Donald Trump will address millions on Thursday in a rare opportunity to redefine the race on his terms after surviving an assassination attempt, winning repeated favorable rulings in criminal proceedings against him, and dominating polls against an opponent who was diagnosed with covid and is facing mounting pressure to step aside.
The speech will cap a week-long showcase of his fully transformed and consolidated Republican Party, culminating a stunning comeback for a former president who left the White House a twice-impeached pariah who tried to overturn his election defeat and was widely blamed for weighing down his party during the disappointing 2022 midterms.
His remarks will also test organizers’ efforts to de-emphasize themes such as defending his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; Trump’s role in reversing Roe vs. Wade; his criminal felony convictions in New York; and the repeated false claims of election fraud that have dominated Trump’s stump speeches but have remained scarce in Milwaukee this week.
The former president’s entire family — including his wife, Melania Trump, and daughter Ivanka Trump, who have been absent this week from the convention — are expected to attend the evening’s speech.
Trump’s speech originally was written by aides including campaign policy adviser Vince Haley and former White House adviser Stephen Miller, and he was slated to plan several practice runs before taking the stage. But Trump decided to overhaul much of the draft after Saturday’s assassination attempt, according to advisers who asked for anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
Trump has suggested he wants to strike a more unifying tone after the shooting. But on social media this week he at times resumed the same combative posture that has marked his nine years in national politics, including juxtaposing an image of his raised first after the shooting with photos of President Biden tripping on stairs.
Democrats were also quick to move past their détente in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt. The Biden campaign resumed airing attack ads, running mobile billboards around Milwaukee and holding daily news conferences responding to messaging at the Republican National Convention.
The GOP speeches showed little sign of much revision or reconsideration since Saturday. Several included passing references to the shooting but otherwise stuck to lambasting the Biden administration’s handling of the border, crime and foreign affairs.
“I’ve started to tinker,” former German ambassador Ric Grenell told reporters ahead of his address on Wednesday. “But it will just be a little.”
Trump told ABC News that the bandage he has been wearing on his injured ear would be ready to be left off by Thursday night’s speech. The bandage inspired some delegates in the arena to wear paper over their left ears in a show of solidarity.
Trump prepared for his speech on Wednesday afternoon, leaving his room to appear at a movie premiere with Maryland Republican National Committee member David Bossie. In his first public remarks since the shooting, Trump described it in vivid detail, according to an attendee.
Otherwise, Trump has spent the week staying in his hotel suite, meeting with some donors, former British premier Boris Johnson and supporters, and attending parts of each evening’s programming. His expression as he entered the arena on Monday showed visible sensitivity to the crowd’s ovation, in contrast to his typical trademark scowl or grin.
“I’m not supposed to be here,” he told the New York Post in reaction to the shooting.
Advisers said Trump has been pleased with the week’s speeches, particularly praise from former rivals such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. Trump decided to invite Haley last weekend after initially planning to exclude her.
The prime-time programming emphasized spotlighting “everyday Americans” with personal experiences to illustrate the nightly themes, coming at the expense of speaking slots for elected officials and party leaders. The speeches were consistent to the point of becoming repetitive, with no memorable performances that energized the audiences or elevated rising stars the way that Democrat Barack Obama did in 2004 or Republican Sarah Palin did in 2008.
That may have been as much by design as accident, keeping Trump as the singular focus of the speakers’ and the delegates’ adulation and building suspense for his grand finale.
The convention also served to showcase Trump’s transformation of the party, in policy and personality. His campaign rewrote the platform to shift from free trade to tariffs and from supporting a constitutional amendment banning abortion to letting states set their own rules, including total abortion bans. The nightly show has included a supercut of Trump dancing to “YMCA” and a hip-hop parody track titled “Trump Trump Baby.”
Other speakers on Thursday night will include Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul who has been friends with Trump for decades. His son, Zach Witkoff, who was married at Trump’s club, is also expected to attend.
Franklin Graham, the influential conservative evangelical leader, will also give remarks before Trump takes the stage. The Trump campaign originally thought of having a range of other celebrities on Thursday night.