Donald Trump takes the stage Thursday at the Republican National Convention to accept his party’s nomination again and give his first speech since he was cut off mid-sentence by a flurry of gunfire in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s wife, Melania, is expected to make her first appearance at the convention for the address, which will conclude the four-day convention in Milwaukee.
His moment of survival has shaped the week. Speakers and delegates have repeatedly chanted “Fight, fight, fight!” in homage to Trump’s words as he got to his feet and pumped his fist after Secret Service agents killed the gunman.
Trump appeared each of the first three days with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting. Some of his supporters have started sporting their own bandages on the convention floor.
Trump has said the shooting also led him to change his RNC speech, from what was going to be “a humdinger” made up largely of attacks on President Joe Biden to one more focused on bringing the country together.
“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,” Trump told the Washington Examiner.
While Republicans were set to emerge from their convention more united than in recent memory, Democrats are bitterly divided about whether Biden should continue to lead the ticket. Biden, following his disastrous debate performance against Trump last month, has resisted increasing pressure to drop out, with Democrats’ own party convention scheduled for next month in Chicago.
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats nationally say Biden should step aside and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to an AP-NORC poll released Wednesday.
Trump wrote the speech, and it is expected to be more personal than his usual comments, according to two people familiar with the planned remarks who were not authorized to speak publicly. He is also expected to lay out a stark contrast with the Democrats’ policies, according to one of the people.
The evening also will feature appearances and speeches from Trump’s family and friends, including his son Eric Trump. Among the others scheduled to speak are pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson and lawyer Alina Habba, who represented Trump in some of the legal cases against him. Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts related to a criminal hush money scheme in New York.
RNC speakers this week have attributed Trump’s survival to divine intervention and have paid tribute to victim Corey Comperatore, who died after shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire at the rally.
“Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning,” Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said in his speech to the convention Wednesday.
The convention has showcased a Republican Party reshaped by Trump since he shocked the GOP establishment and won over the party’s grassroots on his way to the party’s 2016 nomination. Rivals Trump has vanquished — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — put aside their past criticisms and gave him their unqualified support.
Even Vance, Trump’s pick to carry his movement into the next generation, was once a fierce critic who suggested in a private message since made public that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”
Trump and his campaign have not released information about his injury or the treatment he received.
The former president has not spoken in public since the shooting, though he’s given interviews off camera. But he referenced it during a private fundraiser Wednesday, according to a clip of his remarks recorded on a cellphone and obtained by PBS News.
“I got lucky,” he said. “God was with me.”
— Associated Press reporters Michelle L. Price in Milwaukee and Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report.
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