Trump to rally unified Republicans in convention finale
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Donald Trump is set to walk into a hero’s welcome on the final day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. PHOTO: REUTERS
Donald
Trump will get a hero's welcome Thursday as he accepts the Republican Party's
nomination to run for US president in a speech capping a convention dominated
by the recent attempt on his life.
The
78-year-old will address the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin hoping to build momentum toward victory in the November election and
a second term in the White House.
Supporters
have been lining up all week to applaud the former president for his bravery
since Saturday's assassination bid by a lone gunman at a rally in Pennsylvania.
As
some of his loyalists blamed Democrats' rhetoric for the attack, Trump said he
had torn up a more aggressive version of his keynote address in favour of one
to "unite our country."
"I'm
just grateful we're going to hear from him. It's a miracle that his life was
spared, and I really believe it was God's hand," Teena Horlacher, a
50-year-old convention delegate from Utah, told AFP.
"I'd
love for him to talk about Saturday, what his feelings were."
Trump
has seen his poll lead expand since President Joe Biden's dismal TV debate
performance last month threw the Democratic Party into chaos.
The
Republican campaign has even been talking up Trump's chances in Democratic
strongholds like Minnesota and Virginia, potentially forcing Biden funds and
manpower away from defending his "blue wall" in Michigan,
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Trump's
keynote address on Thursday evening will be followed on television and
online by millions, closing the convention by promising what his team calls as
"a new golden age for America."
It
brings down the curtain on four days of speeches from elected officials,
entertainers, industry figures and everyday Americans who mixed with some
50,000 Republicans attending the event.
The
gathering opened Monday with a vote to confirm Trump as the party's nominee
after he won almost every state's primary contest.
It
has been the first convention over which Trump has had total control, after a
2016 edition hampered by party divisions and a second appearance in 2020 reined
in by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The
schedule was designed around his image, with themes for each day playing on his
"Make America Great Again" rallying cry.
The
former president set the tone when he walked slowly into the Fiserv Forum arena
on the opening day -- looking emotional and with a bandaged ear, just two days
after the shooting.
The
week also saw Trump name right-wing Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate.
The
39-year-old author of "Hillbilly Elegy," a best-selling memoir about
growing up poor in working-class, rural America, is a one-time critic who has
become one of Trump's most staunch backers.
Trump
himself was a diminished figure after his 2020 election loss and a subsequent
riot at the Capitol in Washington by his supporters, but he has spent much of
the last four years reshaping Republican politics.
Installing
close allies, including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump on the Republican
National Committee, the mercurial tycoon has effectively crushed dissent within
the party.
Trump
is increasingly confident of winning the election -- despite multiple legal
problems and two impeachments clouding his first term -- as Biden is reeling
from weak polls and concerns over his health.
At
81, Biden has been facing growing calls from his own side to quit the race, and
he suffered another blow Wednesday when he was diagnosed with Covid-19.
"There's
a clearly stark contrast between the strength of President Trump and the
weakness of President Biden," Mississippi delegate Clifton Carroll told
AFP.
"And
I think he'll expand on that, and really send a message that the entire United
States of America can get behind whether they're Republican, Democrat or
Independent."
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