“The real stars [of the second night] were President Trump and the cast of Americans who had been selected to illustrate aspects of his multi-front war on the political and media elite. We heard from a Maine lobsterman, a Wisconsin dairy farmer, a truck driver from Ohio, and a police officer from New Mexico who adopted the child of a woman addicted to opiates…

“Trump sent many reporters and commentators into a fury when he pardoned a former convict and presided over a naturalization ceremony in the middle of the convention. But the whole thing worked, both as political theater and as campaign strategy. Trump's interactions with normal Americans humanize him and allow him to display rarely seen compassion and to utilize his self-deprecating sense of humor. And the men and women highlighted in these two segments are living rebukes to the critical narratives surrounding Trump on race and immigration.”
Matthew Continetti, Washington Free Beacon

“President Trump spent the first night of his convention working to expand his [base] with a concerted appeal to African American voters… It was powerful to hear a Black American such as [Herschel] Walker say: ‘I’ve known Donald Trump for 37 years … I take it as a personal insult that people would think I would have a 37-year friendship with a racist. … Growing up in the Deep South, I have seen racism up close. I know what it is. And it isn’t Donald Trump.’…

“Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.)… talked about his grandfather, who was forced out of school as a third-grader to pick cotton but lived to see his grandson become the first African American elected to both the House of Representatives and the Senate… He talked about Trump’s support for Opportunity Zones that are ‘bringing over $75 billion of private sector investment into distressed communities’ and the president’s unprecedented support for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including permanent funding for the first time.”
Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post

“Scott presented the Democrats not so much as threatening as simply unappealing. His message was not, ‘The barbarians are at the gates’ but, ‘Why would we choose the thin gruel the Democrats are offering over the bountiful feast of American freedom that our ancestors toiled to prepare for us?’…

“The story of racial progress that the senator told during his speech is a radically different alternative to the one offered up by Black Lives Matter. Instead of black people rising up against an inherently evil American state to expunge the polity that enslaved them, Scott’s story is one in which the better angels of our national nature are continually bringing light into the darkest recesses of the American soul with the passing of the years. He is living proof of this racial progress, as he proclaimed in his speech last night. A majority-white electorate in Charleston, S.C., the crucible of the confederacy, sent Scott, a black son of a single-parent home, to Congress.”
Cameron Hilditch, National Review

“One of the most effective speakers was Maximo Alvarez… he gave his personal story and warning against socialism and communism. His parents escaped Spain and went to Cuba, only to have to flee Cuba for America. Maximo was born in Cuba and was 13 when he came to America. He said he was born in Cuba but he is 100% American. He said that today’s Democrats remind him of Communist Cuba…

“The RNC was smart to lead off the convention with so many personal stories interwoven with speeches delivered by public figures. For example, one speaker expressed her gratitude to Trump for pushing the Right to Try legislation that allows terminal patients the opportunity to participate in drug trials. She is fighting terminal bone cancer. There was a small business owner from Billings, Montana who thanked the Trump administration for attention to helping businesses to stay afloat during coronavirus lockdowns. Her coffee shop has been spared thanks to the business loan she was able to secure.”
Karen Townsend, Hot Air

“Trump’s convention is fighting the narrative that his presidency is so glitchy that America must simply unplug itself on election day and then plug back in to see if we’ve cleared up the problem. In fact, much of the opening-night presentation showed a decidedly normal president keeping his promises and doing things you’d expect him to do, like rescuing people from overseas prisons and passing criminal justice reform… The Trump challenge now is to stop lurching from one 10-minute crisis to the next, and to start focusing on a four-year journey that will either take us back to a good economy and a normal life, or to a dark place where Democrats raise your taxes and coddle anti-American anarchists.”
Scott Jennings, Los Angeles Times