Donald Trump's convention speech: Specifics aren't needed, Tennessee delegates say

CLEVELAND – Connie Hunter, a Nashville-based Donald Trump delegate, isn’t worried about the fact that the Republican presidential nominee has failed to say exactly how he plans to make the country great again.

“I don’t know how deep he’s going to get into it, even in debates with Hillary,” she said Thursday morning, hours before Trump took the stage for the final night of the Republican National Convention.

As Tennessee Republicans prepare to embrace their party's new standard-bearer, they remain confident he'll lead the country to prosperity. But, at least right now, many aren't too concerned about how specifically he'll get there. 

In the speech, Trump relied on the same broad statements to address most policy issues. He told the crowd he'd appoint the best prosecutors to help make the country safer, build the border wall he's preached about and temporarily ban immigration from countries "compromised by terrorism," according to copies of the speech leaked before press time.

Hunter said she hoped Trump would use the speech as an opportunity to show his more personal side, adding that she’s not sure whether or not that actually matters to voters. “It don’t matter to me and it doesn’t matter to a lot of people that I talk to because what everybody likes about him is because he’s so gruff.”

State Sen. Mae Beavers, R-Mt. Juliet, and Emily Beaty, a Rubio delegate from Cleveland, Tenn., said Trump hasn’t laid out too many specifics in terms of policy because of the fact that there were so many candidates in the Republican race.

“I think probably in this really crowded primary field Trump being loud and boisterous helped him stand out from the crowd. And I think he speaks plain and simple English that Americans understand,” Beaty said, adding that she believes Trump will eventually hone in on policy.

“That will come as he puts his cabinet together,” said Beavers, pointing to an idea that several Tennesseans say.

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“I trust that he will at least have people around him that know what they’re doing, and can advise him,” said Blount County's Patsy Lundy, from Maryville, a guest of a delegate.

Sam Maynard, a Trump delegate from Knoxville, said as the November election nears, he believes Trump will eventually lay out more specifics.

“Of course he is – it’s just like if you go into business, are you going to know everything immediately?” he said.

When asked which of Trump’s policies he liked most, Maynard said, “All of them.”

Others, like Beavers and Terry Roland, a Shelby County Trump delegate, point to the nominee’s immigration policy as their top issue.

“We’re at a point now in this country where we really need to know who these people are that’s coming in, and to get a hold on it,” Roland said.

For Julie Brockman, a Lebanon-based Trump delegate, her top issue is veterans.

“I think that he will develop a plan to help our veterans,” she said. Trump’s website includes a plan ideas like modernizing the VA by creating satellite clinics in rural areas and firing the “corrupt and incompetent” executives who have “let our veterans down.”

But not everyone in Cleveland is satisfied with Trump’s lack of specifics. Lundy said she would like to know more than Trump’s stock line, “Make America Great Again.”

“I would at this point like to hear a little more particulars. I think it’s time that we get down to how you’re really going to address the problems,” she said.

Although he has opinions about everything under the sun, Trump’s website outlines his views on just seven official “positions.”

They are: his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and how to pay for it; 2nd Amendment rights; trade agreements with China, and reforms on taxes, immigration, health care and the veterans administration.

By contrast, Clinton has information on her website covering 37 topics, ranging from taxes and substance abuse to autism and racial justice. Trump does, however, have a section on his website in which he outlines his thoughts via YouTube videos covering 20 topics.

Peppered in with some policy positions on trade and the economy are videos in which Trump covers a variety of issues, including making deals with Congress, respect for law enforcement, his first day in office, the nation’s drug epidemic and political correctness.

While it remains to be seen whether or not Trump outlines detailed policy positions or sticks to stock answers during the most important speech of his campaign, Tennessee’s delegation is looking forward to the primetime event.

“I think we’re going to hear a vision for America,” Beavers said.

Reach Joel Ebert at 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29. Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.