Trump touches down in Milwaukee as Republican national convention begins

A rush of activists, politicians and media bound for the Republican national convention have descended on Milwaukee, less than 48 hours after a gunman fired shots at Donald Trump during a Pennsylvania rally, with a bullet grazing the former president and rocking the country.

The failed assassination attempt, which left several rally-goers injured and two dead, including the shooting suspect, casts a pall of anxiety over the RNC. It raises tensions – already felt between the diverse, working-class and heavily Democratic city and the Republican party – which will be on display from the start of the convention on Monday, when a rally held by the Coalition to March on the RNC will protest against the event.

Inside the convention, held at the home stadium of the Milwaukee Bucks, Trump will announce his running mate and the party will formally nominate the former president to lead the GOP ticket. Vying for the vice-presidential candidacy are Doug Burgum, the wealthy governor of North Dakota, the Florida senator Marco Rubio, and JD Vance, a populist senator from Ohio whose embrace of the Maga right has propelled him into Republican superstardom. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, is scheduled to introduce the vice-presidential candidate on Wednesday.

The RNC 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.

It comes amid uncertainty in Joe 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.

Shortly after the rally, Trump appeared resolute, writing online: “I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and the Republican national convention, by two days, 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”.

Trump is due to accept his party’s formal nomination with a speech on Thursday. He 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.”