Speaking for more than an hour, Donald Trump closed the GOP Convention by angrily proclaiming "Peace will be restored!"
Donald Trump "humbly" accepted the Republican nomination for president Thursday night, delivering a blistering speech that painted America as being crippled by chaos and himself as its only savior.
Crime "threatens our way of life" and Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has left a legacy of "death, destruction and weakness," he proclaimed.
It was the most important speech of his short political career — delivered at a time when the GOP is sorely divided and its convention marred by his wife's plagiarized speech Monday night and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s defiant address Wednesday, when he refused to endorse Trump and was booed offstage.
“I have a message for all of you. The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon — and I mean very soon — come to an end,” Trump said Thursday night as the four-day convention in Cleveland drew to a close.
He did not say how he would end violence or crime.
“Safety will be restored,” he declared.
His remarks were briefly interrupted by a Code Pink protester who shouted “He’s a danger to the world! Donald Trump is a racist … Build bridges, not walls,” before she was escorted out.
.@realDonaldTrump gets interrupted by a protester during #RNCinCLE speech https://t.co/J54RiATgwT https://t.co/aFxbf5uolP
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 22, 2016
Trump’s promised wall between Mexico and the U.S. was a major part of his speech. "llegal border crossings will go down. Peace will be restored," he said.
He blasted Clinton for her support of allowing Syrian refugees to enter the country, saying she is “proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration and mass lawlessness."
.@realDonaldTrump expounds his plan—as opposed to @HillaryClinton's—will put America first https://t.co/J54RiATgwT https://t.co/GBUefGbTa7
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 22, 2016
"I only want to allow people in who will love our country," he said. And he promised to ban all immigrants from countries where ISIS has a stronghold.
"I am your voice!" he declared in a speech that lasted an hour and 15 minutes, one of the longest in GOP history.
Not so fast, said Hillary Clinton.
You are not our voice, @realDonaldTrump.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 22, 2016
The nominee was introduced by Ivanka Trump, executive vice president of The Trump Organization, who called her father "the people’s champion" and "the people’s nominee."
Echoing her dad’s campaign theme, she announced, "This is the moment, and Donald Trump is the person, to make America great again."
She presented a polished image of a man with strong work values, of an employer who promoted women and of an entrepreneur who dreamed big and thought big.
She spoke of being a child, building towers with Legos in her father’s office while he built real-life skyscrapers of steel and glass. She touted her father’s "work values" in promoting his female employees and talking with workers of every skill level.
She did not mention her father’s vow to erect a “huge wall” to keep out Mexicans or his belief in banning Muslims from entering America.
"No one has more faith in the American people than my father. This is the fighter, the doer, you have picked as your nominee."
Earlier in the night, Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel made GOP history by proclaiming he was gay while speaking to the Republican National Convention.
“Every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American,” he said to huge applause.
Openly gay men addressed GOP conventions in 1996 and 2000 but did not mention their sexuality.
Read: Sealing the Nomination With a Kiss: The Awkward Moment Trump Tried to Smooch Running Mate
“When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union,” said Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and a Trump delegate. “And we won. Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?”
Jerry Falwell Jr., the son of Virginia’s famous TV evangelist, and the president of Liberty University, called Trump a "blue-collar billionaire."
He also shared a joke told by dad Jerry Falwell Sr.
His father once dreamed that he told Chelsea Clinton the three greatest threats to America were “Osama, Obama and Yo’ Mama,” the son said.
"Well, Osama is now gone," he said Thursday, referring to terror leader Osama bin Laden. "Obama has six months left in his term. And the only way to make America great and one again is to tell Chelsea's mama, 'You’re fired.'"
Watch: Lip Reader Reveal What Trump Said During Cruz's Speech: Did I Make a Mistake?
