US Elections 2024: Former US President Donald Trump, who recently survived an assassination attempt, has formally been nominated by the Republican Party to run again for the White House at the start of the party's national convention in Milwaukee. Trump is due to formally accept the party's nomination in a prime-time speech on Thursday and will challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 election.
The four-day convention came days after Trump was shot at during a campaign speech in Pennsylvania, and narrowly evaded death as the bullet grazed past his ear and killed a bystander at the rally. It also came after he secured a major legal victory when a federal judge dismissed one of Trump's criminal prosecutions accusing him of illegally keeping classified documents.
"On behalf of our entire family, and on behalf of the 125 delegates in the unbelievable state of Florida, we hereby nominate every single one of them for the greatest president that's ever lived, and that's Donald J Trump, hereby declaring him the Republican nominee for president of the United States of America," said Donald Trump's son Eric Trump while announcing Florida's votes as delegates chanted “fight, fight, fight” — the same words that Trump was seen shouting to the crowd during the shooting in Pennsylvania.
The convention has been designed by the Trump campaign to feature a softer and more optimistic message, focusing on themes that would help a divisive leader expand his appeal among moderate voters and people of colour. It featured video screens in the arena read “OVER THE TOP” while the song “Celebration” played and delegates danced and waved Trump signs.
The assassination attempt on Trump
Trump was holding a campaign rally on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania - a key state in the November 5 election - when a 20-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle got close enough to shoot at the former Republican president from a rooftop. He narrowly escaped an assassination attempt that he said presented an opportunity to bring the country together. The incident kickstarted debate on the alleged failure of the Secret Services, and political conspiracy among others
The assassination attempt on Trump significantly altered the dynamics of the presidential campaign, which had been focused on whether Biden should drop out due to concerns about his age and acuity following a halting June 27 debate performance. Prior to that, at least two dozen of Biden's fellow Democrats have called on him to end his re-election bid and allow the party to pick another standard bearer. Now, the focus has overwhelmingly shifted to Trump.
Opinion polls show a close race between Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, though Trump leads in several swing states that are likely to decide the election. Trump has not committed to accepting the results of the election if he loses. After the assassination attempt, Trump said he was revising his acceptance speech to emphasise national unity, rather than highlight his differences with Biden.
What happens now?
Meanwhile, the former President's evangelical supporters were convinced that he is blessed by God after his narrow brush with death. Many said that divine intervention was God's way of showing American voters that Trump, and not President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is the right man to occupy the White House after the election.
Having consolidated party control, Trump could now seize on the 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 campaign trail. His other two indictments on federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia - both related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat - are mired in delays and could be significantly limited after the US Supreme Court ruled in July that he had immunity for many of his official acts as president.
Meanwhile, Biden sought to lower the temperature after months of heated political rhetoric. "There is no place in America for this kind of violence," Biden said in an address from the White House on Sunday, while announcing an independent review of how the gunman managed to get so close to the former President.
(with inputs from agencies)
