The Republican Party has announced Donald Trump as its nominee for the November election
Donald Trump received a majority of delegate votes at the national convention and announced Ohio Senator James Vance as his vice presidential nominee.
By receiving the votes of enough delegates to clinch the nomination, former President Trump will lead the Republican Party for a third consecutive election.
Trump had been a presumptive nominee for months, but it was a vote by delegates at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee that made him the party’s official nominee Monday afternoon.
In the convention hall, delegates carrying placards reading “Make America Great Again” applauded wildly as state after state voted to support Trump’s second term.
Trump’s campaign managers initially thought this week’s Republican Party convention would have a softer, more upbeat message with themes that would help their leader increase his appeal among moderate voters and ethnic minorities.
On Saturday, however, a shooting occurred that shook the foundations of American politics.
Suddenly, heated arguments among Democrats after the debate and even Trump’s criminal convictions took a back seat to concerns about political violence and stability in the country.
Anger and anxiety swept the party despite calls from many top Republicans for calm and reduced tensions.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran in the Republican Party’s presidential primary, has established himself as one of the most aggressive voices of the party’s right wing, often stating that the country is already at war with itself. So it’s notable that in his remarks at an event hosted by the conservative Heritage Institute at the RNC on Monday, he toned down his rhetoric and called for the country to unite.
“The enemy is not Democrats, it’s ideology,” Ramaswamy told the crowd at a Policy Fest event organized by Heritage.
There are no changes to the congressional program yet
In an interview Sunday, Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley said the congressional program will not be changed after the shooting, and more than 100 speakers are on the agenda, he said.
“We need to be able to lay out a vision of where we want to take this country,” he said.
Whatley said the core message will have little to do with President Biden’s political infighting, Trump’s dissatisfaction with the outcome of the 2020 election or the former president’s promises of revenge against his political enemies.
“We’re going to have the convention that we’ve been planning for the last 18 months”, he said.
In addition to voting to officially nominate Trump, elected delegates from across the country will update the Republican Party’s political platform for the first time since 2016. The proposal for an abbreviated platform – just 16 pages outlining the party’s positions on key issues, including abortion – reflects Trump’s staff’s desire to avoid giving Democrats more information about the Republicans’ plans.
The platform approved by the committee last week does not explicitly call for a national ban on abortion, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and struck down a federally guaranteed right to abortion.
Trump’s record will be recalled by speakers among them several Republicans charged with crimes related to another political violence – the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who is jailed on contempt of Congress charges, is expected to address the convention just hours after his release. He was found guilty in September after refusing to cooperate with Congress in an investigation into the attack on the Capitol.
Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, who faced criminal charges related to his involvement in a scheme to submit fake electors that would have canceled out Biden’s victory over Trump, plans to present the former president with the party’s nomination at the convention. Last month, a judge dismissed a lawsuit against McDonald over the venue dispute.
Trump has repeatedly labeled people involved in efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election, including his many supporters who stormed the Capitol, as political prisoners.
For now, Democrats have scaled back their plans to deliver a competing message during the Republican Party convention.
Biden’s campaign headquarters pulled its campaign ads over the weekend. Vice President Kamala Harris postponed Tuesday’s speech in Florida to focus on Trump’s opposition to abortion rights. And the pro-democracy group American Bridge is postponing a planned Monday release of fake collectible cards designed to highlight the controversial policy positions of Trump and other leading Republicans.
Protests are expected in Milwaukee
The convention, less than four months before Election Day, is being held in Milwaukee, the largest city in a key swing state that Trump lost by less than 1 percentage point four years ago.
Even before the assassination attempt, large protests were expected, although movement will be severely restricted under heightened security measures imposed by the Secret Service.
Still, the risk of a forceful confrontation exists.
Security officials had previously announced that people outside the Secret Service perimeter would be allowed to openly or concealed carry weapons in accordance with state law. Wisconsin law only prohibits machine guns, short-barreled shotguns and silencers.
Vice President Kamala Harris called Sen. J.D. Vance to congratulate him on his selection as an aide to former President Donald Trump, Politico reported.
It added that Harris expressed “hope that the two could meet at the vice presidential debate offered by CBS News.”
Harris and Vance are expected to meet in a debate later this summer. Biden’s campaign has agreed to host the debate on CBS on either July 23 or Aug. 13. Trump’s campaign did not decline the invitation, but instead accepted Fox News’ invitation to the vice presidential debate.
Earlier, Donald Trump officially announced that he has chosen James Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, as his running mate for the upcoming presidential election in November.