MILWAUKEE (CN) — With the Republican party solidly behind him, former President Donald Trump finalized his status as the GOP’s presidential nominee on the final night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday.
It began as a message of unity from the former president, who took to the stage almost a week after he narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally last weekend.
“We rise together or we fall apart,” Trump told the crowd gathered in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum. “I will be president for all of America, not just half of America”
Turning to the attempt on his life, the former president, sporting a bandage on his ear from where he was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet, adopted a more somber tone. He thanked Americans for what he called an outpouring of support and added that the events of the incident were “too painful to tell.”
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” he said.
“Yes you are!” the crowd chanted. But Trump contended he only made it to the convention stage Thursday night by the “grace of God.”
On stage with the Republican nominee was a set of firefighter’s gear belonging to Cory Comperatore, who was killed in the crossfire Saturday at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.
“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others,” Trump said after a moment of silence.
Notably, the former president mentioned his opponent, President Joe Biden, by name only once, instead saying that the election should focus on the issues.
“In an age where politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens,” said Trump.
But he used that call as a springboard to urge Democrats to drop what he called “weaponized” investigations into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, among other things.
He celebrated U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s Monday decision to dismiss the Justice Department’s case accusing the former president of mishandling classified documents.
Trump saved some kind words for his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who he appeared to position as heir apparent.
“J.D., you’re going to be doing this a long time,” he told Vance. “Enjoy the ride.”
Trump’s discussion of policy didn’t deviate much from the platform his campaign published this week. He vowed to take a tough stance on border security and to take action to prevent what he said would be “World War 3.”
The former president also promised to kickstart domestic energy production and to slash taxes, two more platform policies.
And he said he would finish building his long-promised wall on the country’s southwest border.
Trump, painting a dire picture of the country under Biden, positioned himself as the person to fix things.
“Less than four years ago, we were a great nation,” the former president said, “and we will soon be a great nation again.”
Last week’s assassination attempt against Trump was top of mind for the opening slate of speakers, some of whom also chalked up the former president’s survival to divine intervention.
“It’s a miracle that we are here tonight,” said Michael Whatley, chair of the Republican National Committee, adding that Trump walking away from the attempt on his life was proof that “we are all protected by the almighty hand of God.”
Montana Senator Steve Daines commented earlier in the night that the convention was “a quarter inch away” from being a memorial service rather than a nomination ceremony. Daines, setting the tone for the evening, ran the gamut of conservative political issues, bashing Biden on border security and taking a jab at the trans community.
Among the other prominent conservatives who addressed the convention Thursday night were former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson.
Pompeo thumped the Trump administration’s foreign policy record during his time as the government’s chief diplomat, proudly proclaiming that there were “no new American wars” under the former president.
The U.S. was still actively embroiled in Afghanistan during Trump’s tenure. The president did, however, begin negotiating a drawdown with the Taliban, inking a peace agreement in 2020.
“President Biden struts the global stage — maybe I should say he shuffles the global stage,” said Pompeo. “He talks a big game about American values, but what’s he done at home? What’s he showing the world?”
Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who has since been fired from the network and struck out on his own with an independent web show, conversely railed on U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia, calling it “a middle finger in the face of the everyday American.”
And he also joined his colleagues in suggesting that Trump surviving last week’s assassination attempt was a divine stroke.
“Even people who don’t believe in God are saying, ‘maybe there’s something to this,’” Carlson said.
Security was visibly tighter around the Fiserv in the hours leading up to the final session. A Coast Guard helicopter idled overhead as the Secret Service carefully screened people arriving at the venue. Dozens of police, Homeland Security agents and other law enforcement milled around outside the arena.
As the program inside Fiserv got underway, the energy in the bustling plaza outside the arena was upbeat and breezy. Trump die-hards were either dressed like they were ready to attend the Kentucky Derby, or clad in all manner of red, white and blue garb, or Trump fashion of all flavors.
Those lacking Trump swag could have found some for sale at James Cast’s booth beneath a billowing American flag — T-shirts were going two for $50.
“We take cash, card, anything with money — just like Trump would,” Cast said, smiling.
Cast said he’s been a Trump supporter since 2016 and has seen it all while traveling the country to hawk wares at the former president’s events.
It hasn’t all been good times, though. The 29-year-old New Yorker told Courthouse News he was at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday.
Despite Trump’s injury and Comperatore’s death, the rally was nonetheless “nothing but great patriots who love our country,” Cast said, noting that while about 20% of the crowd scrambled when the shots were fired, the remaining 80% did their best to look after each other.
Cast said he anticipated Trump’s remarks Thursday night upon accepting the GOP presidential nomination to be a positive message “to be more united than ever, and to not be afraid anymore,” including of enemies on the political left.
A 55-year-old woman from Port Washington, Wisconsin, wearing a red Trump/Vance 2024 T-shirt, who asked not to be named, said she was curious how Trump would address his shooting in his first public speech since the near-death experience.
She wondered if the 78-year-old Trump was sore from being thrown down by Secret Service agents, or if it was traumatic for him, not to mention his children.
“Can you imagine if you were one of his kids?” she said.
Either way, the woman, who has been volunteering at the RNC all week, posited that the shooting may have altered Trump’s perspective in some way.
“He’s a changed man,” she said.
At the Drink Wisconsinbly pub in the Fiserv plaza, TVs playing Fox News coverage of the convention could barely be heard over the din of a bar doing brisk business. Soon the foot traffic outside slowed, and the crowds thinned. Many headed inside the arena as Trump took to the stage once again.