Administration looked at the effects of unauthorized immigration on the Social Security trust funds. It found that in 2010, earnings by unauthorized workers contributed roughly $12 billion on net to the entitlement program’s cash flow. The agency has not updated the analysis since, but this year’s Social Security trustees report noted that increasing average annual total net immigration by 100,000 people improves the entitlement program’s solvency.  

“We estimate that future years will experience a continuation of this positive impact on the trust funds,” said the report on unauthorized immigration. 

Meanwhile, unauthorized immigrants contributed more than $35 billion on net to Medicare’s trust fund between 2000 and 2011, extending the life of the trust fund by a year, according to a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. 

“Immigrants tend to be younger and employed, which increases the number of workers paying into the system,” said Gary Engelhardt, a Syracuse University economics professor. “Also, they have more children, which helps boost the future workforce that will pay payroll taxes.”  

“Immigrants are good for Social Security,” he said. 

However, undocumented immigrants who gain legal status that includes eligibility for future Social Security and Medicare benefits could ultimately be a drain to the system, according to Jason Richwine, a resident scholar at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower immigration. 

“Illegal immigration unambiguously benefits the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, but amnesty (legalization) would reverse those gains and add extra costs,” Richwine wrote in a report last year. 

Former President Donald Trump claimed that he struck a trade deal with China, requiring the country to purchase $50 billion worth of American products.

Facts First: The claim that China bought $50 billion worth of American products as a result of a trade deal is false.   

Trump is referring to what is known as the Phase One deal he struck with Beijing in December 2019. 

While the deal required China to buy $50 billion worth of American agricultural products by the end of 2021 — Beijing did not live up to its commitment.  

US agricultural exports to China recovered from the trade war but did not reach the levels in the Phase One commitments, according to a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.