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Process That Felt ‘Hostile’
Platform day arrived last Monday.
Party regulars arrived in Milwaukee with a sense of excitement.
Many of these activists look forward every four years to shaping the Republican Party’s official vision, and they pay their own way to participate in the process.

Members of the platform committee arrived expecting two days of work ahead, prepared to break into subcommittees to draft sections of a document that typically spans thousands of words.

Instead, they handed over their phones to party officials, who sealed them in the magnetic pouches.

Mr. Trump and party operatives were allowed to keep their devices.

Only delegates and guests were denied the ability to communicate with the outside world.

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, one of Mr. Trump’s staunchest allies in the Senate, presided over the meeting.

It became clear very quickly to those who wanted to amend the platform that Mr. Trump’s team controlled the room.

One delegate, a state lawmaker from Arizona, Alex Kolodin, had brought a laptop and printer to be prepared.
But there was a quick vote to confiscate those
— and any other electronics.

“The will of the body is the will of the body,” Mr. Kolodin said of having his devices taken.

Mr. Kolodin said he had submitted ideas to the Trump team before the platform committee meeting but did not realize those gathered would have no actual say in the final document.

“This is all for show,” Mr. Kolodin said,
adding that he wished the party had shared that fact in advance.
“We all would have felt more respected by that upfront approach,” he said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/18/us/politics/trump-gop-platform-convention.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

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