Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump entered the hall with a bandage covering his ear
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump appears with vice presidential candidate JD Vance, R-Ohio, during the Republican National Convention, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee © AP / Julia Nikhinson
Former US President Donald Trump was greeted with thunderous applause and cheers as he entered the venue on the opening night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The 2024 RNC is taking place just two days after a failed assassination attempt against Trump, who was officially nominated on Monday as the party’s presidential candidate for the upcoming November election.
The crowd cheered wildly when Trump, with a white bandage clearly visible on his right ear, appeared on the big screen walking from backstage to the convention floor to a live version of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
After greeting his supporters, who were chanting “USA! USA!” and “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Trump climbed the stairs to the VIP section. There he stood flanked by his running mate JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson on the left, and Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and journalist Tucker Carlson on the right.
PRESIDENT TRUMP ❤️ pic.twitter.com/0BRzagrUTi
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 16, 2024
Trump tapped JD Vance as his running mate but did not address the convention on Monday. He is expected to deliver a speech, which he revised in the wake of the shooting, on the final day of the gathering on Thursday.
A bullet grazed Trump’s right ear when a gunman fired at least five rounds from a semi-automatic rifle in his direction during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. One spectator was killed and two others severely wounded in the attack before the shooter was neutralized by US Secret Service officers.
”I am not supposed to be here; I am supposed to be dead,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Post on Sunday. The former president said he had prepared “an extremely tough speech… all about the corrupt, horrible administration” for the event in Milwaukee, but “threw it away” after the assassination attempt.
”I want to try to unite our country… but I do not know if that is possible. People are very divided,” he added.
