MILWAUKEE, WI – The Republican National Convention kicks off on Monday, just two days after former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s standard-bearer, survived an assassination attempt.
And the Saturday shooting at Trump’s rally in western Pennsylvania – where one spectator was killed and two more critically injured, and the former president visibly bloodied after a bullet grazed his ear – has altered the tone and raised the stakes of the convention.
U.S. Secret Service and other officials announced on the eve of the convention that there are no plans to expand the security perimeter and that there are no known threats.
“The arena’s set, the security is here and we feel very comfortable that we’re working with the Secret Service,” Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RNC EMPHASIZE CONVENTION TO ‘PROCEED’ IN AFTERMATH OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Whatley emphasized that “this is going to be a facility where we’re going to be able to have 50,000 delegates and alternates and guests and members of the media who are going to be here and who are going to be safe. That’s very critical for us.”
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Trump, in a social media post on Sunday, said that he was going to delay his trip to the convention in the wake of the shooting, but decided against allowing a “potential assassin” to alter his plans.
The former president arrived in Milwaukee, swing state Wisconsin’s largest city, a couple of hours later.
At the four-day confab, Trump will formally become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.
And as the convention gets underway, all eyes are on the former president as Trump’s extremely likely to announce his running mate.
The first order of business, as roughly 2,400 Republican delegates from across the country gather at the Fiserv Fourm in downtown Milwaukee, will be officially nominating Trump during a roll call of the states during Monday afternoon’s session.
Trump is scheduled to accept the nomination as he delivers his address to the convention on Thursday night.
The gathering, which is expected to attract roughly 50,000 attendees, is scheduled to maintain its original programming despite Saturday’s shooting. And speakers were asked not to alter their speeches.
Republicans are aiming to use the convention as a venue to reunite the party and energize delegates and activists ahead of the final stretch of the campaign in Trump’s 2024 election rematch with President Biden.
As part of that push for unity, Trump’s final rival in this year’s GOP presidential nomination race will now speak at the convention.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration, will address the convention on Tuesday, a person familiar with the decision confirmed to Fox News on Sunday.
Haley, who was engaged in a bitter two-candidate battle with Trump from late January through early March, when she ended her White House bid, wasn’t originally invited to the convention.
Also on tap on Monday as the convention gets under way – A new slimmed-down Republican Party platform that won quick and overwhelming initial approval last week is expected to be passed during the opening session.
While the platform – which softens longstanding Republican Party language in support of a federal ban on abortion – was praised by a number of top social conservative leaders, not all evangelicals were happy with the new document.
Its expected passage is the latest sign of Trump’s expanding ideological grip over the GOP.
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