Donald Trump described his assassination attempt in detail as he accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday night.
Somber and bandaged, the 78-year-old laid out a sweeping populist agenda, particularly on immigration and also called for unity in the country.Mr Trump, known best for his bombast and aggressive rhetoric, began his acceptance speech with a personal message that drew directly from his brush with death.
Moment by moment Mr Trump described standing onstage in Butler, Pennsylvania, with his head turned to look at a chart on display when he felt something hit his ear.
He raised his hand to his head and saw immediately that it was covered in blood.
"If I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark," Mr Trump said. "And I would not be here tonight. We would not be together."
Trump's address, the longest convention speech in modern history at just under 93 minutes, marked the climax and conclusion of a massive four-day Republican pep rally that drew thousands of conservative activists and elected officials to swing-state Wisconsin as voters weigh an election that currently features two deeply unpopular candidates.
"The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly.
“As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart," Mr Trump said, wearing a large white bandage on his right ear, as he has all week, to cover a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting.
"I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America."
While he spoke in a gentler tone than at his usual rallies, Mr Trump also outlined an agenda led by what he promises would be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. He repeatedly accused people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally of staging an "invasion."
Additionally, he teased new tariffs on trade and an "America first" foreign policy.
Mr Trump also once again falsely suggested Democrats had cheated during the 2020 election he lost - despite a raft of federal and state investigations proving there was no systemic fraud - and suggested "we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement," even as he has long called for prosecutions of his opponents.
He did not mention the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in which Trump supporters tried to stop the certification of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Mr Trump has long referred to the people jailed for the riot as "hostages."
Indeed, Mr Trump barely mentioned Mr Biden, often referring only to the "current administration."
"It was Donald Trump who destroyed our economy, ripped away rights, and failed middle class families," said Jen O'Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chair, in a statement after the speech.
"Now he pursues the presidency with an even more extreme vision for where he wants to take this country."
There is mounting speculation Mr Biden will pull out of his reelection bid this weekend following concerted pressure from Democratic allies.
