Donald Trump entered the Republican National Convention on Monday behind a group of imposing bodyguards just days after he survived an assassination attempt. in Pennsylvania.
The Republican candidate waved to the crowd in Milwaukee, pumping his fist as he received enthusiastic applause. Trump showed off his bandaged ear, injured when it was grazed by an assassin’s bullet on Saturday.
Trump was not scheduled to speak at the convention until Thursday, but traveled to Wisconsin on Sunday, 24 hours after the assassination attempt.
Trump, who is 6’3″, was flanked by a dozen equally burly bodyguards as he made his entrance. Conservative X-listers had been widely critical of the former president’s security detail.
On Monday, Trump announced that Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who once compared the candidate to Adolf Hitler, would be his running mate in the November election.
Trump triumphantly entered the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday
Video footage showed the 1.90-metre tall president surrounded by equally burly security guards.
On Saturday afternoon, Crooks managed to sneak onto a rooftop 150 yards from the stage where Trump was scheduled to speak in Butler, Pennsylvania. There he began firing an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle purchased by his father, authorities said.
The Secret Service, which is charged with protecting current and former presidents, was on the defensive Monday amid criticism of its failure to detect the gunman.
“Secret Service personnel on the ground moved quickly during the incident, with our sniper team neutralizing the shooter and our agents implementing protective measures to ensure the safety of former President Donald Trump,” Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said in a statement.
Biden ordered an independent investigation into how the gunman, who was shot and killed by officers moments after opening fire, could have come so close to killing or seriously injuring Trump despite heavy security provided by the agency.
The president also ordered the Secret Service to establish a protection team for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On Monday, Trump announced that Ohio Senator JD Vance would be his running mate.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old would-be assassin who shot Donald Trump, was once shunned by his high school’s gun club and considered a danger.
Kennedy has little chance of winning any Electoral College votes, let alone the presidency, but his campaign rallies have drawn large crowds of supporters and those interested in his message.
His campaign has been urging the president to provide him with Secret Service protection for months, and has sent multiple requests after several incidents.
In October, a man was arrested after breaking into Kennedy’s Los Angeles home twice in one day, and a month earlier, a gunman accused of impersonating a federal officer was detained outside a Kennedy campaign event.
The FBI has taken the lead in investigating the shooting.
Trump flew to Milwaukee on Sunday the 24th after the assassination attempt.
Trump raised his fist several times and appeared to utter the words “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as he walked down the stairs of his plane.
In an interview during the trip, he said the realization that he came so close to being killed was sobering.
“That reality is just now sinking in,” Trump said, according to the Washington Examiner. “I rarely look away from the crowd. If I hadn’t at that moment, well, we wouldn’t be talking today, would we?”
“I want to try to bring our country together,” Trump said during the flight, the New York Post reported. “But I don’t know if that’s possible. People are very divided.”
