The great wall of Donald

CLEVELAND—In a prime-time speech that nearly spilled into late-night television, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump described himself as the law-and-order candidate who would rid the nation of crime and violence, defeat ISIS, and bolster prosperity—and all “very soon.”

How soon?

Trump offered a date: Jan. 20, 2017—the day he predicted he would take the oath of office as president of the United States. That’s the day, he said, “Safety will be restored.”

Who will help him?

Trump promised to hire the best prosecutors and pursue aggressive intelligence gathering to combat domestic and foreign violence, but his central message focused less on a detailed plan of working with others and more on his own power to get things done: “I’m going to bring back jobs.” “I’m going to make our country rich again.” “No one knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”

The candidate stayed on message, focusing on his familiar themes of combating illegal immigration—“We are going to build a great wall”—and rejecting trade agreements Trump doesn’t believe benefit American workers.

Trump ditched his usual freewheeling style to read remarks from a teleprompter, and he avoided the insults and off-topic diatribes that had marked his earlier campaign speeches.

The message remained clear: The country’s in a mess. His opponent—Democrat Hillary Clinton—is a reckless enemy. Trump alone can save us.

If the message was simple, it was effective with the audience packed into the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland. The question going forward: Will it be effective with the rest of the country?

Polls show Trump and Clinton in a dead heat for the White House, but it may take weeks (and a Democratic convention in Philadelphia beginning on Monday) to better predict which vision might prevail.

Trump did sprinkle other messages into a speech that focused largely on immigration and trade.

He lamented the recent terrorist attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., and he pledged to protect LGBTQ Americans from “hateful foreign ideology.” Earlier in the evening, Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley giant and co-founder of PayPal, praised Trump and chided Republicans who had focused on issues like transgender bathroom use. The line drew tepid response, but many in the crowd cheered approval when Thiel declared, “I am proud to be gay.”

Trump also tipped his hat to evangelicals, saying he couldn’t have won the nomination without their support. (Earlier in the night, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. addressed the crowd. Trump has often credited Falwell with helping him win evangelical votes.)

When it comes to evangelicals, Trump made a promise to them: He’d work to turn back federal regulations that limit political speech from church pulpits.

Trump has recently decried the reality that churches can’t formally endorse political candidates without jeopardizing their non-profit status. But the current jeopardy to religious liberty has far less to do with endorsing candidates and more to do with Christians’ rights to exercise their religious conscience in the workplace—particularly for business owners.

No mention of the florists, bakers, wedding photographers, T-shirt makers, or other business owners facing financial peril for asking not to participate in same-sex weddings or gay pride events. And no mention of Catholic nuns or conscience-bound pharmacists fighting court orders to dispense birth control or abortifacient drugs.

Trump did mention the importance of appointing conservative Supreme Court justices, an issue critical to most evangelical voters. Though many Christians connect the importance of justices to protecting pro-life efforts or religious liberty, Trump emphasized the importance of protecting the Second Amendment.

But he also pledged to appoint justices with the same worldview as deceased Justice Antonin Scalia, a promise likely to bolster his standing with social conservatives worried about the future of the court.

Trump ended by promising to be a voice for disenfranchised Americans, and he noted a reality on which both Republicans and Democrats could agree: “History is watching us.”