Republicans Get Pumped for Trump’s Muscular Finale

The night Mitt Romney accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, he was introduced by party stalwarts like Newt Gingrich and Jeb Bush.

In 2004, George W. Bush went with Gov. George Pataki of New York.

Tonight, former President Donald Trump will be preceded by Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan and the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It is less a display of political lineage than an unapologetic show of masculine kitsch.

Five days after Trump narrowly avoided an assassination attempt, and following calls for unity at the start of the convention, he will take the stage tonight in an evening that seems designed to celebrate literal combat and general brawn.

The lineup suggests a swing back to the bellicose political style that defined Trump’s rise. And as calls for men to embrace more traditional ideals of manliness have percolated in conservative circles in the wake of the #MeToo movement, it is an explicit embrace of masculinity as Republicans move to burnish Trump’s own image of physical strength.

Here in Milwaukee, a 78-year-old man who has never exactly been a poster child for exercise or healthy eating has been held up as a paragon of physical vigor. His supporters have treated him like the “American Bad Ass” in the song that Robert James Ritchie, the artist better known as Kid Rock, is set to perform in the moments before Trump takes the stage.

They have displayed on enormous screens the defiant image of him pumping his fist after the shooting, turning it into an instant symbol of his willingness to fight. They have pumped their own fists and bandaged their own ears. They have even tried out new catchphrases to show off his resilience.