Bandaged Trump gets rapturous welcome at Republican convention on his first appearance

MILWAUKEE: Donald Trump, wearing a white bandage partially covering his injured right ear, stole the show when he made his first public appearance on the opening night of the Republican National Convention here, days after surviving an assassination attempt.

Trump on Monday entered the convention hall to roaring applause from thousands of delegates and holding his fist aloft towards the end of the first day of the four-day convention being held at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, a city in the US state of Wisconsin.

The former president entered the convention arena here with a fist raised and to the strains of a live performance of “God Bless the USA”.

He then slowly walked through cheering delegates who pumped their fists and called out “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

He then greeted key political allies and members of his family, including three of his children, but not his wife Melania.

The former US president escaped an assassination bid when a bullet grazed his ear at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Supporters on the convention floor and standing in the stadium sang along to a live rendition of "God Bless the USA" with singer Lee Greenwood. Trump was accompanied by his newly-announced running mate Senator JD Vance.

Trump, 78, wore a subdued look as the room around him erupted and chants of "USA" rang out.

On Monday, delegates from across the country nominated him as the Republican presidential nominee for the November 5 general election against incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden. It was the third consecutive time that Trump has received the Republican Party's nomination.

Trump will deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday.

The delegation from Florida put him over the top, with Eric Trump, the second son of Trump, awarding the state’s delegates to his father.

Several lawmakers and other officials spoke, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Senator Tim Scott, and Representative Byron Donalds.

The Democratic party would formally nominate Biden as its candidate at its convention in Chicago in August.

Earlier in the day, Trump announced that Senator Vance, 39, would be his running mate. He was welcomed by the crowd with a thunderous applause.

The choice reflects Trump’s belief that Vance is an effective communicator who can sell Trump’s populist agenda — particularly to working-class voters in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where presidential elections can be decided by thousands of votes.

“He is consistent with Trump’s appeal to working men and women,” Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said of Vance.

“Also, someone who shares his desire to expand the base of the Republican Party,” DeWine was quoted as saying by CNN.

Trump survived an attempt on his life on Saturday when a young shooter fired multiple shots at him at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, injuring his right ear. The shooting left one person attending the rally dead and two others in serious condition.

The shooting, which left one spectator dead and two others critically injured, is being investigated as an attempted assassination. The 20-year-old suspected shooter was also shot and killed by a member of the Secret Service.

The large white bandage covered much of his right ear.

During a radio interview earlier Monday, former White House physician Ronny Jackson said the bullet that grazed Trump took part of the top of his ear off.

“It just took the top of his ear off, a little bit of the top of his ear off, as it passed through,” he was quoted as saying by CNN.

“It was bleeding like crazy.”

Jackson said that Trump’s injury is “dressed up. He’ll be okay... it’s going to granulate and heal in, and he’s not going to need anything to be done with it.”

ignoring the 2020 conventions, which were scrambled by Covid, Trump is the only nominee going back to at least 2000 who has appeared in person at his convention this early.

In 2016, he took the stage briefly on Night one after a WWE-style entrance, while Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton didn’t appear in person until Night 3 of the Democratic convention when she appeared onstage alongside President Barack Obama after his speech.