Former President Trump accepts third Republican nomination in a row at Milwaukee GOP convention

Just five days after surviving an assassin’s bullet that grazed his ear, former President Donald J. Trump called for national unity as he accepted the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” Trump said as he spoke to thousands of Republican delegates and party officials who attended Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum while also speaking to a national audience of Americans who were viewing the convention from home.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” Trump said.

Trump’s Thursday night acceptance marks his third straight GOP presidential nomination as he promised to unite a divided nation enduring high crime, an influx of illegal immigration, and rising inflation. 

The former president spoke while wearing a bandage on his ear, an injury he suffered as a result of an assassins’ bullet that nearly killed him five days earlier during a Saturday evening rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The shot was fired by Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year old area resident who is currently the subject of an ongoing federal investigation being conducted by the FBI.

Trump said his close call with death was “too painful to tell,” and said he would only discuss the matter the night of the nomination, but not afterward.

“I’m not supposed to be here,” he said. “… I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of God … “I felt very safe because I had God on my side.”

He then addressed the division in the country.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” he said to his audience in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” he said.

The former president also thanked the U.S. Secret Service and praised the agents who protected him from a rain of bullets and commended the “beautiful crowd” who did not panic and run. 

Trump also kissed a display of the helmet and jacket of New York Fire Chief Corey Compartore, who died protecting his wife and daughter from bullets, purportedly fired by Crooks during the rally. 

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for another,” he said, quoting a famous phrase from the Christian Gospel. 

The former president also made an appeal to his opponents and the nation.

“This election should be about the issues facing our country and how to make America successful, safe, free and great again,” he insisted. “In an age when our politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens – we are one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." 

He made an overture to all Americans, explaining that our differences should not divide us.

“To every citizen, whether you are young or old, man or woman, Democrat, Republican, or Independent, black or white, Asian or Hispanic, I extend to you a hand of loyalty and friendship,” he said.

The former president also took time to thank his wife, former first lady Melania Trump. 

“On this journey, I am deeply honored to be joined by my amazing wife, Melania,” Trump told the crowd in Milwaukee during an emotional speech.

He then referred to her letter to America, in which she called for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt against her husband.

“I am thinking of you, now, my fellow Americans,” she wrote. “Dawn is here again. Let us reunite. Now.”