MILWAUKEE: Donald Trump chose Ohio US Senator J.D. Vance on Monday to be his vice presidential running mate, as the Republican Party officially nominated the former president to run again for the White House at the start of the party’s national convention in Milwaukee.
“As Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The four-day convention opened in downtown Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum two days after Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, and hours after he secured a major legal victory when a federal judge dismissed one of Trump’s criminal prosecutions.
Trump is due to formally accept the party’s nomination in a prime-time address on Thursday and will challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Vance, 39, was a fierce Trump critic in 2016 but has since become one of the president’s staunchest defenders, embracing his false claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud.
Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, are locked in what opinion polls show to be a tight election rematch. Trump has not committed to accepting the results of the election were he to lose.
In the wake of the assassination attempt, Trump said he is revising his acceptance speech to emphasize national unity, rather than highlight his differences with Biden.
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner. The would-be assassin’s bullet clipped Trump’s right ear but did no major harm.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision on Monday to throw out federal charges against Trump for retaining classified documents after leaving the White House was the latest in a string of legal wins for the former president, who is due to be sentenced in New York in September for trying to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before his 2016 election victory.