Milwaukee, 16 July

Former US president Donald Trump, wearing a bandage partially covering his right ear, made his first public appearance at the Republican National Convention here since surviving an assassination attempt.

Trump, 78, on Monday, entered the hall to roaring applause and holding his fist aloft towards the end of the first day of the four-day convention.

He escaped an assassination bid over the weekend while attending a public rally in Philadelphia. Thousands of Republican delegates, supporters and members of the Republican party chanted “fight” as he entered the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

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 as Trump waved to supporters and joined family members and new running mate JD Vance in their seats. Trump wore a subdued look as the room around him erupted and chants of "USA" rang out.

On Monday, delegates from across the country elected him as the Republican presidential nominee for the November 5 general election against incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden. However, Trump would deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday.

The delegation from Florida put him over the top, with Eric 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.

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

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 1 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.