11-13 minutes


July 19, 2024



Good morning. Today, we’re covering Trump’s speech and Biden’s candidacy — as well as a global tech outage, Bob Newhart and a young chess prodigy.

Donald Trump onstage at the Republican National Convention. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

A tumultuous day

American politics was more stable for the past half-century than it had been for most of the country’s history. Incumbent presidents often won re-election. No major political figure was assassinated. The two parties’ basic ideologies and coalitions remained similar.

But yesterday’s remarkable events — in both Washington and Milwaukee, among both Democrats and Republicans — showed how unstable our politics have become.

During the day, attention focused on the turmoil in the Democratic Party, as senior Democrats intensified their efforts to push President Biden out of the presidential race, believing that he is too visibly aged to win re-election. Biden himself has begun to accept the idea that he may have to drop out of the race, people close to him told The Times.

At night, Donald Trump took the stage to accept the Republican presidential nomination — only five days after he was nearly killed by a gunman, two months after he was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York and three and a half years after he attempted to overturn the last presidential election. Trump gave a speech that was both personal and rambling and that highlighted how different he is from any other recent president. He also demonstrated how he transformed the party over the past decade into a populist-sounding, antiwar, immigration-skeptical movement that Ronald Reagan would hardly recognize.

(Watch my colleague Maggie Haberman break down the speech in this short video.)

It remains unclear how much Trump would govern as a populist, of course. His proposed policies are a mix of actually populist (like trade restrictions) and laissez-faire (like a large tax cut for the affluent). But these questions underscore the new political uncertainty.

On the Democratic side, the short-term turmoil is greater yet. The chances that Biden will drop out have clearly surged in the past couple of days. But the outcome remains uncertain. If he does quit the race, will the party quickly support Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee? Or will the situation be more typical of historical conventions when the nominee was unclear, with a messy, competitive process in which multiple candidates make their cases to delegates?

President Biden in Nevada this week. Eric Lee/The New York Times

Regardless, it now seems likely Biden will not be the person who takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2025. That would mean that two consecutive presidents — Trump in 2020, Biden in 2024 — left office before they wanted to, when they were eligible to serve another four years. The last time the country experienced such back-to-back presidencies was more than 40 years ago, with Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, during the chaotic years of Watergate and oil crises.

In the rest of today’s newsletter, we’ll highlight the key moments from Trump’s speech and update you on the latest Biden developments.

Trump’s speech:

More on the convention:

Kenny Holston/The New York Times
  • The wrestler Hulk Hogan, who spoke before Trump, ripped open his shirt to reveal a “Trump-Vance” tank top.
  • Tucker Carlson, who amplified 2020 election conspiracy theories before Fox News fired him, said in an unscripted speech that Trump aimed to “return democracy to the United States.”
  • Much of the convention sought to project a softer image of Trump. Multiple speakers — including his eldest granddaughter — described him as compassionate and focused on others.

The move against Biden


THE LATEST NEWS

More on The Trump Shooting

  • The F.B.I. is sorting through digital remnants of the man who tried to assassinate Trump, including phone data that shows he may have scoped out the scene of the rally days earlier.
  • Speaker Mike Johnson said Biden should fire Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, over security failures before the shooting. Read a profile of her.
  • Hundreds of people attended a public visitation for Comperatore, the Trump supporter killed at the rally.

Tech Outage

A crowd at Berlin Brandenburg Airport this morning. Christoph Soeder/DPA, via Associated Press
  • A tech outage has disrupted computer systems around the world. Several major airlines, including American, United and Delta, grounded all flights.
  • The outage interrupted 9-1-1 services around the U.S., and disabled computers at some hospital systems, including Britain’s National Health Service.
  • News broadcasts in France, Australia and Britain were knocked off the air.
  • Follow live updates.

Middle East

More International News

Other Big Stories

Opinions

Treat Trump with compassion. There is a difference between critiquing his policies and dehumanizing him, David French writes.

By watering down its stance on abortion, the Republican Party has abandoned the pro-life movement in the name of electoral success, Patrick T. Brown writes.

The Republican Party looked youthful at its convention, Tressie McMillan Cottom writes.

Here are columns by David Brooks on how Democrats can win, Michelle Goldberg on Biden’s loss of support and Paul Krugman on J.D. Vance.


MORNING READS

Bodhana Sivanandan Sam Bush for The New York Times

Prodigy: A 9-year-old girl who learned chess during the pandemic has become one of England’s best players.

Great reads: Times readers chose their own 100 best books of the 21st century.

Forgery: A woodblock maker convinced thousands that his art was the work of old masters. But there was one man he couldn’t fool.

An ocean office: A Hawaiian surfboard maker’s native knowledge and passion have made his hand-carved creations into works of art.

Lives Lived: Cheng Pei Pei trained in ballet and traditional Chinese dance, but found her calling in martial arts films. She was a star of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Cheng died at 78.


SPORTS

W.N.B.A.: The All-Star Game tomorrow night has an intriguing format: Team W.N.B.A., featuring Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, versus the U.S. Olympic team. Who’s the favorite?

N.B.A.: The Denver Nuggets are a front-runner to sign the former M.V.P. Russell Westbrook, who struggled last season with the Los Angeles Clippers.


ARTS AND IDEAS

A young man with curly TikTok hair, a black tank top and a Louis Vuitton necklace stares pensively out a window as he holds a tablet of white gum up to his mouth.
An image circulated by Jawliner to promote its gum. Jawliner

Young men are buying stiff chewing gum from brands that claim their products will build jaw muscles. The gum — in flavors like Muscle Mango and Jacked Watermelon — has caught on with teenage boys who hope to look more masculine by bulking up their jawlines. Dentists aren’t happy about the trend.

More on culture

Mr. Newhart in a brown blazer, white shirt and blue necktie while sitting in an orange upholstered chair in a paneled room and looking at the camera with a slight smile.
20th Century Fox Television

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Julia Gartland for The New York Times

Make a simple tuna pasta, showered with herbs and scallions.

Try this 12-minute foot workout. It might make a big difference for how you walk.

Keep your houseplants healthy when you’re away.

Create shade with a sturdy beach umbrella.

Take our news quiz.


GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was baptize.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —David

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Editor: David Leonhardt

Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner

News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti

Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson

News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu

News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar

Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch