Trump forges ahead in bid for the White House

He will cement hold on party, announce running mate at Republican convention

Donald Trump will cement his hold on the Republican Party at its 2024 convention this week, having survived an assassination attempt and navigated numerous legal tangles on the road to the party’s presidential nomination.

During the four-day event beginning on July 15, the former president will announce his choice for a running mate, citing as the front runners, senators J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, all of whom are scheduled to speak at the gathering.

While the event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will be a festive affair to formally choose the party’s presidential nominee, it occurs at a tense moment in US history on the road to the Nov 5 election rematch between Mr Joe Biden, 81, and Trump, 78.

Will party leaders scheduled to speak over the next four days try to cool tempers among Republicans? Or will they use the occasion to accuse Democrats of demonising Trump as a threat to democracy and making him a target for political violence?

Trump told the Washington Examiner: “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.”

Mr Biden, too, in a televised address from the White House on July 14, said: “There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalised.”