{"id":29664,"date":"2024-07-15T23:11:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T04:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=29664"},"modified":"2024-07-15T23:11:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T04:11:58","slug":"trump-soaks-up-cheers-at-gop-convention-in-first-public-appearance-since-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=29664","title":{"rendered":"Trump soaks up cheers at GOP convention in first public appearance since shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MILWAUKEE \u2014 Former President Donald Trump<\/a> made his first public appearance Monday since a shooter tried to assassinate him two days before at a political rally, entering the Republican convention hall to roaring applause, his right ear bandaged, and holding his fist aloft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporters on the convention floor and standing in the stadium sang along to a live rendition of “God Bless the U.S.A.” with singer Lee Greenwood as Trump waved to supporters and joined family members and new running mate JD Vance in their seats, alongside Tucker Carlson and Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump wore a subdued look as the room around him erupted and chants of “USA” rang out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, Trump mouthed \u201cthank you\u201d as Amber Rose, a rapper and television personality, urged Americans to vote for him in her speech. After Monday night’s program concluded, Trump greeted attendees reaching out to him as he made his way out of the arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the aftermath of the shooting on Saturday, Trump raised his fist to his supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania. Then he was bundled into a waiting vehicle and stayed out of public view until the convention Monday \u2014 but remained in the middle of a flurry of behind-the-scenes activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump fielded phone calls from President Joe Biden and leaders in the Republican Party and around the world. He mused to conservative outlets about how he had cheated death. He returned to his home in New Jersey and then flew to Wisconsin for the convention where he was nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate for the third time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump did not speak Monday night, but the outpouring of support from convention attendees echoed the relief Trump showed in his interviews. \u201cI\u2019m not supposed to be here,\u201d he told the Washington Examiner<\/a>. In an interview with the New York Post<\/a>, he said, \u201cI\u2019m supposed to be dead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the convention speeches got underway, Trump’s allies drove home their feelings about his narrow escape. \u201cTwo days ago, evil came for the man we admire and love so much,\u201d Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said. \u201cI thank God that his hand was on President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina put the threat in biblical terms, to applause. \u201cThe Devil\u201d showed up in Pennsylvania \u201cholding a rifle,” he said, “but the American lion got back up on his feet and roared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A source who had spoken to Trump told NBC News thathis mood was contemplative and that the attack had left him feeling like he had a new lease on life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The source said he believed Trump\u2019s brush with death would work its way into his speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, as he and his aides rewrote parts of it in the hours after the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I basically had a speech that was an unbelievable rip-roarer,” Trump told the Washington Examiner’s Byron York in the interview. But he “threw it out,” Trump said, and was drafting a new version. “Now, we have a speech that is more unifying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump re-emerged after he fielded private well-wishes from around the nation and the globe. Biden and Trump spoke on the phone after the shooting, which Biden characterized as “very cordial” in an interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I told him how concerned I was, and want to make sure I knew how he was actually doing,” Biden said. “He sounded good. He said he was fine, and he thanked me for calling him.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also spoke with Trump on Sunday, according to an official readout of their call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., reached out. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., recounted a conversation with Trump on Fox News. An emotional Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told NBC News’ “Meet the Press”\u2002<\/a>on Sunday\u2002<\/a>what he was hoping to say to Trump<\/a> when they were scheduled to connect later that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with Trump earlier Monday, according to Kennedy campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear. Spear, who said Kennedy is not dropping out of the race, said they met to “discuss national unity” and that Kennedy “hopes to meet with leaders of the Democratic Party as well.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he touched down in Wisconsin before the convention, an aide shared a video showing Trump<\/a> raising a fist, echoing the gesture seen around the world in Butler after the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Monday, Trump was pledging to \u201cmove forward\u201d to work on “Uniting our Nation” \u2014 as he called for the prosecutions against him to be thrown out, among them the \u201cWitch Hunts,\u201d \u201cJanuary 6th Hoax\u201d and \u201cthe Georgia \u2018Perfect\u2019 Phone Call charges,\u201d which he slammed as a coordinated political attack by “the Democrat Justice Department.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fox News’ Bret Baier reported that he talked to Trump early Monday and that Trump was basking in a federal judge’s decision to dismiss the indictment against him\u2002<\/a>in Fl<\/a>o<\/a>rida o<\/a>n charges of mishandling classified documents<\/a> \u2014 another monumental development for Trump in a head-spinning few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s call for unity has resonated with Republicans on the ground, with Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Brian Schimming telling NBC News that the shooting offers Trump an opportunity to reach out to the nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the president will be reflective about what has happened here in the last couple of days and certainly will use that unfortunate occurrence to call for people to a common place,\u201d Schimming told NBC News in Milwaukee. \u201cSo I fully expect the president to address that, but also to make sure the whole country hears him say that not only that kind of thing is wrong, but \u2026 to unify the country in a rare moment when something tragic like that happens.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE \u2014 Former President Donald Trump made his first public appearance Monday since a shooter tried to assassinate him two days before at a political rally, entering the Republican convention hall to roaring applause, his right ear bandaged, and holding his fist aloft. Supporters on the convention floor and standing in the stadium sang along to a live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[29652,29650,29649,29651,1230],"class_list":["post-29664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-bandage","tag-public-appearance","tag-republican-meeting","tag-right-ear","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29666,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29664\/revisions\/29666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}