Last August, the iconic Trump image was the mugshot in Georgia after he was arrested and booked on over a dozen felony charges for attempting to overturn that state’s election in 2020. Now, the iconic image is of the wounded former president, blood on his face from an assassin’s attack, fist in the air, shouting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as he was hustled by the Secret Service to safety.

Trump survived. Throughout the Republican convention, the living martyr received a thunderous roar of screams, cheers, tears and joy.

In 2016, Trump entered the convention to accept the nomination in a thunder of cloud and light, his silhouette unmistakable. The message was clear and confronting: immigration and crime unchecked, America humiliated by its foreign misadventures and cowardly leadership, taken advantage of by its allies, with the heartland of the country hollowed out by the elites in Washington.

“The American people will come first once again … We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities,” he said then. “I am going to bring back our jobs to Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York and Michigan and all of America … I make this promise … we will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again.”

When Trump was inaugurated in 2017, his theme was “American Carnage”, pledging that the “forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer”. In this campaign, Trump has vowed vengeance and retribution against his enemies. “This is the final battle … They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. And in the end, they are not after me. They’re after you and I just happen to be standing in the way.” As he was at that rally in Pennsylvania.

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Trump has been on message for eight years. On his third successive Republican coronation for the presidency, Trump was unrepentant. While his wildly meandering speech tested the stamina of even fervent supporters, Trump replayed all his top hits: a nation in decline, an immigration invasion driving crime that is out of control, rampant inflation. He will close the border, end the international crises, from Ukraine to Israel, and stop the threat posed by Iran.

There was something new after the shooting: a plea for division in American society to be healed. “I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America.”

Trump is at his zenith. The Republican Party has not been this unified under its leader since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Reagan stood for American leadership in the world, opposition to the Soviet Union, free trade, smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation. Four decades later, Trump has become an “-ism” for America First nationalism, nativism, isolationism, and protectionism. Trump’s is as powerful as the Reaganism he has supplanted.