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Face and ear bloodied, former President Donald Trump was rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents Saturday after gunfire rang out at his Pennsylvania campaign rally.
Trump raised his fist to the crowd as he left, a lasting image from the first attempted assassination of a U.S. president in more than 40 years.
As more details emerge about the attack, which left two dead, including the 20-year-old suspected shooter, leaders like President Joe Biden have urged Americans to “cool it down.” The rally was one of Trump’s last stops before the Republican National Convention in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin.
Across the four-day event, the GOP will adopt a party platform and officially nominate Trump to the top of the ticket — the third time he’s gotten the nod. But the shooting has shifted some plans. An additional security perimeter has been added. And the latest reporting suggests Trump will now speak on Monday, three days earlier than planned.
Here’s what to expect from the convention and fallout from the shooting.
How we’re covering the Republican National Convention
Watch the opening day of the RNC in the player above.
The Republican National Convention will kick off Monday, July 15 in Milwaukee and last through Thursday, July 18.
Each day of the convention, PBS News will have special coverage gavel to gavel, with a continuous stream from the main floor. You can find those streams here daily.
Each evening, the News Hour broadcast will begin at 6 p.m. EDT from the anchor desk in Milwaukee.
Starting at 8, anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett will host on-air special analysis with a group of panelists and special guests, including:
- Judy Woodruff, News Hour special correspondent and former anchor and managing editor
- Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter
- David Brooks, New York Times columnist
- Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post associate editor
Correspondent Lisa Desjardins will report from the convention floor, talking to delegates and elected officials.
When special coverage ends each night around 11 p.m. EDT, digital video producer Deema Zein will host a live chat with Desjardins on major takeaways.
Check your local listings to find the PBS station near you, or watch online here.
You can also follow the PBS News’ coverage on YouTube, X, Facebook and TikTok, and see highlights on our Instagram.
What to expect
Trump secured the more than 90 percent of delegates needed to clinch the Republican presidential nomination in March. Trump’s position as the GOP standard-bearer hasn’t significantly wavered, even as he was convicted on 34 felony charges in the historic hush money trial. The convention is largely seen as a formality for his seat atop the ticket.
The festivities are expected to feature speeches from Republican leaders, internet-famous conservatives, some of Trump’s most ardent supporters, as well as some past rivals.
The vice presidential running mate is expected to give an acceptance speech during the convention — an official end to Trump’s veepstakes.
Tradition says the convention will culminate with an acceptance speech from Trump, though as we reported, details about when and where he appears are changing. What Trump says will set the tone for the tens of thousands who attend, correspondent Lisa Desjardins said, and “for the rest of this election cycle, if not years beyond that.”
The host with the most. Milwaukee is Wisconsin’s largest city, and the Badger state is one of several battleground states that will decide the outcome of November’s election. Trump’s opponent, Democrat Joe Biden, won the state in 2020 by a razor-thin margin.
Milwaukee, a stronghold for Democrats, was previously on deck to host the Democratic National Convention in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the event to be largely virtual. The 2024 DNC will be held in Chicago next month.
What is the theme this year? The Trump campaign announced daily themes for the RNC:
- Day 1: Make America Wealthy Once Again
- Day 2: Make America Safe Once Again
- Day 3: Make America Strong Once Again
- Day 4: Make America Great Once Again
One overarching, if unofficial, theme: “unity.” Expect to hear this word a lot.
After the shooting, Trump called for unity in a post on his social media network, writing that “it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”
Fellow Republicans have rallied behind the message, as have Democrats, for the time being.
The attempted assassination of Trump is the latest incident in what’s been a steady increase in political violence and threats against public officials over the past decade, including from Trump himself.
Rhetoric “that positions us versus them” has been increasing along polarized lines, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, director of American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research, told PBS News Weekend’s Ali Rogin.
“We are back in an era in which political assassinations are becoming a tactic again in which people seek a solution to what they think are their political problems,” she said. “That is part of the rising violence that we’re seeing across the board politically.”
Watch Biden’s speech in the player above.
In Biden’s televised address from the Oval Office on Sunday, the president called on Americans to “cool it down.” He stressed that the country should “resolve our differences at the ballot box” and not with bullets.
Who’s speaking? RNC organizers released a full list of speakers — a mix of family, GOP officials and some of Trump’s past competitors.
This includes Trump’s two oldest sons, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and Trent Conaway, the mayor of East Palestine, Ohio, who has been frustrated by Biden’s handling of the response to the 2023 derailment that spewed tons of hazardous chemicals into the environment. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, who were once Trump’s rivals for the nomination, will also speak.
A last-minute addition. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wasn’t originally invited to speak at the convention. But following the assassination attempt, she will now be included in the program.
Notably absent? Former first lady Melania Trump. Though she’s spoken at the last two RNCs, the schedule suggests that she’ll make an appearance, but not deliver remarks.
What’s in the party’s platform?
Conventions are a time for the party to finesse its platform. And this year, at Trump’s urging, the Republican Party’s policy platform is shorter.
The platforms of yesteryear, which lay out the party’s main principles and positions on a variety of issues, were often dozens of pages long. The 2016 platform, which was adopted again in 2020, was more than 60 pages. The 2024 document is clocking in at 16 pages long.
This was by design. The goal for the Republican Party’s national platform committee, which is filled with Trump supporters, was a streamlined platform that spent less time on policy specifics and more bullet points that amounted to a Trump rally speech. It further leans into his “America First” sloganeering.
The official “2024 GOP Platform to Make America Great Again!” lays out 20 promises — in all caps — should Trump regain the Oval Office. These include calls to “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion,” echoing racist rhetoric Trump has routinely used in stump speeches and rallies. There are also promises to end inflation and “prevent world war three.” On the latter, Trump has been using the Biden administration’s responses to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as a campaign talking point.
One major change: a shift on abortion. While the party’s platform previously called for a national ban on abortion, there’s a marked change in the 2024 document. No longer is there language that supports federal restrictions on abortion. Instead, the document more closely aligns with Trump’s recently stated stance on the issue: States ought to decide which restrictions to enact.
Tucked into page 15, the document also says the party opposes “Late Term Abortion” and supports “access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).”
One reminder: The document is non-binding, and RNC members will vote to officially confirm the platform during the convention.
A time-honored tradition
Red, white, blue and gold balloons are assembled into loose rows above the main floor of the 2024 Republican National Convention. Photo by Timothy McPhillips/PBS News
The beloved balloon drop will return this election year, after the pandemic popped the tradition for the 2020 conventions.
Treb Heining, a balloon artist who’s done the heavily orchestrated spectacle for nearly every RNC since 1988, is spearheading the effort to give the Milwaukee convention one lasting, colorful image. More than 100,000 balloons will cascade from the ceiling of the Fiserv Forum to end the four nights of pomp and circ*mstance.
A final thought
Watch the segment in the player above.
Judy Woodruff, then an NBC White House correspondent, was on the scene more than 40 years ago when a gunman attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.
Much has changed since then. In the last two years, through her “America At a Crossroads” reporting project, Woodruff has traveled to 23 states talking to Americans about what divides us. She’s found different explanations for why the country is so fractured, some of them rooted in history and others in ideology. She said one young delegate from Alabama suggested it will take “a change of generations.”
“It’s going to take work, it’s going to take dedication. We’re not there yet,” Woodruff said.
