Chris Wallace: This isn’t the GOP convention, ‘it’s really the Trump convention’

Chris Wallace dubbed the Republican National Convention “the Trump convention,” saying it will be dominated by the president and his family.

“I’ve watched most of the last hour and a half and what really strikes me is that while we’re calling this a Republican convention, it’s really the Trump convention,” Wallace, the host of “Fox News Sunday,” said Monday night.

“The most recent Republican president, George W. Bush, won’t be making an appearance this week. Over the weekend, the Republican National Committee announced that because COVID is limiting the attendance of delegates they’re not even going to pass a platform but they pledge support for the president’s America First agenda.”

Wallace noted that first lady Melania Trump and Trump’s four adult children will speak, as will Cabinet members and White House staff. Trump is also expected to speak on all four nights in what Wallace described as an “unprecedented” move. 

“He seems to have made the calculation that the best spokesman, the best salesman for Donald Trump is Donald Trump, and for the Trump base, the millions of voters out there that voted for him in 2016, who plan to vote for him again, he’s probably absolutely right,” Wallace said.

Karl Rove, a former strategist for Bush, also noted the relative lack of traditional lawmakers speaking at the convention while praising speeches by non-politicos including former NFL star Herschel Walker and Andrew Pollack, the father of Parkland, Fla., shooting victim Meadow Pollack.

“I thought some of the most powerful moments tonight were not the politicos, they were people like Herschel Walker. I was taken by the father of the Parkland shooting victim. I was taken by the group of first responders and everybody from a truck driver to nurses,” Rove said during the network’s coverage of the four-day event.

Trump will speak on Thursday night in a speech expected to take place on the South Lawn of the White House.