CLEVELAND _ Donald Trump rejected the typical gestures of party unity Monday as the Republican National Convention kicked off, quashing a brief but loud floor rebellion, while his campaign chief disparaged the Bush family and Ohio's Republican governor.
It was clear that many in the party were still coming around to accepting Trump, an outsider who defeated a number of long-serving stalwarts, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to seize the GOP nomination.
Three hours after the convention was gaveled open, chaos briefly descended on the floor of the downtown sports arena when anti-Trump activists sought to force a vote on a rule that would have allowed delegates to vote as they wished instead of being bound to the presumptive nominee.
Convention leaders refused to yield, leaving some with hurt feelings, hours before prime-time speakers had a chance to fire them up against their common target: presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The speakers _ an eclectic group that included Trump's wife, Melania, actor Scott Baio and two up-and-coming senators _ emphasized national security and highlighted Clinton's record as secretary of state, and what Republicans have painted as failures of the Obama administration.
"The question I hear time and again is, 'Where is America's leadership?'" Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst planned to say, according to speech excerpts released by the party. "There's a void in the world: a deficit that cannot be filled by others. Our country and the world of which we are a part simply cannot afford four more years of this lack of leadership under Hillary Clinton."
Ernst, along with Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, was elected in 2014, and both are considered rising stars in the party.
"Our warriors and their families don't ask for much, but there are a few things we'd like," Cotton said. "A commander in chief who speaks of winning wars and not merely ending wars, calls the enemy by its name, and draws red lines carefully but enforces them ruthlessly."
Some of the most prominent Republicans, including the party's two living former presidents and its previous two presidential nominees, were not expected to attend. The no-shows have infuriated Trump's campaign.
The sun had barely cleared the high-rises overlooking Lake Erie when top Trump aide Paul Manafort took his shot at John Kasich, Ohio's governor and an erstwhile Trump rival for the Republican nomination. Kasich has refused to endorse Trump and said he will steer clear of the convention stage while keeping up an active schedule of appearances in and around Cleveland this week.
"He's making a big mistake," Manafort said in a morning interview on MSNBC, drawing audible groans from an audience sitting in. "He's hurting his state and embarrassing his state, frankly."
The chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Matt Borges, immediately fired back on Twitter, noting Kasich's approval in surveys of Ohio voters and suggesting Manafort "still has a lot to learn about Ohio politics."
Manafort, however, showed no signs of contrition.
Later, at a morning briefing with reporters, he reiterated his criticism of Kasich, then turned his sights on the Bush family. In a break with custom, former President George H.W. Bush and his son, former President George W. Bush, are boycotting the convention along with others in their extended political clan.
"Certainly the Bush family, while we would have liked to have had them, they're part of the past," Manafort said. "We're dealing with the future."
Detailing the week's intended themes _ getting voters to look anew at Trump, litigating the "failures of the Obama administration," attacking Democrat Clinton _ he said "the fourth and final piece of the strategy is to unify the party."
"We think that the unification is happening," Manafort said, despite contrary evidence. "We hope that when the Bush family decides to participate again in the political process, they will join us. But healing takes time, and we understand that."
The failed effort to change party rules may have been the last gasp of a movement that tried and repeatedly failed to stymie Trump during the primary season.
The presiding chairman briefly fled the stage rather than allow a potentially embarrassing roll call vote on the measure, prompting a roaring wave of boos and shouts, which Trump backers sought to drown out with chants of "USA, USA!"
After several minutes of upheaval and uncertainty, Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas took the stage wielding the gavel and called for a voice vote instead of polling delegates. With that, a majority shouted its affirmation and turned back the anti-Trump forces.
"He ran on a populist platform and now he's showing he's not even a populist," said Kendal Unruh, a Colorado delegate who led the anti-Trump movement to change the rules. "As my daughter texted, he's a tyrannical dictator."
But many were hoping a few nights of healing would salve the discord.
"By the time we get to Thursday night, Friday, you have a binary choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton," said Steve House, the Colorado state party chairman.
Still, he worried that "we're not going to win this election if we don't find reasons to vote for Donald Trump," rather than merely against Clinton.
The day's official convention program reflected the Trumpian takeover of the party.
Although the theme was security at home and abroad, and the lineup of speakers included a number with military and other backgrounds to inform their views, the schedule also included several reality-TV personalities and others with no obviously relevant credentials. Trump had promised A-list stars, but several on the rostrum were either no longer household names or had never been.
"Is Donald Trump a messiah?" Baio said. "No he's just a man, a man who wants to give back to his country, America."
Several speakers spoke intimately about the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, an event Republicans have blamed on Clinton. The speeches provided notes of sobriety to the festivity, and left some in the audience with tears.
Patricia Smith, whose son Sean died, spoke of her frustration in dealing with the State Department and accused Clinton of lying to her about the cause of the attack.
"How could she do this to me? How could she do this to any American family?" Smith said.
The final speaker scheduled for prime time, Trump's wife, Melania, is a former fashion model with a degree in architecture and design; in another break with tradition, Trump planned to show up early at the convention to introduce her.
Democrats and allied groups spent the day trying to undermine any chance Trump had to reintroduce himself to voters. Clinton, attending the NAACP convention in Cincinnati, described Trump as a bigot, a sexist and a xenophobe. Her campaign released a video that included footage of Trump saying "I love war," set against more anguished comments from Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. The lead pro-Clinton super PAC, Priorities USA, unleashed an anti-Trump ad that will play on taxi cab screens in Cleveland.
Even before he touched down in this bustling convention city, Trump continued to stir things.
Speaking Monday morning by telephone with Fox News, Trump raised questions about President Barack Obama's loyalties when it comes to disputes between African-Americans and police _ even as he agreed with Obama's point that blacks are treated differently by police.
The president spoke to the nation Sunday, after the killings of three Baton Rouge, La., officers. "Nothing justifies violence against law enforcement. Attacks on police are an attack on all of us and the rule of law that makes society possible," Obama said. He also cautioned against "inflammatory rhetoric."
Trump, in response, called Obama "a great divider."
"I mean, you know, I watched the president and sometimes the words are OK but you just look at the body language, there's something going on," Trump said. "Look, there's something going on and the words are not often OK, by the way."
Seconds after slighting Obama, however, Trump agreed when host Brian Kilmeade reminded him of assertions by fellow Republicans that African Americans often are treated more severely by law enforcement. Trump said that there was "definitely something going on there also."
"And it has to do with training and it has to do with something," he said. "But there is something going on that maybe, Brian, we can't recognize it or we can't see it unless you're black, and it's an experience."
Outside the convention, dozens gathered to protest Trump, saying he has deepened racial divides in an already-fractured country.
"He is a candidate who will set us back decades," said 19-year-old David Udall of Los Angeles as he held a large "Stop Trump" banner.
Many of the activists, some of whom took part in a thunderous but peaceful march against Trump and police brutality on Sunday afternoon, had traveled thousands of miles to oppose the GOP nominee.
