Not on the schedule for the next four nights are major Republican figures such as former President George W. Bush or Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the party’s nominee of 2012. Instead, the list of speakers includes Nikki R. Haley, the former ambassador at the United Nations; Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Minority Leader; and Senators Tim Scott of South Carolina and Joni Ernst of Iowa. Melania Trump, the first lady, will speak at the White House Rose Garden, and Vice President Mike Pence of Fort McHenry in Baltimore.
Also nominated to attend the convention are culture war figures such as the Missouri couple accused of making guns by peaceful Black Lives Matters protesters passing by their home and the former high school student in Kentucky whose face -to-face-distance with a Native American protester in 2019 went viral online. In addition, the convention will include the parents of Kayla Mueller, who was assassinated in 2015 by the Islamic State, and Alice Johnson, who was suspended during her life in prison on drug charges in 2018 by Mr. Trump.
“You will see and hear from many Americans whose lives are monumentally affected by the policies of this administration,” Kellyanne Conway, the president’s adviser, told reporters on Friday. “We absolutely want to improve on the dirty and sucky mood of the DNC. The two most popular words at the Democratic convention were not ‘Joe Biden. “They were ‘Donald Trump.’ ”
What viewers will not see is the colleague of Ms. Conway of the 2016 campaign, Mr. Bannon, who became a virtual cult figure among some after Mr. Trump helped one of the greatest overarching victories in modern American history. Mr Bannon’s arrest last week on freight charges could hardly have come at a less touching moment for a president in some double-digit interviews and sought to regain traction. The resentment only seemed to be more pronounced by the fact that the latter are turning to an alleged scheme to benefit the donations of Trump supporters, foolish to think that they helped build his signature border wall, which Mr. Trump originally had promised that Mexico would pay.
Scandal on the eve of a convention is not necessarily a political killer by itself. President Bill Clinton had to fire his chief strategist, Dick Morris, after revelations about the aide of the aide with a toe-sucking prostitute, a story that broke the morning of the president’s acceptance of the 1996 convention and in the end did no lasting damage.
The difference is that in the case of Mr. Trump could weigh the accumulation of such episodes on a presidency. Mr. Bannon joins a troupe of some of Trump’s time to look inside a prison cell or criminal courtroom, including Michael T. Flynn, Roger J. Stone Jr., Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos and Michael Cohen.
“For someone who is fighting against the promise to ‘turn the tide,’ Trump has seen a large number of close advisers accused of crimes,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney in Michigan. “The long list of employees accused of crimes speaks volumes about Trump’s judgment and lack of rigor in judgment.”
