Trump recounts assassination attempt in great detail during RNC speech as he says its ‘painful’ to tell the story
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Five days after a .22 calibre bullet came within inches of ending his life, Donald Trump recounted his survival and cast himself as a triumphant hero as he accepted his party’s presidential nomination for the third consecutive election cycle on the final day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday.
The ex-president, who wore a bandage on the ear that was grazed during the attempt on his life, told the crowd of delegates and supporters that he was “not supposed to be here” and credited his presence on the stage to “the grace of almighty God.”
As photographs of that day were displayed on a bank of screens behind him, Trump claimed rallygoers had believed him dead after his Secret Service detail rushed the stage, and told the convention audience that the now-iconic photo of him raising a fist as he exhorted his supporters to “fight” came out of a desire to reassure them that he was alive.
The ex-president also said he would spend the remainder of his life “grateful” for “the love shown by that giant audience of patriots” who’d been there in Pennsylvania last weekend, including the two supporters who were left wounded by the gunman, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, and Buffalo Township fire chief Corey Comperatore, who died from the wounds he received in the shooting.
After asking the crowd for a moment of silence, Trump said his “resolve” was “unbroken” towards his goal of delivering “a government that serves the American people better than ever before.”
“Nothing will stop me in this mission, because our vision is righteous and our cause is pure,” he said.
While Trump’s demeanor appeared more subdued as he recounted his experience during the shooting last week, the substance of his remarks hewed closer to the grievance-landen rhetoric that has characterized his speeches since he burst onto the political stage during the 2016 election.
He claimed that the outcome of the assassination attempt, which has been condemned and denounced by prominent figures from across the political spectrum, should be an end to the various criminal cases against him.
Trump is the first convicted felon to accept the nomination of a major political party, having been found guilty on 34 separate charges by a New York City jury earlier this year. He also faces federal charges stemming from his efforts to unlawfully remain in office after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, as well as a state-level case in a Georgia court for his attempt to strong-arm state officials into falsifying election results after he became the first Republican to lose the Peach State in decades.
Trump accused Democrats of “weaponizing the justice system” against him and called for them to stop pointing out his previous efforts to subvert election results by labeling him as a threat to democracy, instead claiming that he is “the one who is saving democracy for the people of our country.”
The ex-president’s remarks were largely delivered as prepared from a teleprompter, though he appeared to go off on tangents at time. In one bizarre instance, he suggested that Wisconsin residents should cast their ballot for him because of his heavy investment in the Badger State.
“And by the way, Wisconsin, we are spending over $250 million here, creating jobs and other economic development all over the place. So I hope you will remember this in November and give us your vote. I am trying to buy your vote. I’ll be honest about that,” he said, before returning to reading from the monitor on front of him.
While lacking the bombast of his typical rally speeches, Trump largely stuck to the boilerplate slogans and promises he has offered audiences since launching his third presidential campaign in November 2022. He also included occasional allusions to his lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
He claimed he would singlehandedly “end the devastating inflation crisis, immediately bring down interest rates and lower the cost of energy,” though he offered no explanation for how he’d do any of those things, all of which fall far outside the reaches of presidential authority.
He also told supporters he’d somehow enable the US to pay off its’ national debt even while lowering the taxes that are collected to fund government operations, and he repeated his oft-stated promise to end wars between Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Hamas.
And although his opponent — President Joe Biden — did not appear in his prepared remarks, he mentioned his successor’s name during one of his off-script tangents before realizing he wasn’t supposed to do so, telling the crowd he’d only mention Biden’s name “once” and accusing him of doing “unthinkable” damage to the country.
Another tangent saw Trump return to a gaffe he’d made during his debate with Biden, when he claimed migrants from South and Central America were taking “Black jobs.”
This time, the ex-president claimed — without evidence — that migrants are “taking the jobs from our black population, our Hispanic population.”
“And they’re also taking them from unions,” he said, though he did not explain how migrants could be filling jobs that are restricted to union members, and he invited WWE executive Linda McMahon, a known union buster and called for the firing of the United Auto Workers president who has supported Biden. He also threw out his recent idea of not taxing tips, which led to a chant of “no tax on tips.”
Trump also promoted economic protectionism, talking about putting in place tariffs against countries that do business with foreign adversaries like Iran.
