Former President Donald Trump appeared alongside his newly announced running mate Sen. JD Vance at the Republican National Convention Monday night, the first time Trump has been seen in public since Saturday’s shocking attempt on his life.
The crowd cheered Trump, whose ear was bandaged after it was grazed by a bullet on Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania. Trump posted on social media over the weekend that he had considered postponing traveling to Milwaukee but he wrote that he “just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.”
Trump’s appearance capped a dramatic few days for the former president, after a gunman opened fire Saturday at a his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing a bystander and critically wounding two people in addition to Trump. Secret Service snipers shot and killed the gunman, who has since been identified as a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man. The FBI and Secret Service are still searching for a motive.
The former president announced Monday on social media that he had chosen the 39-year-old Ohio Senator to be his running mate. Vance, one source said, only learned he had been selected about 20 minutes before Trump made his choice public in a social media post.
Trump and Vance were officially nominated by the RNC Monday. Vance, the junior senator from Ohio, took the floor after his nomination was announced to greet delegates with his wife, Usha.
Earlier in the day, Trump also received more welcome news — a federal judge in Florida dismissed the charges against him and his two codefendants, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unlawfully funded.
Here’s the latest from the 2024 RNC: