Trump Receives Welcome in First Appearance after Assassination Bid
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Donald Trump received a hero’s welcome at the Republican National Convention, the former president’s first public appearance since he narrowly survived an attempted assassination.
Trump arrived at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a rapturous reception on Monday, two days after he was struck in the ear by a would-be assassin’s bullet during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Republican delegates stood and cheered as Trump, wearing a thick bandage over his right ear, entered the stadium.
Trump, who appeared visibly moved, did not address the convention, but smiled and waved to the crowd as supporters chanted “Fight! Fight! Fight” and pumped their fists – a reference to the former president’s defiant reaction in the moments after he was shot, Al Jazeera reported.
After surveying the crowd, Trump took a seat in a VIP box with some of his children and his newly announced vice presidential running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance.
Multiple speakers addressed Saturday’s attack on Trump, who has credited God with saving his life, some of them invoking religious imagery.
Trump is due to formally accept the Republican nomination on Thursday, setting up a rerun of the 2020 contest against Democratic President Joe Biden in November.
Trump has signaled that unity will be a key theme of the four-day event, saying in a newspaper interview on Sunday that he would deliver a “whole different speech” than the one he had originally planned.
Trump is already leading Biden in most opinion polls, both nationwide and in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
An average of polls collated by the 538 website shows Trump ahead by 2.2 percent nationally.
Trump’s lead has grown by 2 percentage points since a faltering debate performance by Biden last month that saw the 81-year-old Democrat trip over his words and lose his train of thought.