MILWAUKEE — The Republican National Convention reaches its climax on Thursday with the former president Donald Trump expected to accept his party’s presidential nomination, a comeback that took four years. Expectations were that this would increase further in the past week, given Saturday’s assassination attempt.
Trump is expected to accept his third consecutive party endorsement on primetime before thousands of supporters at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
We’ll be watching closely to see how he handles his speech, given the injury he sustained at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Here’s what you need to know about his speech and the last day of the conference.
Milwaukee Republicans have suggested all week that the embattled former president should strike a softer tone in the wake of the shooting, and have argued that the crisis offers an opportunity to de-escalate the divisive political rhetoric that has defined the 2024 campaign.
Trump told the Washington Examiner that he rewrote his acceptance speech after Saturday’s shooting, emphasizing a call for national unity.
“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a blast,” he said. “If it hadn’t happened, it would have been one of the most incredible speeches,” focusing on President Trump’s policies Joe Biden.
“To be honest, it’s going to be a very different speech now,” he said.
If Trump does loosen the reins in this way, it will be in front of a delegation many of whom have been moved by Trump’s own defiant words delivered by U.S. Secret Service agents on Saturday. Their words have been echoed in chants of “fight, fight, fight.”
“I think his message will be better after he gets through that, and I think he’ll appeal to our better emotions,” said Lawrence Tabas, chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party. “He has tremendous compassion and empathy that doesn’t always show up.”
Unlike most national conventions, Trump’s wife Melania and daughter Ivanka, who both spoke at the previous two conventions, are not expected to speak at the convention but will attend.
Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, closed the program on Tuesday with a speech about Trump’s personal warmth and love for his family.
The conference organizers will announce the full list of speakers for each evening later in the morning.
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