MILWAUKEE (AP) — Two days after surviving an assassination attempt, former President Donald Trump appeared triumphantly at the opening night of the Republican National Convention with a bandage over his right ear.
Delegates cheered wildly when Trump appeared on the screen from behind the stage and then emerged, visibly moved, as Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA.” Trump did not give a speech at the convention.
Trump’s appearance came just hours after cheering and emboldened delegates nominated the former president as their front-runner for the third time and welcomed Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate.
“We must unite as a party, and we must unite as a nation,” said Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley, Trump’s personally selected party leader, as he opened the convention’s prime-time session on Monday. “We must show the same strength and resilience as President Trump and lead this nation to a better future.”
But Whatley and other Republican leaders made clear that their calls for harmony did not extend to President Joe Biden and the Democrats.
“Their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people,” said Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, welcoming the party to his swing state, which Trump won in 2016 but lost to Biden four years ago.
Saturday’s shooting at a Pennsylvania rally that left Trump injured and one man dead was no stranger to delegates during their celebrations – a stark contrast to the anger and fear that had characterized the past few days. Some delegates chanted “fight, fight, fight” – the same words Trump shouted to the crowd as the Secret Service escorted him off the stage with his fist raised and his face bloodied.
“After the events of Saturday, we should all be thankful that we can still cast our vote for President Donald J. Trump,” said New Jersey State Senator Michael Testa as he announced all 12 of his state’s delegates for Trump.
The scene at Trump’s formal nomination reflected his huge popularity among Republican activists. When he reached the required number of delegates, video screens in the arena flashed “OVER THE TOP” as the song “Celebration” played and delegates danced and waved Trump signs. Throughout the vote, delegates, flanked by “Make America Great Again” signs, applauded as state after state voted for a second term for Trump.
Several speakers used religious imagery to talk about Trump and the assassination.
“The devil came to Pennsylvania with a gun in his hand,” said Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. “But an American lion has recovered!”
Wyoming delegate Sheryl Foland was among those who adopted the “fight” rhetoric after seeing Trump survive in “monumental photos and videos” on Saturday.
“We knew then that we would adopt this as our song,” added Foland, a child trauma counselor. “Not only because we wanted him to fight and because God was fighting for him. We thought, isn’t it our job to take up this challenge and fight for our country?”
“It’s bigger than Trump,” Foland said. “It’s a mantra for our country.”
Another well-timed development lifted the mood at the convention on Monday: The federal judge presiding over the trial of Trump’s secret documents dropped the charges due to concerns about the appointment of the prosecutor who brought the case to trial, handing the former president a major court victory.
The party convention aims to reach people outside the GOP base
Trump’s campaign officials had designed the convention to deliver a softer, more hopeful message, focusing on issues that could aid a polarizing politician broaden his appeal among moderate voters and people of color.
On an evening focused on the economy, delegates and a national television audience heard speakers the Trump campaign addressed as “ordinary Americans” — including a single mother who spoke about inflation and a union member who described himself as a lifelong Democrat and now supports Trump.
Keynote speakers also included black Republicans who have played a pioneering role in the Trump campaign in the fight for the votes of a core Democratic electorate.
Texas U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt said rising food and energy prices are putting a strain on Americans’ wallets, quoting Ronald Reagan as saying inflation is “the cruelest tax on the poor.” Hunt argued that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris do not seem to understand the problem.
“We can fix this disaster,” Hunt said, by electing Trump and “sending him back where he belongs, to the White House.”
Texas U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt said rising food and energy prices are putting a strain on Americans’ wallets, quoting Ronald Reagan as saying inflation is “the cruelest tax on the poor.” Hunt argued that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris do not seem to understand the problem.
“We can fix this disaster,” Hunt said, by electing Trump and “sending him back where he belongs, to the White House.”
Scott, perhaps the party’s best-known black congressman, declared: “America is not a racist country.”
Republicans welcomed Vance’s election as an significant step toward a winning coalition in November.
Trump announced his choice of running mate as delegates voted on the former president’s nomination on Monday. The teenage senator from Ohio first gained national attention with his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” a best-selling book about his Appalachian childhood that has been hailed as a window into the parts of the American working class that enabled Trump’s rise to power.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who has been touted as a possible candidate for vice president, said in a post on X that Vance’s “small-town roots and commitment to the country make him a strong voice for the America First agenda.”
But despite all the calls for harmony, two of the opening speakers at Monday’s evening session – Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson – are considered some of the party’s most inflammatory figures.
Robinson recently spoke during a church service in North Carolina about “evil” people he said threatened American Christianity. “Some people need to be killed,” he said at the time, but he avoided such rhetoric on the convention stage.
The campaign continues
Trump’s nomination came the same day that Biden was scheduled to give another national television interview, with the 81-year-old president seeking to demonstrate his ability to stay in office for another four years despite ongoing concerns within his own party.
Biden told ABC News he made a mistake recently when he told Democratic donors the party needed to stop questioning his fitness for office and instead target Trump. Republicans have aggressively touted that comment since Saturday’s assassination, with some openly accusing Biden of inciting the attempt on Trump’s life.
The president’s admission was consistent with his call from the Oval Office on Sunday for all Americans to tone down their political rhetoric. But Biden insisted on Monday that drawing contrasts with Trump, who uses harsh and accusatory language, is a legitimate part of a presidential campaign.
At the Milwaukee arena, Republicans did not hold back their attacks on Biden and even played a video that mocked the president’s physical stamina and mental sharpness.
They frequently alluded to the “Biden-Harris administration” and found ways to criticize Vice President Kamala Harris – a not-so-subtle allusion to the possibility that Biden might step down in favor of Harris.
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Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Ali Swenson in Minneapolis, Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix and Farnoush Amiri, Thomas Beaumont, Michelle L. Price and Sophia Tareen in Milwaukee contributed.
