Donald Trump was greeted with chants of ‘fight, fight, fight,’ as he strode into the Republican convention on Saturday barely two days after surviving an assassination attempt.
The former president wore a bandage on his right ear where the bullet fired by Thomas Matthew Crooks ripped through his skin.
It could have been his wake, but after officially securing his nomination and anointing Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, Trump arrived for a celebration.
He walked to the ‘family suite’ of oversized armchairs, surrounded by the royal family of MAGA: Vance, his sons Eric and Don Jr. (who had tears in his eyes), daughter Tiffany, former Fox news anchor Tucker Carlson and other senior Republicans.
And his supporters echoed the defiant words he used on Saturday when he picked himself up from the ground, his face bloodied. ‘Fight, fight, fight,’ echoed through the arena.
Donald Trump has arrived at the Republican National Convention just two days after he survived an assassination attempt
The former president wore a bandage on his right ear where the bullet fired by Thomas Matthew Crooks ripped through his skin
He was not on the speaking schedule but stayed to watch the final speeches of the night.
‘They wanted tonight to be his funeral,’ said Angie Wong, a delegate from Florida, as the strains of ‘God Bless the USA’ died away.
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Trump earlier said he was intent on continuing with his planned schedule, refusing to let a crazed gunman throw his schedule off track.
But he looked overawed as he raised his fist in salute to the crowd.
And, for a man who sees a stony face as the sign of a president, he showed real flashes of vulnerability and gratitude at the adoration on display.
His audience’s noisy reaction was a reminder of the way Trump has upended the norms of American politics. This was not a reception for a politician but a reception reserved for a rock star or a fundamentalist preacher or someone who had rolled the rock aside himself.
As Sen. Tim Scott put it earlier in the day: ‘If you didn’t believe in miracles before Saturday—you better be believing right now…Because on Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle—but an AMERICAN LION got back up on his feet, and he ROARRRRRRRRED…’
By the time Trump made his unscheduled appearance the crowd was primed and ready. He didn’t even need to speak—that comes Thursday—to hold the crowd rapt.
‘Have you ever been to a city with electricity? That man can light up a city,’ said Debbie Epling, chair of the Aiken County Republican Party in South Carolina.
Trump stood with Sen. J.D. Vance, his newly anointed running mate, in the ‘family suite’ of the Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks
The Trumps made it a family affair with daughter (l to r) daughter Tiffany, son Eric and his wife Lara, and Don Jr. all in the family suite with Trump
Republicans converged on Milwaukee, Wisconsin for their four-day convention and the official nomination of Trump as their nominee for the presidential election in November
And that was before Saturday. That the leader of the MAGA movement had turned his head at the moment a would-be assassin’s bullet had been streaking towards his head has not gone unnoticed by his supporters.
‘Divine intervention,’ said Epling, who was decked out in a sparkling red, white and blue hat. ‘People better take notes, because it matters.’
Others went even further in seeing religious significance in even Saturday’s date and the attempted assassination of a pope.
‘July 13 was the same date when the Holy Mother revealed the third secret of Fatima,’ said a Catholic attendee, lining up for a burger at the sports arena’s concessions.
That was the date in 1917 when the Virgin Mary appeared to three Portuguese children, entrusting them with her prophesies.
The vision foretold an attack on a ‘bishop dressed in white,’ and was only revealed in 2000, 19 years after an assassin tried to kill Pope John Paul II.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during day one of the convention. The roster was made up of Republicans who came of age under Trump and rose to prominence with MAGA messages
‘You can’t make this stuff up,’ said the suited Republican as the line inched forward.
The convention began with the bang of a gavel, followed by a prayer and then the Trump-appropriated anthem of ‘God Bless the USA.’
As the strains of the song died away, delegates on the floor took up Trump’s words of defiance. ‘Fight, fight, fight,’ they chanted, in an echo of the words he shouted as he got to his feet on Saturday, blood streaming down their face.
It was just one of the ways the shock, relief and finally celebration of Saturday permeated proceedings at the Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Trump’s fingerprints were all over proceedings, from the merchandiser on sale to the roster of speakers who mostly came of age under Trump and rose to prominence as America First Republicans.
Even the roll call of states announcing their support for the nominee was turned into a family affair.
Sen. J.D. Vance arrived on the convention floor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, two hours after being named by Donald Trump as his pick for running mate
It was Eric Trump, standing next to his brother Don Jr., who put his father over the top, officially clinching the nomination with Florida’s delegates.
‘On behalf of our entire family and on behalf of the 125 delegates in the unbelievable state of Florida, 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.’
It was a procedural matter. A bit of accounting. Yet the audience went wild, breaking out into a chant of, ‘Fight, fight, fight,’ again.
Bill Kolo, 56, a delegate from Connecticut said no ‘mere mortal’ could bounce back as Trump had done on Saturday.
‘He’s been persecuted more than, in my opinion, any person since Jesus Christ, he said.
‘And somehow he gets back up every day, when everything’s being thrown at him from every level, and still he stays and talks and fights for us.’