RNC 2024: Former US president Donald Trump accepted the nomination for the US presidential candidate on the last day of four-day Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday (July 18). He also addressed the supporters present on the venue, in his first public speech after he was shot at in a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.
"Tonight, with faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for the President of the United States," he said.
Chants of 'Trump, Trump' echoed the venue as he appeared on the stage.
Trump appeared each of the first three days with a white bandage on his ear, covering a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting. As Trump got on to the stage on the previous days of the Convention, the crowd chanted "Fight, fight, fight!", as a mark of remembrance of his defiance after the assassination bid that he survived by a whisker.
Trump said the shooting has led him to change his RNC speech, from what was going to be “a humdinger” made up largely of attacks on President Joe Biden to one more focused on bringing the country together. “Honestly, it's going to be a whole different speech now," Trump told the Washington Examiner earlier.
Trump announces his running mate
Trump, who has officially been announced the Republican nominee for the November 5 elections, has picked Ohio Senator and one-time fierce critic JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate. "After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator JD Vance of the Great State of Ohio," he announced on Truth Social Platform.
Vance, 39, was a fierce Trump critic in 2016 but has since become one of the former president's staunchest defenders, embracing his claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud. After the announcement by Trump, Vance emerged on the convention floor with his Indian American wife Usha Chilukuri Vance, who traces her origins to Andhra Pradesh, and shook hands with delegates.
Trump's challengers during the presidential nomination journey endorse him at RNC
During the four days, a number of people addressed the gathering including those who challenged Trump unsuccessfully for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and spent months sparring with the former president -- Indian-American Nikky Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy -- both of who endorsed the former President in the race at the Convention.
"I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” Haley said Tuesday as she addressed the Republican National Convention.
“Let us join together as a party. Let us come together as a people -- as one country – strong and proud. Let us show our children and the world that even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America,” said the former South Carolina governor and the US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Vivek Ramaswamy asks people to vote for Trump
Making his maiden appearance before the Republican National Convention, Indian-American entrepreneur-turned-politician Vivek Ramaswamy also asked fellow countrymen to vote for Donald Trump in the November general elections to revive national pride, reignite the economy, restore law and order and seal the border.
Trump is the president who will actually unite this country, not through empty words but through action, he said.
"Success is unifying, excellence is unifying, that's who we are as Americans, that's who we have always been,” Ramaswamy, a former presidential aspirant, said.
“We are the country where we can disagree like hell and still get together at the dinner table at the end of it. That is the America I know. That is the America we miss," he said as his speech electrified the crowd.
“If you disagree with everything I say then our message to you is this - we will still defend your right to say it because that is who we are as Americans. We are a country where we can disagree like hell and still get together at the dinner table at the end of it. That is what it means to be an American,” said the Indian-American.
