He then proceeded to dredge up the time he retweeted an unflattering picture of Cruz’s wife Heidi, as well as the time he suggested that Cruz’s father Rafael was involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination. He was just repeating what he’d read in a very reliable publication, the National Enquirer, Trump insisted Friday: “This was a magazine that, frankly, in many respects, should be very respected. They got O.J. They got Edwards.” Trump threatened to start a super PAC to oppose Cruz if the Texas senator ran for president, asking Pence whether that was legally permitted.

Trump bragged about how much social-media attention his convention had gotten. He boasted about his appearances on the cover of Time. He pulled up staffers on stage to congratulate them. He praised Corey Lewandowski, who was pushed out in an internal battle in June. “Corey Lewandowski was great, I have to tell you,” he said. “And he’s been very loyal, and he’s been on CNN and he’s been fighting for me.”

He closed the speech out with one more shot at his rivals.

“One thing I wanted to leave you with: Supreme Court justices,” he said. “No matter how much you like or dislike, no matter what your feelings, whether you are the governor of Ohio, a senator from Texas, or any of the other people that I beat so easily and so badly, you have no choice, you have to go for Trump.”

Why step on Thursday’s acceptance speech? Why isn’t Trump making nice with other Republicans, especially in key states like Ohio? (The campaign was forced to cancel a planned Friday rally in Akron due to disorganization and security issues.) Wasn’t the point of the RNC to bring about party unity? But Trump is calling for a sort of unity, at the barrel of a gun: You have no choice. In that respect, the speech wasn’t so different from the messianic address he’d given the night before.