On a night Republicans projected bravado around their 2024 presidential ticket, Donald Trump started his prime-time address by displaying a rare vulnerability.
In his speech capping off the Republican National Convention as he accepted the party’s nomination for a third consecutive election, Trump recounted Thursday night his attempted assassination five days earlier at a Pennsylvania rally.
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” he told the crowd at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
After the crowd chanted back, “Yes, you are,” Trump shook his head.
“Thank you,” he said. “But I’m not.”
Then it was back to the usual Trump.
Often, he went off script to attack his political enemies, laud the dismissal of one of his indictments and tick through crowd favorites in the longest nomination acceptance speech in modern American history.
He bragged about the economy and lack of new foreign entanglements during his presidency, and he lambasted President Joe Biden’s administration for its handling of border security, energy, foreign policy and more.