Trump's Acceptance Speech Among the Longest Ever

President Trump closed out the Republican National Convention Thursday night by formally accepting the Republican nomination for president, which he did from the White House—the AP calls this the first political convention ever to be held there, and CNN notes Trump's was one of the longest acceptance speeches ever given. The end of the evening also included fireworks on the National Mall (some of them spelling out "Trump" and "2020") and a performance by opera singer Christopher Macchio from the Blue Room balcony. Among Trump's acceptance speech pledges was to put the first woman on the moon, a promise he made after touting his administration's commitment to space exploration. More from his speech and the rest of the convention's final night:

• Trump's speech lasted more than 70 minutes, NBC News reports. As expected, it included digs at Joe Biden (he called him a "Trojan horse for socialism," among other things), calls for law and order (he said "mob rule" must never be allowed), and a positive outlook on the coronavirus pandemic and coming vaccine.

• Others aligned with law enforcement also spoke during the night, and echoed Trump's calls for law and order and the end of violent protests.
• The AP reports hundreds of protesters gathered near the White House for a "noise demonstration and dance party," hoping to drown out Trump's speech, but there was no indication Trump heard them.
• Trump was introduced by daughter Ivanka, who worked to humanize the president in her speech. "I recognize that my dad's communication style is not to everyone's taste. And I know his tweets can feel a bit unfiltered," she said. But "I've been with my father and I've seen the pain in his eyes when he receives updates on the lives that have been stolen by this plague."
• Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, suggested that Black Lives Matter, along with antifa, is pushing Biden to "execute their pro-criminal, anti-police policies" and had “hijacked the protests into vicious, brutal riots." The AP fact-checks this (there's no evidence of Giuliani's claim), as well as several other claims made during the night, here.
• Alice Johnson, the grandmother whose drug sentence was commuted by Trump, said his criminal justice reforms are "just getting started" and that his First Step Act "brought joy, hope and freedom to thousands of well-deserving people."
• Housing Secretary Ben Carson, the highest-ranking Black member of the Trump administration, offered his sympathies to the family of Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
• UFC head Dana White said Trump is the man to get the economy back on track after it was ravaged by the pandemic; he specifically mentioned the president's commitment to bringing back sports safely.
• Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said, per the Hill, that Biden has been "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."
• One line from Mitch McConnell: The Democrats "want to tell you what kind of car you can drive. What sources of information are credible. And even how many hamburgers you can eat." That's a reference to the mistaken belief that proponents of the Green New Deal would limit beef consumption.

(More Republican National Convention stories.)