The 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) featured a five-day extravaganza of extremists outlining how they plan to tear this country apart, state by state, with smiles on their faces. RNC speakers fear-mongered with talking points about migrants, supporting Israel, reviving the elusive American Dream, increasing birth rates, and safeguarding Republican freedoms.

Here are the key takeaways from the RNC, breaking down their priorities and the realities behind their claims:

Key Takeaways from the RNC

1. Republicans Call for Mass Deportations Now

What RNC speakers said: Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed Democrats are “ripping open our border, driving up the cost of housing and healthcare, and causing Americans to lose their jobs,” adding, “The Democrats' economy is made up of and is for illegal aliens.” Greg Abbott remarked “When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refused to even come to Texas and to see the border crisis that they created, I took the border to them. I began bussing illegal immigrants to Washington D.C.”
What They Really Mean: After opposing a bipartisan border and immigration deal, Republicans now plan on mass deportation of immigrants and making it more difficult for immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border to achieve the American dream. They want to separate children from their families at the border and keep them in cages while ignoring the underfunded legal immigration system. Republicans like Marjorie and Abbott do not support American freedoms if they are extended to anyone who doesn’t look like them.

2. Trump Does Not Support the Middle Class

What RNC Speakers Said: Donald Trump will support the hard working middle class and American families.
What They Really Mean: Trump will make massive tax cuts for the wealthiest in America and sell a dream to the hardworking middle class that they will be supported if they can become billionaires overnight.

3. False Narratives Dripping in American Exceptionalism

What RNC Speakers Said: With President Trump back in the White House, we will reawaken the exceptionalism of the greatest nation ever known.
What They Really Mean: With Trump back in the White House, they will ensure that any non-Republican executive or opinion is marginalized, implementing Project 2025 to consolidate power. It's crucial to shine a bright light on this far-right agenda, one that steamrolls voting, reproductive, and LGBTQ+ rights, and our neighborhood public schools. It will worsen the climate crisis, grow executive powers, and remove safeguards including Medicare, Social Security, and workers’ safety. Get to know the terrible plans in Project 2025. 

4. Increasing U.S. Birth Rates

What RNC Speakers Said: Increase U.S. birth rates.
What They Really Mean: They will ban Mifepristone and IVF treatments, implement a national ban on abortions, gut funding for contraception, and increase forced pregnancies. No fault divorce is next on the chopping block. 

5. Trump’s rambling, and off-script speech full of lies.

What Trump Said: “Tonight I make this pledge to the great people of America, I will end this devastating inflation crisis immediately, bring down interest rates, and lower the cost of energy. We will drill baby drill.”

What He Really Means: Trump will turn America into a billionaire's paradise as the Middle Class pays the price for his tax cuts, and supports offshore drilling while ignoring the dire climate crisis to support his rich friends in business. 

What Trump Said: “There’s a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread crime, misery, disease, and destruction to communities all across our land.” “They're coming from prisons, they're coming from jails, they're coming from mental institutions and insane asylums... The late great Hannibal Lecter he’d love to have you for dinner.” 

What He Really Means: it's better to scapegoat immigrants for the nation's troubles than to talk about extremist policies of abortion bans, defunding public schools, polluting our water and air, and fixing the system with partisan gerrymandering and a corrupt Supreme Court. We at Progress Texas cannot decode the praise for a fictional murderous cannibal. You're on your own with that, America.

Other outlandish remarks and incidents: 

• Trump praised Hungarian authoritarian leader Viktor Orban, calling him a champion of “illiberal democracy”
• Continued to encourage racial stigma around COVID-19 calling it “The China Virus”
• ‘Joked’ about buying votes in Wisconsin
• Mentioned how North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un missed him
• Announced J.D. Vance as VP who formerly worked for Republican Senator John Cornyn; Vance previously called Trump “America’s Hitler”
• His cult followers sported maxi-pads over their ears to liken themselves to their leader

Only those in the room were willing to endure his ramblings, while the rest of America watched, many laughing at what his followers mistakenly believed were his most brilliant ideas. 

The RNC has showcased a vision where securing freedoms means limiting them for many, where the American Dream is only for a select few, and where American exceptionalism comes at the cost of silencing dissent. Are you ready for their America?