Donald Trump Said He Will Speak of National Unity at the Convention in the Wake of Assassination Attempt

As the Republican National Convention kicks off on Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, things are looking very different than they did last week. Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Will it impact Trump’s Vice President selection at the RNC, or is the decision already made? How will a man’s attempt to murder a presidential candidate impact the polls, especially in swing states?

A sniper’s bullet has already had an effect on Trump’s speech on the last day of the convention. He told the Washington Examiner that his speech has changed. An excerpt:

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he said, “Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches” aimed mostly at the policies of President Joe Biden. “Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”
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He has switched, he said, from planning to excite his voter base to one that demonstrates his belief that the attack on him at a rally in Pennsylvania had changed the election campaign entirely.

Trump said he’d speak of unity after the attempt on his life.

During the rally in Pennsylvania, Trump turned from the crowd to look at a chart that contained data about the porous southern border. He credits this move with saving his life. But why did he stand up after he was shot? From the Washington Examiner:

Trump said when he stood up and saw the crowd had not moved, he needed to tell them that he and the country were going to be OK. “The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK.”

“Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness.”

No matter how united anyone wants to be at this moment, it won’t last. It won’t even last the week. Politics is a dirty and contentious business, and Democrats’ desperation will prove stronger than any “unity.”