Photos From Inside a MAGA Convention: ‘Everything I Do Is Trump’
Captured by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly, this article discusses the first fully Trumpified political convention.
TroibNews 
MILWAUKEE — An almost-religious fervor flows through this Republican convention.
The hall erupted when Donald Trump made his entrance on Monday. Delegates lifted their hands skyward as if in worship.
“Electric,” remarked Stan Brady, an alternate GOP delegate from Ohio.
“A feeling I'll never forget,” Emily Hartman commented. “We were all crying.”
On Tuesday, Hartman, an alternate delegate from Wyoming, entered the hall adorned in a custom $300 rhinestone-jeweled cowboy hat and pins that read TRUMP and WOMEN FOR TRUMP.
“Everything I do is Trump,” she stated.
Though every party convention is a celebration of its candidate, the 2024 Republican convention stands out as a uniquely Trumpian spectacle.
Different from the 2016 convention, where Trump faced significant resistance within the GOP, and from the subdued 2020 event impacted by Covid, this is the first fully in-person, elaborate MAGA convention.
Given Trump’s firm grip on the party, such an atmosphere was predictable. Yet, the intensity has escalated following the assassination attempt. Now, it feels like a movement unified around a man they perceive as divinely safeguarded.
“Prayer works,” said Lee Greenwood, while playing the opening bars of "God Bless the U.S.A.” and introducing Trump for the first time.
“There’s a different feeling in the air,” Hartman observed. “A lot of God. A lot of love — just gratefulness that Trump is still with us, and we can all be here, safe, and celebrate America and our next president.”
She added: “It’s changed me. I haven’t figured it all out. I’m living it. There’s something different.”
Lucas Dupont contributed to this report for TROIB News
The hall erupted when Donald Trump made his entrance on Monday. Delegates lifted their hands skyward as if in worship.
“Electric,” remarked Stan Brady, an alternate GOP delegate from Ohio.
“A feeling I'll never forget,” Emily Hartman commented. “We were all crying.”
On Tuesday, Hartman, an alternate delegate from Wyoming, entered the hall adorned in a custom $300 rhinestone-jeweled cowboy hat and pins that read TRUMP and WOMEN FOR TRUMP.
“Everything I do is Trump,” she stated.
Though every party convention is a celebration of its candidate, the 2024 Republican convention stands out as a uniquely Trumpian spectacle.
Different from the 2016 convention, where Trump faced significant resistance within the GOP, and from the subdued 2020 event impacted by Covid, this is the first fully in-person, elaborate MAGA convention.
Given Trump’s firm grip on the party, such an atmosphere was predictable. Yet, the intensity has escalated following the assassination attempt. Now, it feels like a movement unified around a man they perceive as divinely safeguarded.
“Prayer works,” said Lee Greenwood, while playing the opening bars of "God Bless the U.S.A.” and introducing Trump for the first time.
“There’s a different feeling in the air,” Hartman observed. “A lot of God. A lot of love — just gratefulness that Trump is still with us, and we can all be here, safe, and celebrate America and our next president.”
She added: “It’s changed me. I haven’t figured it all out. I’m living it. There’s something different.”
Lucas Dupont contributed to this report for TROIB News
