Election 2024 RNC Photo Gallery

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives at the Republican National Convention Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee.

 Julia Nikhinson - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Just days after surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., former President Donald Trump is poised to officially accept the Republican Party's nomination as their candidate to face incumbent Joe Biden in November's Presidential election.

Trump's address will conclude the four-day Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He appeared each of the first three days with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting.

Trump has not spoken in public since the shooting, though he's given interviews off camera. But he referenced it during a private fundraiser on Wednesday, according to a clip of his remarks recorded on a cellphone and obtained by PBS News.

“I got lucky,” he said. “God was with me.”

Republicans throughout the week in Milwaukee have suggested the combative former president take a gentler tone in light of the shooting and have suggested the crisis provides a chance to de-escalate the divisive political rhetoric that has marked the 2024 campaign.

Trump told the Washington Examiner that he had rewritten his acceptance speech in the wake of the Saturday shooting, emphasizing a call for national unity.

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he said. “Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches,” aimed mostly at Biden's policies.

The Associated Press is scheduled to broadcast Trump's speech on its YouTube livestream. It is embedded below and can be viewed here.

Newsletter

What to Read Next

Tags