Trump forges ahead in White House bid after assassination attempt

MILWAUKEE – Donald Trump will cement his hold on the Republican Party at its 2024 convention this week, having

survived an assassination attempt

and navigated numerous legal tangles on the road to the party’s presidential nomination.

During the four-day event beginning on July 15, the former president will announce his choice for a running mate, citing as the front runners, senators J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, all of whom are scheduled to speak at the gathering.

Trump held individual meetings with each of the three men late last week in what was effectively one last job interview, according to two sources who requested anonymity to disclose private conversations.

While the event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will be a festive affair to formally choose the party’s presidential nominee, it occurs at a tense moment in US history on the road to the Nov 5 election rematch between Mr Joe Biden, 81, and Trump, 78.

Will party leaders scheduled to speak over the next four days try to cool tempers among Republicans? Or will they use the occasion to accuse Democrats of demonising Trump as a threat to democracy and making him a target for political violence?

Trump told the Washington Examiner: “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.”

Mr Biden, too,

in a televised address from the White House

on July 14, said: “There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalised.”

He said: “The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down.”

Trump and Mr Biden are locked in a close election rematch, according to most opinion polls, including by Reuters/Ipsos.

The shooting on July 13 whipsawed discussion around the presidential campaign, which had been focused on whether Mr Biden should drop out following a halting June 27 debate performance.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, the country’s highest-ranking Republican, told NBC’s Today show on July 14 that all Americans needed to tone down their rhetoric. He accused Mr Biden’s campaign of making hyperbolic attacks on Trump.

“Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down,” he said.

Mr Biden condemned the assassination attempt. He

ordered an investigation

into the July 13 shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which Trump’s right ear was grazed by a bullet,

one supporter was killed,

and two others were wounded before Secret Service agents shot dead the 20-year-old suspected gunman whose motive has yet to be clarified.

The Biden campaign declined to comment on allegations from some Republicans that his comments helped create the conditions for the shooting.

Trump has frequently turned to violent rhetoric in his campaign speeches, using the word “bloodbath”, labelling his perceived enemies as “vermin” and “fascists”, and accusing Mr Biden without evidence of a conspiracy to overthrow the US by encouraging illegal immigration.

For Trump, the convention represents a test.

Having consolidated party control, Trump could seize on the prime-time opportunity to deliver a unifying message or paint a dark portrait of a nation under siege by a corrupt leftist elite, as he has done at times on the trail.

“Trump’s convention speech is going to be his introduction to the general public, to the people who aren’t following politics closely. I think he will have even more eyeballs on him (because of the assassination attempt),” said Ms Nachama Soloveichik, a Republican strategist who worked on former governor Nikki Haley’s unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign.

“I would say the message should be one of de-escalation and also reminding people that America is better than that.”

In an internal memo to campaign staff on July 14, which was obtained by Reuters, co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said the campaign would adopt additional security measures in the wake of the assassination attempt. They also called on staff to refrain from using “dangerous rhetoric”.

“We condemn all forms of violence, and will not tolerate dangerous rhetoric on social media,” they wrote.

Trump began the year facing multiple legal worries, including four separate criminal prosecutions.

In late May, he was found guilty of trying to cover up hush money payments to a porn star. But the other three prosecutions – including two for his attempts to overturn his defeat – have been ground to a halt by various factors, including a Supreme Court decision that found him to be partly immune to prosecution.

Trump contends, without evidence, that all four prosecutions have been orchestrated by Mr Biden to try to prevent him from returning to power.

As with previous conventions, a who’s who of prominent Republicans, including media personalities and members of Congress, are slated to speak. They range from relative moderates to apologists for the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters and hard-right firebrands who have expressed support for conspiracy theories and are divisive even within the party.

The first three days of the event are organised around broad themes, with economic issues on July 15, public safety on July 16, and national security on July 17.

Republicans are expected to portray America as more prosperous, less crime-ridden and less vulnerable to threats abroad during Trump’s 2017 to 2021 term than it is under Mr Biden, though the record is decidedly mixed and difficult to compare, given that the Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on both the Biden and Trump presidencies in different ways.

Milwaukee will play a key role in the Nov 5 election, given that it is the biggest city in Wisconsin, one of the most politically competitive states in the country.

By the afternoon of July 14, security barricades around Fiserv Forum, the basketball arena where the convention’s main activities will take place, had shut down much of the city’s downtown. Thousands of armed law enforcement agents roamed streets that were otherwise largely empty as delegates streamed in from around the country.

Ms Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the Republican National Convention’s liaison with the Secret Service, said security plans had not been changed for the convention, despite the assassination attempt on Trump.

“We are confident in the security plans for this event, and we are ready to go,” she told reporters. REUTERS