Declares “I alone can fix it” in RNC acceptance speech

Accepting the Republican nomination on July 21, 2016, Trump delivered a dark convention speech that presented America as beset by crime, terrorism, and betrayal by elites—and cast himself personally as the only solution. After describing a country on the brink, he said that no one knows the system better than he does and therefore “I alone can fix it,” a line highlighted by the Atlantic, USA Today, and others as an unusually explicit demand to vest trust in a single strongman rather than in institutions or the public. He paired this with promises to “restore law and order” and sweeping claims that he would quickly end crime and defeat terrorism, even as fact-checkers noted that he exaggerated crime trends and ignored existing constitutional constraints.

"Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it." — July 21, 2016 Republican National Convention acceptance speech in Cleveland, where Trump cast the country as in crisis and told delegates that he alone could “fix” a rigged system.