Less than 48 hours after a gunman shot at Donald Trump during a Pennsylvania rally – a bullet grazing the former president and killing a spectator – Trump was formally nominated to head the Republican presidential ticket in November.
Trump also announced his running mate on Truth Social on Monday, tapping the Ohio senator JD Vance as his vice-presidential pick. Vance, who once called himself an anti-Trump Republican, has since become a fervent supporter of the former president. Vance was formally confirmed as the nominee on Monday afternoon.
Trump, who holds a marginal lead over Joe Biden in polling, was widely expected to change course this week and focus on a message of unity after the incident on Saturday, as many have called on the campaign to help bring down political tension in a year marked by threats of political violence.
Shortly after the convention opened on Monday, more transformative news broke for Trump: a US district judge in Florida agreed to dismiss the criminal case on charges of mishandling classified documents. In siding with Trump’s legal team, Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to her position by Trump, found that Jack Smith, the special counsel bringing the prosecution, had been improperly appointed.
The dismissal came just two weeks after the US supreme court ruled that presidents enjoy broad immunity from criminal prosecution, throwing into question Trump’s numerous criminal cases and giving him more fodder for his campaign, during which he has consistently held that he was politically persecuted.
Just before the convention, and in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt, Trump appeared resolute.
“I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and the Republican National Convention, by two days,” he wrote on Truth Social, “but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.”
An internal campaign memo struck a similar tone, stating: “It is our fervent hope that this horrendous act will bring our team, and indeed the nation together in unity and we must renew our commitment to safety and peace for our country,” and reiterating that the “RNC convention will continue as planned in Milwaukee”.
The failed assassination attempt, which left several rallygoers injured and two dead, including the shooting suspect, cast a pall of anxiety over the RNC. It raised tensions – already felt between the diverse, working-class and heavily Democratic city and the Republican party – which were on display from the start of the convention on Monday, when a rally held by the Coalition to March on the RNC protested against the event.
The convention will feature a lineup of conservative speakers whose remarks will highlight key issues for the Republican party and Trump campaign, including immigration, the economy and abortion.
The convention comes amid uncertainty in Biden’s campaign after a devastating debate performance raised questions within the Democratic party over the president’s fitness and ability to campaign and govern. In the wake of the shooting, the Biden campaign announced it would be pulling television ads and “pausing all outbound communications”.
The event will offer Trump an opportunity to set the tone for the Republican party following the shooting in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Trump pumped his fist in the air several times as he descended the stairs from his plane after arriving in Milwaukee on Sunday evening.
“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 told the Washington Examiner.
Speaking to the New York Post while en route to the city, Trump said he was “supposed to be dead”, adding: “The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this. He called it a miracle.”
