Trump expected to plead for national unity in first speech since being shot

With political winds at his back, Donald Trump is today expected to use his first speech since surviving an assassination attempt to appeal for national unity.

- David Smith , Hugo Lovell

Strategists view the Republican national convention address, likely to be watched by tens of millions of Americans on primetime television, as a unique opportunity to redefine the former US president as more palatable to moderate voters.

But critics remain sceptical that a Trump reset can last, citing past supposed "pivots" that were hyped by the media only for the septuagenarian to soon revert to dark, divisive and incendiary outbursts.

"That was a profound existential moment and I'm sure it's impacted him in the short run, but you are who you are," David Axelrod, a former chief strategist for President Barack Obama, said. "He isn't by habit or orientation a unifier. Maybe so long as the race is going well others can persuade him that it's better to be quiet than noisy. But you never know what happens at two in the morning when he's got his phone in his hand and an impulse in his head."

In opinion polls Trump is running 11 percentage points ahead of where he was nationally in the 2020 race for the White House. He is surfing a wave of sympathy and adulation after his right ear was struck by a would-be assassin's bullet at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Two days later, his ear bandaged, Trump received a hero's welcome from cheering, sign-waving supporters at the convention in Milwaukee. Some echoed Trump's initial response to "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Speaker after speaker suggested that Trump's life was spared by God's providence so that he could continue a sacred mission for the nation. But they have toned down early rhetoric that sought to blame Joe Biden and the Democrats for the shooting.