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Chris Stein in Milwaukee (now); Léonie Chao-Fong and Martin Belam (earlier)

Trump joins crowd at Republican convention hall with bandaged ear, in first public appearance since assassination attempt – as it happened

Donald Trump Thomas Matthew Crooks Evan Vucci Republican Assassination Milwaukee United States Republican National Convention Joe Biden Bethel Park

Trump makes first public appearance since shooting: key moments of first day of the Republican national convention

The first day of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee has now concluded.

Delegates will return to the Fiserv Forum at 5pm CT tomorrow for the second day of the four-day event, which is a crucial moment on the road to the 5 November election.

Here’s a look back at what happened today so far.

  • The Republican party formally nominated Donald Trump as their candidate for president, and the former president in the evening appeared at the convention, his first public outing since being wounded by a gunman on Saturday.

  • Trump announced that Ohio senator JD Vance would be his running mate. Not long after, Vance turned up on the floor of the convention, and the GOP made him their vice-presidential nominee by acclamation.

  • Joe Biden said Vance was “a clone of Trump on the issues”. ABC News reports that Kamala Harris tried to call Vance, but couldn’t reach him, and left a voicemail.

  • The president acknowledged that it was a “mistake” to say that he wanted to put a “bullseye” on Trump, in an interview with NBC News.

  • Robert F Kennedy Jr met with Donald Trump in Milwaukee, Politico reports, as Trump sought his endorsement. Kennedy, an independent presidential candidate, is polling at around 9% nationally, and received Secret Service protection today.

  • Donald Trump Jr told the Guardian he advised his father to pick JD Vance because he thought the senator would fight for him.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene, the rightwing congresswoman, said divine intervention kept Trump safe on Saturday.

  • The Biden campaign characterized Vance as an enabler of Trump.

  • Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters, defended his controversial decision to address the convention, then said Trump was “one tough SOB” for surviving the assassination attempt.

Updated

Donald Trump pumped his fist repeatedly and waved at supporters as he leisurely walked down the stairs from the VIP seating and into a tunnel that led backstage.

Secret Service agents followed him closely.

Michael Whatley, the chair of the convention, has just gaveled the night’s session closed.

Before he did, he congratulated Donald Trump and JD Vance on their nominations.

“Senator Vance, congratulations,” he said. “President Trump, we are honored to have you here tonight and on behalf of the entire Republican party all across America, we are grateful for you to be our nominee for the 47th president of the United States of America.”

The crowd burst into applause, as Trump pumped his fist and clasped hands with Vance.

Updated

Sean O’Brien concluded his speech by declaring: “If the powers to be stop me from raising my voice on behalf of American workers, I will not have one single regret,” and will go back to being a truck driver.

As he walked off stage, the crowd resumed chanting: “We want Trump!”

Updated

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien started his speech off on a high note with praise for Donald Trump after he survived an assassination attempt on Saturday.

But the meat of his speech is a pitch to the GOP to reconsider its stance on unions, after the party decades spent promoting policies that make it more difficult for organized labor to thrive.

“You know, corporatists hate when working people join together to form unions. But for a century, major employers have waged a war against labor by forming corporate unions of their own. We need to call the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Toundtables what they are. They are unions for big business,” O’Brien said.

He then decried “elites”, a common target of attacks from Trump and his allies:

Remember, elites have no party. Elites have no nation. Their loyalty is to the balance sheet and the stock price at the expense of the American worker.

Trump is 'one tough SOB', Teamsters president says

Sean O’Brien has shown his knack for bringing the crowd to its feet, drawing one of the loudest applauses of the night by saying that, after surviving an assassination attempt on Saturday, Donald Trump is “one tough SOB”.

“President Trump had the backbone to open the doors to this Republican convention, and that’s unprecedented. No other nominee in the race would have invited the Teamsters into this arena,” O’Brien said.

“You can have whatever opinion you want, but one thing is clear: President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud and often critical voices, and I think we all can agree whether people like him or they don’t like him, in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough SOB.”

And at that, the crowd went wild.

Updated

Teamsters president says union 'not beholden to anyone, or any party'

By way of justifying his decision to address the Republican national convention, Teamster president Sean O’Brien said that the union was “not beholden” to any politician or party.

“The American people aren’t stupid. They know the system is broken. We all know how Washington is run. Working people have no chance of winning this fight. That’s why I’m here today, because I refuse to keep doing the same things my predecessors did,” O’Brien said.

“Today, the Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party. We will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition ready to accomplish something real for the American worker.”

And in a remark that brought the convention to its feet, he said:

And I don’t care about getting criticized, it’s an honor to be the first Teamster in our 121-year history to address the Republican national convention.

Updated

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien is now onstage.

Some senior members of his union are not happy that he is addressing the Republican convention. Here’s more about that:

Actor and model Amber Rose was up next, rebutting the assertion that Donald Trump is racist.

“The first person I knew who supported Donald Trump was my father. I was shocked. My entire family is racially diverse, and I believed the leftwing propaganda that Donald Trump was a racist. My father said: ‘No, he’s not Amber, what are you talking about?’ And when I insisted, he said, prove it. So to prove my father wrong, I did my research and looked into all things Donald Trump,” Rose said.

“People have to do their research. I watched all the rallies, and I started meeting so many of you, his red-hat wearing supporters. I realized Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay or straight – it’s all love.”

Updated

Donald Trump listened to a story from western Michigan resident Mark Laws, who was talking about how inflation has affected him.

JD Vance is sitting to Trump’s left, and to his right is congressman Byron Donalds. Next to him is Tucker Carlson, the conservative former Fox News commentator. Carlson appears to be leaning over Donalds to talk to Trump.

Updated

The crowd has broken into chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

As well as “Fight! Fight! Fight!” and “We want Trump!”

Updated

Trump is standing next to JD Vance, who he just selected as his running mate.

They’re in a VIP section alongside members of Congress, including House speaker Mike Johnson.

Trump greets supporters at Republican national convention

Donald Trump is now walking into the VIP seating of the Republican national convention, pumping his fist in the air.

Country singer Lee Greenwood is on stage, singing his hit God Bless the USA.

Updated

Trump appears with bandaged ear at convention

The jumbotron at the Republican national convention is now showing video of Donald Trump, apparently backstage.

His right ear is covered in a bandage, after it was hit by a bullet during the assassination attempt targeting him on Saturday. He motioned to the camera, as if signaling he could still hear the convention crowd through that ear, drawing cheers.

Updated

Amid widespread concerns about Joe Biden‘s ability to serve another four years in office, JD Vance boasted that Donald Trump is in great health because of his “ridiculous genes”.

“Donald Trump is as healthy as anybody I’ve ever met. I tell him all the time, he’s got ridiculous genes,” Vance told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I plan to be a very good vice-president to Donald Trump for four years.”

Updated

In his Fox News interview, JD Vance echoed Donald Trump’s call to “deport a large number of people who have come here illegally”. Trump has previously expressed his wish to deport 15 to 20 million undocumented migrants if he wins in November.

Vance agreed with Fox News host Sean Hannity’s description of the US-Mexico border as the country’s “number-one national security threat”.

“We have to deport people. We have to deport people who broke our laws who came in here. And I think we need to start with the violent criminals,” Vance said.

Pointing to polls showing declining support for immigration, Vance said the proposed mass deportations would represent “a policy victory for the American people”.

Updated

JD Vance claims media to blame for his previous critical views of Trump

Vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, who once described Donald Trump as “America’s Hitler”, blamed his past criticism of the former president on “the media’s lies and distortions”.

Speaking to Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Vance said: “I bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy. It was a joke.”

As a reminder, Trump’s presidency ended with a violent attack on the US Capitol after a group of his supporters stormed the building in an effort to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Vance told Hannity: “Joe Biden is the one who is trying to undermine American law and order. President Trump did a really good job. And I actually think it’s a good thing, when you see somebody [and] you were wrong about them, you ought to admit the mistake and admit that you were wrong.”

Updated

PayPal co-founder and tech entrepreneur David Sacks just came on stage to give what was perhaps the worst-received speech of the night thus far.

His lines just were not hitting with a crowd that has been generous with its applause throughout the night.

“The Biden-Harris administration has taken a world that was at peace under President Trump and they lit it on fire,” Sacks said, pausing for cheers that never really came.

“First, President Biden botched the Afghanistan withdrawal, displaying incompetence and weakness for the whole world to see. Then, he provoked, yes, provoked, the Russians to invade Ukraine with talk of Nato expansion,” he said, to not much more reaction.

After saying, to indifference, that Biden was taking the world “to the brink of world war three”, Sacks went on for a few minutes more before walking off stage.

Updated

Meanwhile, it’s now more than 20 minutes past 8pm in Milwaukee and there are no indications of Donald Trump stopping in at the Republican national convention.

But there’s still time. The night’s session has about an hour and a half more to go.

Updated

Blocks away from the Fiserv center in downtown Milwaukee, where Republicans are holding their convention, protesters converged to demonstrate against the party’s policies.

Here are images from the news wires of the protests, which are expected to continue throughout the convention:

Here’s more on the protests today outside the Republican national convention:

Updated

Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor who shot her dog and, after that was revealed, her chances of being Donald Trump’s vice-president, is on stage now.

She’s mostly reciting her administration’s accomplishments, including her handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and of the state’s economy.

After condemning the assassination attempt on Trump Saturday, she made something of a plea for unity:

Donald J Trump is our man in the arena. He will never stop fighting for us. He will never stop, and now he is bringing all of us together. Now, I know that many of you are angry, but now is the time to unite, and we have to get to work. We have to win the hearts and minds of every single American. Wake them up with truth and with wisdom. We need to listen to them. You can’t win people over by arguing with them. Visit with your neighbors, at your job, at your church, at the gas station or even at the grocery store.

Robert Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods who has previously been criticized for his support of Donald Trump, just delivered a robust endorsement of the former president.

Unanue is no stranger to controversy, as some customers called for a boycott of Goya Foods in 2021 after the CEO repeated false claims about the 2020 presidential election.

At the time, Unanue praised Trump as “the real, legitimate and still actual president of the United States”, despite no substantive evidence of widespread election fraud in 2020.

Updated

The man who runs the gun-centric YouTube page Demolition Ranch is speaking out after his channel was thrust into the spotlight following images of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who shot at Donald Trump at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch.

In his first video since Saturday’s shooting Matt Carriker, the Texas veterinarian who has run the page since 2011, expressed his condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore and well-wishes to the injured and said that he purposefully keeps politics out of his videos and was shocked to see the shooter wearing his merchandise.

“Just like Nike doesn’t vet who buys their shoes. I wish I could. I would love to keep people like that from wearing, being associated with that article of clothing. I wish he couldn’t get a shirt. But it happened,” he said in the video posted on Monday.

The target audience for the video, Carriker emphasized, is people who were unfamiliar with him before Saturday’s shooting.

“This is mostly for the people just tuning in to see if I am a guy that is trying to make people do stuff like that,” Carricker continued. “I am not. Obviously, I don’t have to explain that to those who know me. But I feel like I might need to say that for those who don’t. This channel is not about violence. This channel will never be.”

The full five-minute video can be found here.

Updated

Elon Musk plans to commit $45m per month to pro-Trump Pac – report

The world’s richest man Elon Musk will commit $45m per month to a new Super Pac intended to support Donald Trump’s campaign, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

Musk announced his endorsement of Trump on Saturday, shortly after an assassin opened fire on the former president at his rally in Pennsylvania. Here’s more on the billionaire’s new commitment, from the Journal:

Other backers of the group, called America PAC, include Palantir Technologies PLTR 2.14%increase; green up pointing triangle co-founder Joe Lonsdale, the Winklevoss twins, former U.S. ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft and her husband, Joe Craft, who is chief executive of coal producer Alliance Resource Partners ARLP -0.04%decrease; red down pointing triangle.

Formed in June, America PAC is focused on registering voters and persuading constituents to vote early and request mail-in ballots in swing states, according to one of the people. The coalition assessed that the Democrats have historically had very robust “get out the vote” campaigns and took note of the amounts of money that the Biden administration has dedicated to so-called on the ground efforts in swing states. America PAC will try to counter that.

Updated

Despite Republicans’ claims of rampant crime in US cities because of Democratic policies, violent crime has actually declined in recent months.

The Guardian’s Oliver Milman reported last month:

Violent crime in the US dropped by 15% in the first three months of the year, new figures have shown, the latest evidence in a broader decline of crime across the country that has occurred over the past year.

The decrease in violent crime, from January to March compared to the same period in 2023, has been accompanied by a major drop in murders and reported rapes, which both fell by more than a quarter in the first three months of 2024, according to the new quarterly data released by the FBI.

Aggravated assaults fell by 12.5% in this period, while robberies dropped by 17.8%, the figures – gathered from more than 13,000 law enforcement agencies across the US – show.

Read Oliver’s full report:

Scott declares 'America is not a racist country' as he attacks Democrats

Reprising an attack line from his days as a presidential candidate, Tim Scott said Democrats were making life worse for African Americans.

“America, we deserve better … we deserve so much better. I was raised by a single mom in poverty. We had plastic spoons, not silver spoons, but she taught me to work hard, to take responsibility and reject victimhood. Thank God for my wonderful mama. I know, I know this is going to offend the liberal elites. Every time I say it, it offends them, but let me say it one more time, America is not a racist country,” said Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate.

“But if you are looking for racism today, you find it in cities run by Democrats. Look on the south … side of Chicago, poor Black kids trapped in failing schools, thousands shot every single year, including one of my former interns, DaQuawn. But there’s good news. It’s conservative values that restores hope. It’s Republican policies that lifts people up.”

Updated

Tim Scott on rally shooting: 'an American lion got back up ... and he roared'

In describing what happened at Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday, Tim Scott deployed language that any reader of the Chronicles of Narnia would recognize.

“If you didn’t believe in miracles before Saturday, you better be believing right now. Thank God almighty that we live in a country that still believes in the king of kings and the lord of lords, the alpha and the omega,” he said.

“Our God still saves, he still delivers, and he still sets free, because on Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but an American lion got back up on his feet, and he roared!”

Updated

Tim Scott takes to the stage

Tim Scott, the Republican senator who made a quixotic bid for the presidential nomination and is now a prominent Donald Trump surrogate, has taken the stage to big cheers.

“Wow!” Scott boomed. “Hello Milwaukee! Are you ready for four more years of Donald Trump?”

Updated

Fact check on RNC gas price statistic

The RNC’s statistics on gas prices need a bit more context. According to data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, average gas prices ranged from $1.773 per gallon to $2.962 per gallon over the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

But prices only dipped below $2 per gallon during the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic, when demand for gas plummeted as Americans stayed at home to limit the spread of the virus.

By the time Trump left office in January 2021, the average gas price stood at $2.379 per gallon. Today, the average gas price is $3.521 per gallon after reaching a record high of $5.016 per gallon in June 2022, according to AAA.

Updated

Michigan congressman John James gave one of the more energetic speeches of the evening so far, which focused on attacking Democrats for failing to deliver for Black Americans.

“Black people were sold on hope. Now our streets are rife with crime. Our kids can’t read, and illegals are getting better help from Democrats in four days than we’ve gotten in 400 years,” said James, who is African American.

“Look, our daughters were sold on hope, and now they’re being forced on the playing fields and changing rooms of biological males. America was sold on hope, and now the world’s on fire.”

The Trump campaign has been hoping to make inroads with Black voters, a group that typically votes Democratic. As he wrapped up his speech, James linked the struggles of African Americans to the country at large:

Look, I heard a little early today, if you don’t vote Donald Trump, you ain’t Black. But, see, here’s the thing, by the grace of God and the proven leadership of Donald Trump for every American, regardless of race, color and creed, we can once again have a land where a child’s outcome isn’t determined by their zip code. We can once again have a land where hard work truly does get you ahead. We can once again have a land where you can go from poverty to prosperity in a single generation, I believe that land is still America. America is the greatest idea that’s ever been.

Updated

Trump expected to appear at Republican convention around 8pm CT

I have heard from multiple people that Donald Trump will appear at the Republican national convention at about 8pm CT, but he will not make remarks.

It would be the former president’s first public appearance since he was hit in the ear by a bullet while campaigning in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Updated

Next up was Mark Robinson, the North Carolina lieutenant governor who is the GOP nominee for governor.

He has a history of outrageous remarks, such as quoting Hitler, but his speech mostly stuck to tried-and-true Republican rhetoric.

“As governor, I will not forget where I came from, or the struggles of the people I meet. And you know, there’s someone else who will fight just as hard for you: President Donald J Trump,” Robinson said.

“Under President Trump, the American dream was alive and well. Under President Trump, there was hope, and we need that now more than ever. So this November, let’s select the Braveheart of our time, Donald J Trump, to get our economy back on track, restore the American Dream and make America great again.”

Updated

Fact check: Taylor Greene transgender day claim misleading

Contrary to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s insinuation otherwise, Joe Biden did not set Transgender Day of Visibility to coincide with Easter Sunday this year.

Transgender Day of Visibility occurs on 31 March every year, and Biden has released annual proclamations recognizing the occasion since taking office in 2021.

The date of Easter Sunday varies year by year and just happened to fall on 31 March this year. In addition to his proclamation about Transgender Day of Visibility, Biden, who is a devout Catholic, also released a statement in celebration of Easter on the same day.

Updated

True to form, Greene leaned into the conservative culture wars in her address to the Republican national convention.

“For far too long, the establishment in Washington has sold us out. They promised unity and delivered division. They promised peace and brought war. They promised normalcy and gave us transgender visibility day on Easter Sunday. And let me state this clearly, there are only two genders,” Greene said.

Then she accused Democrats of driving up unemployment (even though the labor market continued its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic under Joe Biden, and the most recent data shows hiring has remained resilient), and said:

The Democrats’s economy is of, by and for illegal aliens.

Marjorie Taylor Greene thanks 'God that his hand was on President Trump' at rally

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia congresswoman known for her far-right rhetoric, is on the stage now.

She began by reflecting on the assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump on Saturday.

“Today is a celebration. The American spirit is alive and well, and we have once again, nominated for president, the founding father of the America First movement, Donald John Trump,” Greene said.

“Unfortunately, this is also a somber moment for our nation. Two days ago, evil came for the man we admire and love so much. I thank God that his hand was on President Trump.”

Updated

The first speech was from Wisconsin’s Republican senator Ron Johnson, who has managed to twice win re-election to his seat representing the swing state.

“Today’s Democrat agenda, their policies, are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people. Democrats have forgotten American families. They have abandoned the hardworking middle class, but with President Trump and Republicans, those forgotten Americans are forgotten no more,” Johnson said.

“We’ve repaired the damage caused by Democrats before, and we will do it again. We will complete the mission President Trump first articulated in 2016 to make America great again.”

After he wrapped up, a video montage played on the jumbotron of Trump dancing and pumping his fists at various rallies, to the tune of the Village People’s YMCA.

Updated

The economic statistics highlighted in a video played at the start of the convention’s second session are somewhat cherry-picked, as the rate of inflation has subsided in recent months.

It is true that the inflation rate hit a 40-year high in 2022, but the most recent government report showed the consumer price index’s annual increase now stands at 3%, compared with 9.1% two years ago.

And while the convention video highlighted record-high gas prices in 2022, those prices have decreased significantly in the time since. According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas currently stands at $3.521, compared with $5.016 in June 2022.

Updated

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Teamsters president to address convention on first night

Several prominent Republican lawmakers, including rightwing icon Marjorie Taylor Greene and former presidential candidate Tim Scott, are expected to address the party’s convention this evening.

So, too, is Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, whose members have traditionally supported Democrats. His appearance at the convention is deeply controversial with some in the labor union.

Here’s more on who we expect to hear from in the hours to come:

The Republican convention has now resumed, with its evening session centered on the theme: “Make America wealthy again”.

Delegates just watched a video decrying Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, which ended with something resembling a bat-signal lighting up the clouds with the word “TRUMP”.

The Republican national convention’s second session of the day is supposed to be starting.

But it seems like the program is a little behind schedule. Delegates are still filing onto the floor of the arena, and many seats are empty.

Joe Biden tells NBC in an interview airing in full later tonight that his age (81) is “a legitimate question”, while saying his “mental acuity has been pretty damn good” in defending his decision to run for re-election and his refusal to drop out after a dire debate performance against Donald Trump last month.

The US president says he doesn’t know if the attempted assassination of Trump over the weekend has changed the trajectory of the election, Reuters reports.

But he did say, in contrasting his record with Trump:

I am not the guy that said I want to be a dictator on Day One. I am not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election.”

Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox host Sean Hannity earlier in the campaign, when asked if he would behave like a dictator if he got back into the White House, told him, no, “only on Day One”. And Trump continues to deny that he lost the 2020 election to Biden, claiming against all available evidence, that widespread fraud effectively stole the result from him.

He is under federal criminal indictment for election interference for trying to overturn his electoral loss.

Updated

The Biden team’s call marked something of a return to normal campaigning for the Democrats, after Saturday’s shocking assassination attempt on Donald Trump plunged the race deeper into uncharted territory.

The Biden campaign pressed ahead on Monday, after pausing all negative advertising over the weekend in response to the shooting. On the call, officials said the contrast between the Trump-Vance ticket and the Biden-Harris ticket was clearer than ever.

Biden-Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said: “With Trump and Vance now entering the general election, they’re facing off against the Biden-Harris ticket and I will certainly take that matchup any day of the week and twice on Sunday.”

Eager to turn the page on the intra-party turmoil set in motion by Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month, the campaign emphasized that they had already committed to participating in a vice-presidential debate and looked forward to the televised showdown between Kamala Harris and Vance.

“She is strong. She knows what she’s talking about and she doesn’t give an inch,” Senator Elizabeth Warren said of Harris.

Updated

For four years, Donald Trump knew he could count on the loyalty of his vice-president, Mike Pence.

But on January 6, Pence resisted Trump’s plea for him to use his ceremonial role as president of the Senate to help overturn the results of Joe Biden’s election in 2020. The Biden campaign is now warning that Trump’s new choice for running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, should not be trusted to put country over party.

In a call with reporters, Biden campaign officials and advocates highlighted Vance’s anti-abortion record, accusing him of wanting to “take women back decades”. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren assailed him as a faux populist, part of Democrats’ criticism of the Hillbilly Elegy author. Warren said his nomination was “great news for the wealthiest Americans and lousy news for everyone else”.

“Billionaires on Wall Street and Silicon Valley are cheering but there is no joy for working people,” she said.

Updated

Outside of the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee, news slowly spread that Donald Trump had picked JD Vance as his running mate.

“I think it’s a great choice. I like that he’s young. I like that he’s from Ohio. There’s a lot of positives about him. Future of the party,” said Nick D’Alessandro, an alternate delegate from New York.

Larry Johnson, a convention attendee from West Virginia, said he thought Vance could bring more attention to Appalachia. “I think for a long time that area has been kind of overlooked.”

Asa Hutchinson, the former Arkansas governor who was one of the most outspoken Trump critics said Vance was a “strategic” choice.

“Obviously he went to appeal to the base of the party. And we’ll see what the tone is whenever JD makes his acceptance speech,” he said. “I was a fan of course of my fellow governor Doug Burgum. Marco Rubio would have been brought. All three very good quality choices. That’s why you’re president, you get to make those choices.”

Keith Kellogg, who served as Mike Pence’s national security adviser, doubted picking Vance would really mean anything.

“He could have picked Peter Pan or Snow White, it wouldn’t have made a difference. It’s all about Trump,” he said in an interview.

Updated

Biden orders Secret Service protection for candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr

Joe Biden a little earlier today directed the Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Donald Trump reportedly met with RFK Jr in person earlier today, while the independent rival to both Trump and Biden and these days a maverick member of the Kennedy political dynasty, has said he won’t drop out of the presidential race.

RFK Jr has been asking for a long time for federal protection. Trump said earlier today that Kennedy should get it. This follows the assassination attempt on Trump over the weekend.

On Monday, the Associated Press reported, Kennedy said in a statement:

Thank you, President Biden, for extending me Secret Service protection.

He also thanked his private security firm, Gavin de Becker & Associates, “for keeping me safe for the past 15 months of my presidential campaign”.

Kennedy’s uncle, President John F Kennedy, and his father, Senator Robert F Kennedy, were both assassinated, in 1963 and 1968, respectively.

Updated

Special counsel to appeal dismissal of documents case against Trump

Special counsel Jack Smith intends to appeal a judge’s dismissal of the classified documents case against Donald Trump.

A spokesperson for Smith revealed the move in a statement today hours after US district judge Aileen Cannon threw out the case, the Associated Press reports.

The judge sided with Trump’s lawyers, who said Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the constitution.

A successful appeal by prosecutors could result in the indictment being reinstated, though even if that there were to happen, it would be virtually impossible for a trial to take place before the November presidential election.

Here’s my colleague Hugo Lowell’s report on the unexpected news this morning that Cannon had, after so many months of proceedings, decided to throw out the case. Read it here.

And my colleague Ed Pilkington’s analysis highlighting the direct line of thinking from hard right-leaning supreme court justice Clarence Thomas to the Trump-appointed Cannon. Read it here.

Updated

Joe Biden sat down for the interview with NBC’s Lester Holt earlier today before heading to the battleground state of Nevada.

The interview is scheduled to air on the network this evening. It was planned before the weekend attempt on Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania and had been part of Biden’s broader strategy to prove his fitness for office after angst grew among Democrats because of his disastrous June debate performance, the Associated Press reports.

The Biden re-election campaign recalibrated some of its political plans in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on Saturday, pulling advertising off the air and hitting pause on messaging. The White House also scrapped Biden’s planned Monday visit to the Lyndon B Johnson library, where he had been slated to deliver remarks on civil rights, in Texas.

It’s still not finalized when Biden’s campaign ads will resume airing. But Biden is pressing on with the Nevada portion of his previously scheduled western swing, which will include remarks to the NAACP and UnidosUS, a Latino civil rights and advocacy group. He’ll also headline what’s been billed as a “campaign community event” on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

Updated

Biden admits mistake in saying he wanted 'bullseye' on Trump

Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview airing Monday that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bullseye” on Republican nominee Donald Trump, which the US president had said prior to the assassination attempt on the former president on Saturday.

But Biden also argued in the sit-down with the TV network that rhetoric coming from his election opponent was more incendiary, the Associated Press reports.

It was a mistake to use the word,’ Biden told NBC anchor Lester Holt in a clip released by the network.

He said he wanted the ‘focus’ to be on ‘what he’s saying’.

Biden continued:

How do you talk about the threat to democracy which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?

The president said he is not the one who engages in “that rhetoric”, referring to Trump’s past comments about a “bloodbath” if the Republican loses to Biden in November.

Updated

Trump and Vance formally nominated: key moments of first day of the Republican national convention so far

The Republican national convention is now taking a break, after completing the first of two sessions it has planned today.

The delegates will return at 5.45pm CT for what are expected to be more speeches by high-profile Republicans and party supporters.

Here’s what has happened at the convention so far:

  • The Republican party formally nominated Donald Trump as their candidate for president.

  • Trump announced that Ohio senator JD Vance would be his running mate. Not long after, Vance appeared on the floor of the convention, and the GOP made him their vice-presidential nominee by acclamation.

  • Joe Biden said Vance was “a clone of Trump on the issues”. ABC News reports that Kamala Harris tried to call Vance, but couldn’t reach him, and left a voicemail.

  • Robert F Kennedy Jr met with Donald Trump in Milwaukee, Politico reports, as the former president sought his endorsement. Kennedy, an independent presidential candidate, is polling at around 9% nationally.

  • Donald Trump Jr told the Guardian he advised his father to pick JD Vance because he thought the senator would fight for him.

  • The Biden campaign characterized Vance as an enabler of Trump.

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In nominating JD Vance as their vice-presidential candidate at the convention, Republicans opted for a vote of acclamation, where those in favor said “aye”, and those opposed said “no”.

The cries of “aye” were overwhelming. Maybe one person said “no”. And now Vance is Trump’s running mate.

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Biden calls Vance 'a clone of Trump on the issues'

As he heads for campaign events in Las Vegas, Joe Biden was asked for his thoughts on JD Vance, the Ohio senator who is Donald Trump’s running mate.

“A clone of Trump on the issues,” Biden replied. “I don’t see any difference.”

GOP formally nominates JD Vance as vice-presidential candidate

By a vote of acclamation at the Republican national convention, the GOP has formally nominated JD Vance to be Donald Trump’s running mate in the November election.

The crowd is breaking out into chants of “JD! JD! JD!” as Ohio lieutenant governor John Husted gives a speech nominating him as vice-president.

“The vice presidency is an office of sacred trust. The man who accepts this nomination accepts with it the awesome responsibility to give wise counsel to the president, to represent America abroad, to preside over the Senate and to be ready to lead our nation at a moment’s notice. Such a man must have an America First attitude in his heart,” Husted said.

“JD Vance is such a man!”

ABC News reports that Kamala Harris called JD Vance following the announcement that has was Donald Trump’s running mate, but was not able to reach him:

JD Vance is making his way through the packed convention floor, shaking hands with delegates while being trailed by camera operators.

The Ohio senator just took a selfie with someone, and autographed a Trump campaign sign.

We don’t yet know if he will speak now, or later during the four-day convention.

JD Vance appears at Republican national convention

JD Vance, the Ohio senator Donald Trump just chose as his running mate, has arrived on the floor of the Republican national convention.

On the convention floor, a large group of delegates and reporters appears to be gathering around where the Ohio delegation is seated.

That could be a sign that JD Vance, Donald Trump’s newly anointed running mate, is set to make an appearance.

The Republican national convention appears to be in a holding pattern, and it’s not clear if this was planned.

We’ve been listening to a live band play covers of rock-and-roll hits for the past half hour. Just before they started playing, House speaker Mike Johnson was onstage, and appeared to be about to introduce an attorney general, before he suddenly said his teleprompter was broken, and walked off stage.

Democratic social media accounts quickly seized on the moment:

About 45 minutes ago, convention attendees received a text message saying a “special guest” would soon appear at the convention. That person does not seem to have shown up yet.

The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison, said the selection of JD Vance as Donald Trump‘s running mate only raised the already high stakes of the presidential race.

“JD Vance embodies MAGA – with an out-of-touch extreme agenda and plans to help Trump force his Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Harrison said.

“A Trump-Vance ticket would undermine our democracy, our freedoms, and our future. There is so much on the line, and it’s more important than ever that we reelect President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris this November.”

Trump met with RFK Jr to seek his endorsement – report

Donald Trump met today in Milwaukee with Robert F Kennedy Jr, and discussed the independent presidential candidate’s endorsement, Politico reports.

If Kennedy were to drop out and endorse Trump, it could further scramble the race. Polls show Kennedy has about 9% support nationally.

“Yes, Mr Kennedy met with President Trump today to discuss national unity, and he hopes to meet with leaders of the Democratic Party as well,” Kennedy campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear told Politico. “And no he is not dropping out of the race. He is the only pro-environment, pro-choice, anti-war candidate who beats Donald Trump in head-to-head polls.”

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Reproductive rights advocates also warned that the selection of JD Vance heightened the threat Donald Trump’s reelection would pose to abortion access.

“Donald Trump selecting JD Vance as his pick for vice president provides even more evidence that a Trump administration will stop at nothing to ban all abortion. Make no mistake, Trump picked him because of —not in spite of— his anti-abortion bonafides,” said Mini Timmaraju, Reproductive Freedom for All president and CEO.

“A Trump-Vance administration will be the most dangerous administration for abortion and reproductive freedom in this country’s history. We must re-elect President Biden and Vice President Harris to not only restore our rights but to safeguard our democracy.”

Mike Johnson announces GOP has nominated Trump for president

After all of the state delegations had been heard from, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson took to the stage to announce that Donald Trump won all of the votes, and is formally the Republican party’s nominee for president.

“The following candidate received the following votes: 2,387 votes for president Donald J Trump,” Johnson said.

“Let’s make it official. Accordingly, the chair announces that president Donald J Trump, having received a majority of the votes entitled to be cast at the convention, has been selected as the Republican party nominee for president of the United States.”

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Convention attendees just received a text message saying “make your way to Fiserv Forum for a special guest appearance very soon!”

The Fiserv Forum is where convention is taking place. Will Donald Trump, JD Vance, or both, make an appearance after all of the states announce their votes?

Donald Trump Jr told me on the floor of the Republican national convention that he informed his father that JD Vance was the best pick for vice-president because he would fight for him.

“I watched JD go into … enemy territory, from a media perspective, doing the most liberal TV shows, and prosecute the case for my father and against the Democrat lunacy that we’ve seen,” Donald Trump’s son said.

“He does that better than almost any of our people can do on more conservative television. And you see that, you see the intelligence and you hear his life story. That’s gonna resonate.”

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Biden campaign says JD Vance will 'bend over backwards to enable Trump'

In a statement released following JD Vance’s announcement as Donald Trump’s running mate, Biden-Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon described the senator as an enabler for the former president.

“Donald Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme Maga agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” she said.

Here’s more:

As Trump’s running mate, Vance will make it his mission to enact Trump’s Project 2025 agenda at the expense of American families. This is someone who supports banning abortion nationwide while criticizing exceptions for rape and incest survivors; railed against the Affordable Care Act , including its protections for millions with preexisting conditions; and has admitted he wouldn’t have certified the free and fair election in 2020.

Billionaires and corporations are literally rooting for JD Vance: they know he and Trump will cut their taxes and send prices skyrocketing for everyone else.

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While Republicans celebrated the selection of JD Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate, progressives responded to the news with dismay and outrage.

“Vance is an extremist election denier who will be a rubber stamp for Trump’s continued assault on our democracy and women’s freedom,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “This extremist and faker is unfit for the White House, which makes him a perfect running mate for Donald Trump.”

Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn Political Action, added: “At a time when our nation is deeply divided, JD Vance’s selection only divides us further and harms any effort to unite this country.”

Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, said Trump’s selection “solidifies that his campaign is working overtime to appease wealthy donors and corporate interests”.

“There should be no lingering doubt that Trump and Vance will create one of the most extreme and corrupt administrations in our nation’s history,” Muller said.

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The Senate’s Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell announced Kentucky’s votes for Donald Trump.

But in a sign of his continued shaky standing with Trump’s faithful, some in the arena booed McConnell, and for whatever reason, his announcement could not be heard over its PA system.

“The Commonwealth of Kentucky, proudly cast 46 votes for the next president, Donald J Trump,” McConnell said, according to a TV feed of the convention.

GOP officially makes Trump presidential nominee

Donald Trump has received the votes necessary from delegates to the Republican national convention to officially become the party’s nominee for president in this year’s presidential election.

Not all states have been called, but Trump has an insurmountable lead.

Here’s more from the Guardian’s Alice Herman on JD Vance’s road from Trump foe to the former president’s running mate in his bid to return to the White House:

Donald Trump has named JD Vance, the Ohio senator who has aligned himself with the populist right, as his running mate at the Republican national convention on Monday.

“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator JD Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” wrote Trump on Truth Social.

When Trump first ran for office, Vance’s eventual nomination to run alongside him would have seemed implausible. Vance, a venture capitalist who rocketed into the public eye with his 2016 memoir turned Netflix movie Hillbilly Elegy, was once among Trump’s conservative critics.

“I’m a never-Trump guy, I never liked him,” Vance said during an October 2016 interview with Charlie Rose. Trump was, by Vance’s estimation at the time, a “terrible candidate”.

He even wondered aloud, in texts to a former roommate, whether Trump was more of “a cynical asshole like Nixon”, or worse, “America’s Hitler”.

Since then, Vance has made a dramatic transformation into a Maga power figure and close ally of the former president who has supported some of Trump’s more authoritarian impulses, like questioning the results of the 2020 election and, in a 2021 podcast interview, suggesting Trump should purge civil servants from the federal government if re-elected.

House speaker Mike Johnson cheers Trump's selection of JD Vance as running mate

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, hailed Donald Trump’s choice of JD Vance as his running mate.

“Senator JD Vance was born and raised in Appalachia, served our country as a US Marine, and is regarded as one of the most thoughtful Senators in Congress. He possesses a profound understanding of the anxieties of working families and has both the lived experience and the policy expertise to help President Trump deliver a government worthy of the people it is supposed to serve,” Johnson said in a statement.

“From our economy, to the border, to our standing in the world, our nation is in turmoil under four years of President Biden. President Trump needs a vice president with innovative ideas and the ability to articulate them to every single American voter and Senator JD Vance fits that mold perfectly. It is time to unite our nation and we are eager to grow our House majority and get to work with this ticket to restore America’s greatness once again.”

JD Vance just received a big cheer in the convention hall, after Mike Lee, Utah’s Republican senator, named-dropped him as he announced his state’s vote for Donald Trump.

“In Utah, from the red rocks to the snow-capped mountains with the greatest snow on Earth, we know what heaven on Earth looks like. Utah, the 45th state admitted to the Union today proudly casts all of its 40 delegate votes for president Donald J Trump and his newly announced running mate, my friend and colleague, JD Vance,” Lee said.

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Here’s the rest of what Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, as he announced JD Vance as his running mate:

….As Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Congratulations to Senator J.D. Vance, his wife, Usha, who also graduated from Yale Law School, and their three beautiful children. MAGA2024!

Trump picks JD Vance as his running mate

Donald Trump has announced that Ohio senator JD Vance will be his running mate.

Here’s what the former president wrote, on Truth Social:

After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio. J.D. honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association. J.D.’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” became a Major Best Seller and Movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our Country. J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond….

Back at the Republican national convention, the leaders of each state’s delegation are being called on to announce who they are supporting.

Iowa, Nevada and Oklahoma have been called on so far, and announced their votes for Donald Trump.

If Donald Trump chooses JD Vance as his running mate, it would be quite the turnaround for the Ohio senator.

Vance, a Marine Corps veteran and former venture capitalist, became well known for his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which became popular with many Trump foes for its depiction of the impoverished white communities that turned out big that year to elect him to the White House.

Vance himself made critical comments about the then-president, before shifting his career into politics and winning Trump’s endorsement when he successfully ran for Senate in 2022.

If he becomes Trump’s running mate, Vance could be in a prime position to take over as the GOP presidential nominee in 2028, when term limits prevent Trump from running again. And despite speculation, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly recently reported that Vance’s beard is not a problem for Trump:

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Republican senator Marsha Blackburn, who is chair of the convention’s platform committee, has given the highlights of the document.

“This platform is built on the values of our founders and great Republicans, from Lincoln and Reagan to Trump, who are committed to freedom, restrained government and peace through strength,” Blackburn told the convention.

She continued:

The platform contains 20 promises, including securing our border, getting inflation under control, restoring our energy dominance, defending our constitution, protecting our second amendment rights, securing our country, restoring our military strength and keeping boys out of girls sports, and protecting life for the born and unborn.

Updated

With Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, and Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, reportedly both told they will not be Donald Trump’s running mate, the last frontrunner still in contention is Ohio senator JD Vance.

Of course, anything is possible when it comes to Trump. But it’s also worth noting that the Guardian has previously reported that Donald Trump Jr will speak before whoever is chosen as vice-president on Wednesday – and he has endorsed Vance.

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Burgum told he will not be Trump's running mate – report

Fox News reports that North Dakota governor Doug Burgum has been informed he will not be Donald Trump’s pick for vice-president:

Burgum was an unsuccessful challenger to Trump for the GOP nomination this year, before making amends with the former president.

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Trump has decided on his running mate and will announce pick at 3.30pm CT – source

I am hearing from a Donald Trump official that the former president has decided on his running mate.

He will announce his decision at 3.30pm CT.

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Following a live band’s performance of the song God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood, a section of the audience broke out into another chant.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” they yelled. It was what Trump said on Saturday, after being wounded during a shooting at his rally in Pennsylvania.

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We are now through the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem, which concluded with chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

An honor guard bearing the US flag that was standing in front of the stage is now departing.

Updated

Republican national convention officially begins

Chair Michael Whatley has gaveled in the Republican national convention, signaling its official start.

He then held a moment of silence in remembrance of the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Marco Rubio informed he will not be Trump's running mate

Marco Rubio has been told that he will not be Donald Trump’s pick for vice-president, Reuters reports.

The Florida senator was among the challengers Trump faced in the GOP primaries ahead of the 2016 election, then became an ally during his presidency.

Updated

Delegates have just heard an announcement to take their seats.

The Republican national convention is set to begin soon.

Fox News reports that the leading candidates to be Donald Trump’s running mate are all in Milwaukee, waiting to be told if the former president has chosen them.

They are North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, Ohio senator JD Vance, Florida senator Marco Rubio and Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin:

Republicans disagree with Donald Trump about Milwaukee, according to the city’s Democratic mayor.

Last month the former US president allegedly called Milwaukee a “horrible city” and reportedly considered staying in Chicago during the convention instead.

Cavalier Johnson, the mayor of Milwaukee, told international reporters at a briefing on Monday: “A couple of weeks ago Mr Trump decided to say some words about Milwaukee that were patently false, that were untrue, and that’s unfortunate.

“The fact of the matter is that Republicans, folks in his own party, obviously disagree with him because they selected Milwaukee to be the host city for their presidential nominating convention, so obviously he was wrong.”

Johnson, whose city has closed streets and built a security perimeter of roughly one mile by half a mile around the convention centre, added: “As I’ve had the opportunity yesterday and today to greet Republicans who are here from all over the country, they’re having an outstanding time.

“Many of them that I’ve engaged say they really enjoy Milwaukee. This is their first time here, their first time in the state of Wisconsin, and they’re looking forward to coming back not related to Republican National Committee business but simply just coming back to visit on their own and bring their families.”

Updated

I’ve just spoken with a few people around the Republican national convention to get their reaction to Judge Aileen Cannon dismissing the documents case this morning.

Rick Williams, an alternate delegate from Tennessee said he was “overjoyed” the case had been dismissed.

“Probably never should have been a case to begin with,” he said in an interview near the Fiserv forum in downtown Milwaukee, where the convention is set to begin today. “Like all the other cases against President Trump, they’ve fallen apart over time.”

Joe Sell, an alternate delegate from Illinois, said he didn’t think the decision would make much of a difference in the campaign because people had made up their minds already about Trump. He said the documents case was “phony”.

“I wasn’t going to not vote for Trump because of that. I think it’s all baloney,” he said. “They staged it. They put pictures of documents and said Trump had done all this stuff when it was actually the authorities that had done that.” There is no evidence that’s true and Trump has not denied taking the documents.

Updated

In a sign that things are soon to kick off, they’re now blasting covers of rock songs inside the arena where the Republican national convention is taking place.

We’re currently listening to a cover of the Foo Fighters’ Learn to Fly.

Updated

Delegates, guests and members of the news media are filing into the Fiserv forum in downtown Milwaukee ahead of the first session of the Republican national convention, which is scheduled to start at 12.45pm CT.

The arena, which is usually home of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team, is far from as full as it will be tonight and in coming evenings. Nonetheless, a little bit ago, chants of “fight, fight, fight,” briefly broke out among delegates:

As people walk into the arena, they’re greeted by a video showing the theme of today’s session, which is “Make America Wealthy Again”:

Road work is taking place around Milwaukee, and within sight of the arena are signs saying that it was paid for by the $1t law overhauling the nation’s infrastructure, which Joe Biden signed three years ago:

Updated

Here are some of the latest images from the newswires from the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where the main Republican national convention events are being held this week.

Updated

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received an updated briefing from homeland security and law enforcement officials on the investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

The briefing took place in the Situation Room and included the attorney general, homeland security secretary, FBI director and the director and deputy director of the Secret Service, according to the White House.

My colleague Joan E Greve and I have just arrived at the press center in downtown Milwaukee. It’s a hot – lots of seersucker suits on hand – but quiet morning.

Delegates and reporters are slowly starting to file in to the security perimeter around the Fiserv Forum, the arena where the convention festivities are being held. As you might imagine, there is a heavy security presence with lots of police and Secret Service downtown.

Vendors are just starting to set up merchandise and food (there is a stand for fried cheese curds and s’mores that we may be sampling later). There’s also lots of Trump merchandise.

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Prominent US business leaders have been speaking today about Saturday’s shooting.

“It is a sad moment for our country,” David Solomon, the Goldman Sachs boss, said at the start of a conference call on the Wall Street bank’s latest earnings. “There’s no place in our politics for violence.”

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, told CNBC:

It is a statement of America today, though. We need to create hope. All of us have a responsibility – every political candidate, every leader, every pastor, minister, rabbi – we all have a responsibility of bringing our community together to bring hope.

In a memo to employees, Jamie Dimon, chairman of JP Morgan Chase, America’s largest bank, stressed the need to stand against “any acts of hate, intimidation or violence that seek to undermine our democracy or inflict harm”, adding that it was “only through constructive dialogue” that the country can deal with its “toughest challenges”.

Senior figures in Silicon Valley, including Apple’s Tim Cook and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, condemned the attack on social media this weekend.

Elon Musk – who owns X, formerly Twitter, and runs Tesla and SpaceX – endorsed Donald Trump and criticized the news media in the aftermath of the shooting.

Updated

Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post, has called for Robert F Kennedy Jr, the independent presidential candidate, to “immediately” receive Secret Service protection.

The post by Trump reads:

In light of what is going on in the world today, I believe it is imperative that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. receive Secret Service protection — immediately. Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!

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The Trump campaign will announce Donald Trump’s pick for his vice-presidential running mate at about 4.30pm ET (20:30 GMT) today at the Republican National Convention, Reuters is reporting, citing a source.

Donald Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba has issued a statement responding to a judge’s ruling to dismiss his criminal case on charges that he illegally retained classified documents. She said:

This dismissal marks the first step in ending the weaponization of our justice system, restoring the rule of law, and Making America Great Again.

Donald Trump has said the decision by Aileen Cannon, the US district judge, to dismiss his classified documents criminal case was “just the first step” and called for the other cases against him, which he described as “witch hunts”, to also be dismissed.

Trump, in a Truth Social post, wrote:

As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts — The January 6th Hoax in Washington, D.C., the Manhattan D.A.’s Zombie Case, the New York A.G. Scam, Fake Claims about a woman I never met (a decades old photo in a line with her then husband does not count), and the Georgia “Perfect” Phone Call charges. The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME. Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!

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Jill Biden spoke to Melania Trump after shooting

Jill Biden, the first lady, and her predecessor, Melania Trump, spoke on Sunday afternoon following the attempted assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

The first ladies’ phone call followed a phone call on Saturday night between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

“Last night I spoke with Donald Trump,” said Biden at a White House press conference on Sunday. Biden noted the conversation was brief. “Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers.”

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Video footage shows attendees of Donald Trump’s campaign rally on Saturday shouted to alert police officers as they saw a man with a gun on top of a roof at the Pennsylvania venue.

Schumer calls Trump documents case dismissal 'breathtakingly misguided'

Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, has called Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of Donald Trump’s classified documents case “breathtakingly misguided” and called for the case to be resassigned.

The judge’s ruling “flies in the face of long-accepted practice and repetitive judicial precedence,” Schumer said in a statement shared by Fox News’s Chad Pergram.

It is wrong on the law and must be appealed immediately. This is further evidence that Judge Cannon cannot handle this case impartially and must be reassigned.

Shares in Donald Trump’s media company have surged by more than a third to their highest value in five weeks after the attempted assassination of the former president, adding more than $1bn (£770m) to the valuation of the business behind the X rival Truth Social.

Trump Media and Technology Group, which uses his initials DJT as its ticker, has been a volatile stock since its blockbuster debut in March. However, after Saturday night’s attack increased Trump’s perceived chances of winning November’s presidential election, traders pushed the share price back to the highest level since 10 June.

It soared as high as $46.27 on Monday morning in New York, up from $30.89 on Friday evening. The price then dropped back to $41 after an hour of trading, a gain of 34%.

Trump Media is 60% owned by the former president, meaning the paper value of his stake, worth about $3.8bn on Friday, had risen by as much as $1bn.

The House oversight committee will receive a briefing with the Secret Service on Tuesday, according to NBC News’ Ryan Nobles.

Kim Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, is expected to appear before the committee next Monday, he added.

Nigel Farage and Liz Truss are among the UK politicians set to attend the Republican national convention this week as the British right seeks to deepen ties with its American counterparts before a predicted victory for Donald Trump in the presidential race.

An assassination attempt on Trump on Saturday had prompted Farage, the Reform UK party leader, to make plans to fly to the US, he said, adding that he was doing it “not just as a friend but because we have to stand up for democracy”.

The convention also provides Farage with an opportunity to meet influential rightwing US figures as well as leveraging his personal brand in advance of his return as a presenter on Britain’s GB News channel.

Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, is expected to speak at the event on Wednesday. Other speakers on the same day will include the oil magnate Harold Hamm, who has contributed $814,000 (£627,000) to Trump’s 2024 re-election bid.

Truss had already been seeking to build a profile in the US as a guiding force on the right after her brief stint in Downing Street, but has even more reason to try to carve out a new political career after losing her parliamentary seat in the 4 July general election.

Matt Gaetz, a Republican congressman from Florida, has hailed US district Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to dismiss Donald Trump’s criminal case on charges that he illegally retained classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.

“Future Supreme Court Justice Cannon,” Gaetz wrote in a post on X.

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Trump to announce his vice-presidential pick today - report

Donald Trump has told Fox News reporter Brett Baier that he will announce his pick for his vice-presidential running mate today.

Updated

Brendan Boyle, a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania and ranking member of the House budget committee, has criticized Judge Aileen Cannon’s “deeply corrupt act” after she dismissed Donald Trump’s classified documents case.

The shooter in Saturday’s assassination on Donald Trump bought 50 rounds of ammunition at a local gun store just hours before carrying out his attack, CNN reported, citing a senior law enforcement official.

A Trump-appointed judge in Florida has dismissed the criminal case against Donald Trump that charged him with illegally holding on to classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

The US district judge Aileen Cannon made the ruling after a hearing in which the former president’s legal team urged her to drop the charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith, and notably, after the supreme court said the president has immunity for official acts.

Trump’s team had argued that he is the victim of selective prosecution and is being targeted by Democrats as he seeks to regain the presidency.

In February, a federal prosecutor said Joe Biden would not face criminal charges for knowingly keeping classified documents at an office and at home after he left the vice-presidency in 2017. Mike Pence, who served as vice-president under Trump, also was investigated but not charged for keeping classified documents at his Indiana home.

Federal prosecutors, who brought a 40-count indictment against Trump, had said his conduct was different.

While Biden and Pence cooperated with investigators, prosecutors alleged Trump discussed lying to those who were trying to recover the documents, and moved the documents around his Mar-a-Lago resort to prevent their discovery.

Some of those documents discussed national security issues including nuclear weapons capabilities and US vulnerability to military attack, according to prosecutors.

Updated

Judge rules special counsel appointment 'unlawful' in case dismissal

US district judge Aileen Cannon, in dismissing the classified documents criminal case against Donald Trump, ruled that the special counsel, Jack Smith, was unlawfully appointed to his role and did not have the authority to bring the case.

Cannon, who was nominated by Trump, wrote in her ruling:

The Clerk is directed to CLOSE this case. Any scheduled hearings are CANCELLED. Any pending motions are DENIED AS MOOT, and any pending deadlines are TERMINATED.

Updated

Judge dismisses classified documents case against Trump

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents case has dismissed the case, citing the unlawful appointment of special counsel Jack Smith.

Updated

Keir Starmer was initially advised to send Donald Trump a note after the shooting, but wanted to speak to him directly, the Guardian understands.

The UK prime minister got in touch with Trump through the UK’s ambassador in Washington, Karen Pierce.

The former president’s team responded swiftly and the two men then had a short conversation lasting five or ten minutes.

In Bethel Park, where the man who is suspected of opening fire at a Donald Trump campaign rally on Saturday lived with his mother and sister, the houses are small and built of brick, Walmart and Target form central social hubs, and mothers watch over their children at a junior league baseball park next to a tributary of the Allegheny River.

The attempted assassination of the Republican former president just 45 miles north has put a focus on Bethel Park, as investigators attempt to establish the motivations of the 20-year-old shooter.

Authorities on Sunday identified the suspect as Thomas Matthew Crooks. Officials said they believe Crooks acted alone. But so far, they have not been able to uncover a motivation that drove the young man to unleash a hail of bullets at Trump, wounding the former president and killing a former fire chief who was shielding his daughters.

The FBI said Crook had not been on their radar. Since his identification, a fragmentary portrait has emerged, almost by virtue of its omissions. He was employed as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The nursing home’s administrator Marcie Grimm said Crooks “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean”.

Nor have there been significant clues found in his political affiliations. He had registered Republican but had also donated $15 to the liberal ActBlue political action committee on Joe Biden’s inauguration day. He had no past criminal cases against him, according to public court records.

Read the full story: Focus on Bethel Park as classmates describe suspected Trump gunman

Updated

The homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has described the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday as “a failure” of security.

Mayorkas, speaking on ABC News this morning, said:

A direct line of sight like that to the former president should not occur.

He denied reports that the Secret Service had rebuffed requests from Trump’s security detail for greater resources before the shooting.

“An incident like this cannot happen,” Mayorkas said in an interview on CNN, noting that Joe Biden has directed an independent review.

We are going to analyze through an independent review how that occurred, why it occurred and make recommendations and findings to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I couldn’t be clearer.

Video shows Trump gunman crawling on roof before attack as multiple onlookers alert police

Video footage posted on social media shows the man who targeted Donald Trump in an assassination attempt on Saturday crawling on to the roof of a building from where he shot at the former president, as multiple onlookers frantically pointed him out to nearby police officers.

The video on X, reported by New York Post, shows several people pointing at Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, as he climbed on to the roof of a manufacturing plant about 400 feet from where Trump was speaking at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Look they’re all pointing,” a person is heard saying in the video, as several people point and watch Crooks, who can be seen rolling on the roof and crawling forward on his hands and knees.

“Yeah, someone’s up on the top of the roof. There he is right there,” the person says. Others are heard saying: “Right here, right on the roof.”

One person is heard shouting “officer” and others say “he’s on the roof” while pointing.

Trump can be heard giving his remarks in the background. During the video, police officers appeared largely unresponsive to the onlookers’ concerns.

Cavalier Johnson, has said he is feeling “pretty confident” in the level of security at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

The city’s mayor, at a Monday morning briefing, said:

The folks on the ground here have confidence in the work that they’ve put in over the course of the last 18 months. I have faith and confidence as well in the Secret Service and the police and fire departments and other agencies providing security today.

Wisconsin is an “open carry” state which does not restrict the carrying of unconcealed, loaded firearms in public, so individuals will be allowed to have firearms within the soft perimeter outside Fiserv Forum that is not under Secret Service jurisdiction, CNN reported.

Johnson said his concern about gun safety goes beyond a single event. He said:

There are far too many people who have access to deadly weapons who should not have access to deadly weapons.

Updated

Glenn Youngkin has ordered US and Virginia state flags to be flown at half-staff to honor Corey Comperatore, the Pennsylvania volunteer firefighter chief who was shot and killed amidst an assassination attempt on Donald Trump on Saturday.

The flags will be lowered at noon ET and remain at half-staff until sunset on Tuesday. The Virginia governor’s statement reads:

Virginia stands in solidarity with and extends prayers to all Pennsylvanians, especially those who remain in critical condition and their families.

Comperatore, 50, was shot at Trump’s rally as he shielded his family to protect them as gunshots rang out. In a Facebook post, his daughter, Allyson Comperatore, wrote:

He shielded my body from the bullet that came at us. He loved his family. He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us.

Two other rally attendants were wounded: 57-year-old David Dutch of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and 74-year-old James Copenhaver of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.

Updated

Secret Service director says changes made to Trump's security detail

Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, has issued her first major statement since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, in which she said the agency was increasing security for the former president and the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

The statement reads:

I would like to start by extending my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Corey Comperatore, who was killed during the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday, as well as those who were injured during this senseless act of violence.

Secret Service personnel on the ground moved quickly during the incident, with our counter sniper team neutralizing the shooter and our agents implementing protective measures to ensure the safety of former president Donald Trump.

Since the shooting, I have been in constant contact with Secret Service personnel in Pennsylvania who worked to maintain the integrity of the crime scene until the FBI assumed its role as the lead investigating agency into the assassination attempt. I have also been coordinating with the protective detail for former President Trump and have briefed President Biden on the details of the incident.

The Secret Service is working with all involved Federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again. We understand the importance of the independent review announced by President Biden yesterday and will participate fully. We will also work with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action.

The incident in Pennsylvania has understandably led to questions about potential updates or changes to the security for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. The U.S. Secret Service, in conjunction with our Federal, state and local law enforcement and public safety partners, designs operational security plans for National Special Security Events (NSSE) to be dynamic in order to respond to a kinetic security environment and the most up-to-date intelligence from our partners.

I am confident in the security plan our Secret Service RNC coordinator and our partners have put in place, which we have reviewed and strengthened in the wake of Saturday’s shooting. The security plans for National Special Security Events are designed to be flexible. As the conventions progress, and in accordance with the direction of the President, the Secret Service will continuously adapt our operations as necessary in order to ensure the highest level of safety and security for convention attendees, volunteers and the City of Milwaukee. In addition to the additional security enhancements we provided former President Trump’s detail in June, we have also implemented changes to his security detail since Saturday to ensure his continued protection for the convention and the remainder of the campaign.

The Secret Service is tasked with the tremendous responsibility of protecting the current and former leaders of our democracy. It is a responsibility that I take incredibly seriously, and I am committed to fulfilling that mission.

Trump to 'bring the whole country' together in new RNC speech

Donald Trump arrived yesterday in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, where he is due to accept his party’s formal nomination with a speech later this week after being the target of an attempted assassination at his campaign rally on Saturday.

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” the former president told the Washington Examiner in an interview published on Sunday evening.

In his newly revised nomination acceptance speech, Trump said, he will call for a new effort at national unity, noting that people from different political views have called him. He said:

This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago.

Republicans will gather today in downtown Milwaukee to Thursday, where they will officially annoint Trump as their presidential nominee. He is also expected to announce his vice-presidential pick, who will be expected to deliver a speech of their own on Wednesday night.

In an interview Sunday Michael Whatley, Republican party chairman, said this weeks convention’s programming wouldn’t be changed after the shooting. The agenda, he said, will feature more than 100 speakers overwhelmingly focused on Trump’s plans.

Associated Press quotes Whatley saying: “We have to be able to lay out a vision for where we want to take this country. We are going to have the convention that we have been planning for the last 18 months. We are a combination of relieved and grateful that the president is going to be here and is going to accept the nomination.”

Updated

Dan Milmo and Jasper Jolly report:

Shares in Donald Trump’s media company surged by 50% in pre-market trading after the attempted assassination of the former US president, potentially adding nearly $3bn (£2.3bn) to the valuation of the business behind the X rival Truth Social.

Trump Media and Technology Group, which uses Trump’s initials DJT as its ticker, has been a volatile stock since its debut on 26 March this year.

However, traders are set to push the share price back towards levels not experienced since May after the attack on Saturday night appeared to increase Trump’s chances of winning November’s presidential election.

Updated

Nearly 2,500 delegates are gathering in Milwaukee this week for a roll call vote to select the Republican presidential nominee, formally ending the presidential primary.

A vast majority of those delegates are already bound to support Donald Trump, who only needs a majority to win the Republican nomination.

Trump himself is expected to speak on Thursday to accept the nomination, with a speech he says has been rewritten after the assassination attempt on him at the weekend.

150 Republican delegates – including the entire delegations from Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota – are technically “unbound,” meaning they can vote for any candidate at the convention. Dozens of those delegates, howver, have already confirmed to Associated Press that they plan to vote for Trump.

Angela Giuffrida is the Guardian’s Rome correspondent.

An Italian sports journalist and blogger has described how he became the target of fake news after he was accused of being the suspect behind Donald Trump’s attempted assassination.

Marco Violi told Il Messaggero that he woke up to hundreds of messages in the early hours of Sunday after two accounts on X posted a photo of him alongside a message saying that Butler police department had identified Trump’s shooter as “Mark Violets, a rabid Antifa member”. Mark Violets is a direct English translation of his name. The accounts had millions of followers, with the message circulating for several hours and republished on a number of international websites before the real suspect was identified.

“First my name was mangled as Mark Violets but then my real name appeared,” Violi told Il Messaggero. “I immediately realised that it all started from a tweet from a couple of accounts on X which have been persecuting me on social media for six years. The incredible thing is they went viral in an instant. Media from all over the world covered this fake news without anyone trying to verify it.”

The Rome-based journalist said he had become a target of online trolls after criticising James Pallotta, an American businessman and the former owner of AS Roma football club. Violi said he was ready to take legal action “to protect my image” and to ask for closure of the online accounts “which have been persecuting my family and I since 2018”.

Updated

Our video team have cut together more of the dramatic footage from the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at the weekend.

Mehdi Hasan has written for the Guardian today, arguing people need to talk about the cult-like turn of the Democratic party:

Is the Democratic party, the self-proclaimed party of liberal values and scientific data, morphing into a Maga-like cult in front of our eyes?

Over the past few weeks, the calls for Joe Biden to step aside have been met not with thoughtful critiques or reasoned counter-arguments but with furious accusations of treason, disloyalty, and betrayal.

Whatever happened to the importance of voicing dissent? Of speaking truth to power? Weren’t liberals supposed to be the folks who value open debate and discussion?

Read more here: Mehdi Hasan – Blue Maga: we need to talk about the cult-like turn of the Democratic party

Democratic party still plan to nominate Joe Biden in virtual vote before their convention

Joe Biden will receive the official nomination from fellow Democrats for a second term in a virtual vote as planned in late July, ahead of the party’s national convention, despite calls for him to step aside and the shock of an assassination attempt on Biden’s likely opponent, Donald Trump.

Reuters cited four people involved in the process, but said it remains unclear how the early nominating process will work.

Reuters spoke to more than 20 of the 4,500 delegates who will be involved in the nomination. Eight told Reuters they either had not heard about what senior Democrats have described as a “virtual roll call” or they had not heard any details on it recently.

The early nomination is needed to deal with an Ohio law that could have kept Biden’s name off ballots in the state if he wasn’t nominated by 7 August, prior to party’s convention in Chicago. The plan was put in place before Biden’s performance in the 27 June debate.

Updated

King Charles writes privately to Trump after assassination attempt

Britain’s King Charles III is understood to have written privately to Donald Trump after the former US president survived an assassination attempt, Buckingham Palace has said.

PA Media reports Charles’s message was in keeping with UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s conversation with Trump, in which he condemned the violence, expressed his condolences for the victims and their families, and wished the former president and those injured a quick recovery.

The king’s message was delivered on Sunday via the UK embassy in Washington DC. Buckingham Palace said the contents of the correspondence would be kept private.

Updated

Writing for the New York Times, David French has looked at the likely impact of the weekend’s shooting on the way the Republican National Convention plays out over the next few days. He said:

The key change will be in the intensity of the gathering. Expect to see an immense amount of anger and pride. Republicans are rightly proud of Trump’s immediate response to the shooting. His presence of mind to raise his fist to the crowd to signal that he was very much alive and defiant was an impressive act of leadership. And we should all feel angry when someone tries to assassinate a former president and current candidate. We also know, however, that anger can be dangerous. Our great national challenge will be responding to that anger, to keep it from spiraling out of control. The key player here will be Trump, of course, and his nomination speech may well be the most-watched address in a generation. He has a historic opportunity to rise to the moment – or pull us deeper into darkness.

Former US Secret Service agents spent the early aftermath of what authorities say was an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at a political rally on Saturday speaking out about what might have prevented their previous employer from failing to halt the shooter before he opened fire.

Evy Poumpouras, who served in the Secret Service’s presidential protective division during Barack Obama’s time in the White House, told NBC’s Today show that rallies like the one this weekend – in a relatively exposed rural tract of Butler county, Pennsylvania – “are the most anxious you’re ever going to be as an agent because you’re trying to secure all of it”.

In her remarks Sunday, the author and journalist suggested local- and state-level law enforcement officers who collaborate with the Secret Service for such events were likely the first line of defense in the area surrounding the Trump rally venue – a position reportedly confirmed by agency spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.

At Saturday’s rally, a man with a rifle was able to climb atop the roof of a bottle manufacturing plant and fire several shots at the former president at a distance of only about 165 yards.

Multiple people who were outside the venue but near that building – listening to Trump campaign for another presidency – reported trying to point out the gunman to police officers stationed there. But Poumpouras said a key question to answer moving forward is to determine whether those people were directly speaking to officers or if they were unsuccessfully trying to get their attention.

Read more here: Ex-Secret Service agents say ‘massive realignment’ warranted after Trump rally shooting

Putin has not contacted Trump and does not plan to, Kremlin says

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian president Vladimir Putin had not contacted Donald Trump after the assassination attempt on the Republican US presidential candidate and had no plans to do so, Reuters reports.

Updated

Edward Helmore reports for the Guardian

In Bethel Park, where the man who is suspected of opening fire at a Donald Trump campaign rally on Saturday lived with his mother and sister, the houses are small and built of brick, Walmart and Target form central social hubs, and moms watch over their children at a junior league baseball park next to a tributary of the Allegheny river.

Claire, a young woman who had known Thomas Matthew Crooks through his elder sister and who did not provide a last name, said she could not quite believe the boy she had once knew had attempted to assassinate a US president. “He’s so young to want to go do that”, she said.

She said Crooks had had a difficult time socially. “He wasn’t the most attractive-looking and I don’t think he did sports that can add appeal’” she said.

Jameson Myers said that Crooks had tried out for the school rifle team but had not made the roster. “He didn’t just not make the team, he was asked not to come back because how bad of a shot he was, it was considered like, dangerous”, Myers told ABC News. Jameson Murphy told the Post that Crooks was “a comically bad shot”.

Biden postpones Texas trip

President Joe Biden has postponed a planned trip to Texas today, where he was to speak on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B Johnson presidential library.

An NBC News interview between Biden and anchor Lester Holt will now occur at the White House, instead of in Texas, as initially planned, Associated Press reports.

Updated

Here is the key passage from president Joe Biden’s response on Sunday to the shooting at Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally at the weekend:

There is no place in America for this kind of violence or for any violence for that matter.

An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation. Everything. It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not America, and we cannot allow this to happen.

Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is important than that right now – unity.

We’ll debate, and we’ll disagree. That’s not going to change. But we’re going to not lose sight of the fact of who we are as Americans.

FBI: Trump rally shooter acted alone but motive is still unclear

Speaking in a telephone briefing, FBI special agent in charge Kevin Rojek gave the media this update, saying:

At this time, the information that we have indicates that the shooter acted alone and that there are currently no public safety concerns. At present we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation.

The FBI said they found a suspected explosive device in the suspects vehicle. Rojek said “We have seized the device, rendered it safe and we are also in the process of analyzing that further.”

A later FBI update said suspicious devices had been found in the home of the suspect.

Updated

Reuters has spoken to residents of Bethel Park, where the suspected shooter came from.

Wes Morgan, a 42-year-old who works at an investment management company and bikes with his children on the same street as Thomas Matthew Crooks’ residence said “Bethel Park is a pretty blue-collar type of area, and to think that somebody was that close is a little insane.”

A couple standing on the porch of their nearby brick ranch-style home was left processing the events and spotlight on their neighbourhood.

“There’s never been a gun issue. There’s never been the police being called,” Mary Priselac, 67, said alongside her husband. “You kind of have to wonder what didn’t he get in life? What led to this extreme?”

Crooks’ gun – an AR-style-5.56 caliber rifle – had been legally bought, FBI officials said.

Jim Knapp, who retired from his job as the school counselor at Bethel Park High School in 2022, said Crooks had always been “quiet as a churchmouse,” “respectful” and kept to himself.

He contradicted some statements by former pupils which suggested Crooks had been frequently bullied, telling Reuters he rarely came across Crooks because “he wasn’t a needy type kid.”

Crooks occasionally ate lunch by himself in the school cafeteria, said Knapp, who would engage such students to see if they wanted company.

“Kids weren’t calling him names, kids weren’t bullying him,” Knapp said.

Knapp said he never knew Crooks to be political in any way “Anybody could snap, anybody could have issues,” he said. “Something triggered that young man and drove him to drive up to Butler yesterday and do what he did.”

Helen Sullivan has spoken to Evan Vucci, the photographer who took the picture of Donald Trump that seems likely to be remembered as an iconic imagine in US history:

The photograph was taken by Evan Vucci, chief Washington photographer for the Associated Press. Vucci has been covering Trump since his candidacy eight years ago and in 2020 won a Pulitzer for a photograph of protests after George Floyd’s death.

“I heard the shots. So I ran to the stage as the Secret Service agents were starting to cover President Trump up. They were coming up on the stage from all different directions, and they were going on top of him. I went to the front, side of the stage and I started photographing everything I could,” says Vucci, who told the Guardian he has covered hundreds of rallies like the one in Pennsylvania on Sunday.

More agents arrived, he said, and what appeared to be a Swat team.

“I started thinking, OK, what’s going to happen next? Where is he going to go? Where do I need to be? Where do I need to stand? What is going to happen?”

“The job is all about anticipation,” Vucci says.

Vucci started thinking about the evacuation route. It would be on the other side of the stage, the quickest way to Trump’s SUV. He positioned himself at the stairs near the stage.

Vucci says he “was somewhat taken aback” when Trump raised his fist, but there was only one thing was running through his mind: “Slow down, think, compose. Slow down, think, compose.”

Read more here: ‘The job is all about anticipation’: behind the lens of the defining photo of the Trump rally shooting

My colleague Ramon Antonio Vargas overnight has pulled together everything we know so far about the man who attempted to kill Donald Trump:

The early portrait that has emerged of the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who authorities say tried to assassinate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in the state on Saturday before secret service agents shot him to death is a complicated and so far sparse one.

Thomas Matthew Crooks resided in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white, generally affluent suburb of Pittsburgh. Public records show he shared a home with parents who were licensed behavioral care counselors. Those same records contain no mention of any criminal or traffic citations – as well as any financial problems such as foreclosures.

Actions that Crooks took late in his time as a student at Bethel Park high school offered virtually no hint of his political leanings. He was a junior at the school, and it was the first day of Joe Biden’s presidency, when Crooks donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a political action committee aligned with the president’s Democratic party. Public records show his father is a registered Republican and his mother a registered Democrat.

A former classmate of Crooks’ said he had not shown any particular interest in politics in high school, but they would discuss computers and games. Another young man who described himself as a former schoolmate of Crooks at Bethel Park high school spoke with reporters Sunday, recalling how his ex-companion “was bullied almost every day” on campus.

Read more here: Trump rally shooting – what we know about the suspected gunman

Protest organisers say they will still demonstrate during RNC despite Trump shooting

Associated Press reports thast activists gathering in Milwaukee for the start of the Republican National Convention say the assassination attempt on Donald Trump won’t affect their longstanding plans to demonstrate outside the convention site this week.

A diverse range of organizations and activists is expected outside the downtown Fiserv Forum, it says. The largest expected demonstration was slated to start Monday morning. The Coalition to March on the RNC, comprised largely of local groups, planned to protest for access to abortion rights, for immigrant rights, and against the war in Gaza among other issues.

“The shooting has nothing to do with us,” said Omar Flores, a coalition spokesperson. “We’re going to continue with the march as we planned.”

Organizers expect an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 attendees. Separately, the Philadelphia-based Poor People’s Army, which organizes for economic justice, plans an afternoon march.

The US Secret Service has said security plans for the Republica National Convention, which have been in the works for more than a year, remain the same.

The investigations and likely recriminations after someone was able to breach security and shoot at Donald Trump during his rally in Pennsylvania will most likely continue apace.

On Sunday evening House speaker Mike Johnson said “Congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know.”

Secret Service director, Kimberly A Cheatle, has already been summoned to appear before the House oversight committee on 22 July.

Republican national convention has yet to announce speaker schedule

If you wanted to plan ahead who and what to watch at this week’s Republican National Convention, then I have bad news: the party hasn’t released a full slate of speakers, and it’s possible we won’t know who is taking the stage each night until hours before.

Donald Trump is expected to give his nomination acceptance speech Thursday. The day prior to that, his as-yet-unannounced pick for VP is due to give a speech in their own right on Wednesday.

There are themes for each night’s speeches, from economics to immigration to crime to national security, and we know that several members of the Trump family and their associates are due to speak. The RNC will livestream proceedings across a number of online platforms, including YouTube.

Updated

Welcome and opening summary …

Welcome to our rolling coverage of US politics, which is dominated by the aftermath of the attempted assasination of former president and presumptive Republican nominee for this year’s election, Donald Trump. Here is the latest …

  • Trump gave an interview, his first since the shooting, to the conservative newspaper the Washington Examiner, saying that he has rewritten his RNC speech. “The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he said, and that it “would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches”. Its focus was Biden’s policies while in office, Trump said. “This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” he said

  • Trump said that the reason he wasn’t killed was that he looked away from the crowd and to a screen with speech notes. “I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?”. Trump arrived in Milwaukee on Sunday night for the Republican National Convention, which is expected to continue as scheduled

  • Two other rally attendees were also shot and survived. One man, Corey Comperatore, 50, died in the shooting, and has been hailed as a hero from trying to protect his daughters from the bullets

  • CNN and the ABC reported that Trump underwent a precautionary CT scan after he was grazed by a bullet at a rally on Saturday. The ABC cited unnamed sources who said the scan came back clear

  • FBI officials said on Sunday they were assessing the shooting as a possible domestic terrorism attack and assassination attempt. The suspected shooter is dead. He was named as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania

  • Early details shed little light on why Crooks might have wanted to carry out an attack on Trump or his supporters. Public records showed he was a registered Republican, though he had once donated $15 to a progressive PAC.

  • Early attempts to identify social media posts or other writings that would explain the shooting were not successful. FBI officials said on Sunday afternoon that they did not “currently have an identified motive” and that “at present, we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject”

  • Joe Biden gave an address to the nation, calling for unity and a rejection of political violence. His campaign was reportedly planning to tone down verbal attacks and television attack ads against Trump in the wake of the shooting, while still continuing to tout Biden’s political message about why voters should elect him in November

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