Wednesday marked the first night of the Republican Party’s likely ill-advised midterm convention, and unsurprisingly, things got a little weird. The pre-Trump programming featured everything from Hasan Piker’s underwear to Tim Scott screaming. After President Trump took over, he covered everything from Ken Paxton’s face to the Dallas Mavericks’ bombshell Luka Dončić trade but mostly just talked about himself. Here’s the most notable stuff you missed.
Per NBC News’ count, day-one speakers mentioned him 155 times, then Trump name-checked himself another 16 times. And this presumably doesn’t include all the times everyone mentioned the president without saying his name.
Trump was set to fly out to Dallas from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, utilizing the new Air Force One that was gifted to him by Qatari officials. But the pooled journalists in the vicinity noticed something strange: The plane’s emergency slide appeared to have been deployed while the president was still aboard Marine One behind schedule.
The cause of the delay was later revealed: The New York Times reported the slide was accidentally deployed by a military aide aboard the aircraft. However, while addressing reporters, Trump suggested it was all a part of a planned security check:
