The Washington Post: Donald Trump, urging unity after shooting, arrives in Milwaukee for GOP convention

Donald Trump, who was injured in what authorities are calling an assassination attempt Saturday, touched down in Milwaukee Sunday evening after calling for Americans to unite as his party prepared to officially nominate him this week at the Republican National Convention.

“Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” Mr Trump posted Sunday on his social media site Truth Social.

Mr Trump landed in Milwaukee Sunday shortly before President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office, who urged Americans to settle their differences at the ballot box.

“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy,” Mr Biden said. “It’s part of human nature. But politics must never be a literal battlefield - God forbid a killing field. I believe politics ought to be an arena for peaceful debate.”

Mr Trump has not made any public remarks since the Secret Service rushed him offstage shortly after shots were fired at his rally in Butler, Pa., around 6.12 pm on Saturday, local time. But on social media Sunday, he said he looked forward to addressing the country from Wisconsin. His most recent social media posts echo statements from campaign officials that the Republican National Convention, slated to begin Monday, will go on as planned.

Mr Trump’s plane arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey early Sunday after the shooting, according to flight records. In Bedminster, New Jeresey, police guarded the entrance to his golf club and residence, prohibiting any vehicle from idling anywhere near the gate. The officers directed press to the parking lot of a library nearly six and a half kilometres from the entrance of Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

A driver in a red convertible with its top down and a pair of American flags perched on top of it cruised by and honked at the scattering of media.

The FBI is investigating the Saturday evening shooting at Mr Trump’s campaign rally as an assassination attempt and have identified the suspected gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Mr Trump said he was struck in his right ear, and officials said one attendee was killed and two others were critically injured.

Mr Trump’s campaign increased security Saturday night, and political leaders urged one another to dial back heated political rhetoric. Top Trump advisers told staffers to stay away from the campaign’s offices in Washington and West Palm Beach on Sunday as security at those locations was assessed.

“We are enhancing the armed security presence with 24/7 officers on-site. Additional security assessments will be in place,” Trump campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a joint memo obtained by The Washington Post and first reported by Politico.

“We also urge you to recognise the political polarisation in this heated election,” they added. “If something looks or feels off, please flag it immediately for leadership or an on-site security team.”

Mr LaCivita and Ms Wiles also advised staffers not to comment publicly on the shooting and said the Republican convention would “continue as planned.”

In Bedminster, Trump loyalists spent the day at a busy intersection about four miles from the former president’s golf club and residence. They waved Trump 2024 flags as drivers blared their horns and as a DJ in the group blasted country tunes and songs with MAGA messaging.

Miguel Magera, 58, who owns a small business that does home improvement work, said he had planned to go on a ride on Sunday but the day after the Trump rally shooting, he answered a call from an organizer of Trump devotees in the area to meet at the spot they frequent.

Mr Magera said he switched his plans to come to the rally partly because of the shooting and its impact on him. Mr Magera said he was watching tennis on TV when he flipped to a news program and saw the shocking news, leaving him “devastated.”

Terry Beck, 60, organiser of the event, was sitting on a beach towel on the wide lawn behind a public library on Sunday afternoon as Mr Trump prepared to leave the area for the RNC in Milwaukee. Nearly drowned out by the horns and shouting, she recalled running errands and had finished chores at home when she sat down for a break. “All of a sudden my phone is ringing, ringing, ringing. 87 messages, 55 texts. All of a sudden it was going and going,” Ms Beck said.

Authorities said they cannot yet speak to the shooter’s motive. As they raced to learn more, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said that Congress would investigate any potential lapses in security that allowed the attack.

“In the meantime, we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down,” Mr Johnson urged on NBC’s Today show on what he called a “surreal” morning. Like other Republicans, Mr Johnson noted President Biden’s recent call to put Mr Trump in a “bull’s eye” - saying he knows that Mr Biden “didn’t mean what is being implied there” but also believes “that kind of language on either side should be called out.”

“So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bull’s eye,” Mr Biden had told donors.

Leaders across the political spectrum, including Mr Biden, condemned the rally shooting. Mr Biden’s campaign rushed to take down its television ads afterwards.

Mr Trump’s defiant response to the shooting - he pumped his fist and shouted “fight!” before being rushed offstage - triggered deep emotions in his supporters. “I look at him, and I feel proud,” said Patty Harnish, a 58-year-old Dollar General sales associate in Butler, where the rally took place.

She held up the morning paper. There was Trump on the front page, blood streaking his face, fist raised in the air.

“He’s like: Screw you,” she said as customers trickled into the store Sunday a few miles from where bullets flew at the former president. “I can’t be stopped. I still have another ear.”

She’d been surprised by the heft of her emotions, she said, after feeling so disconnected from politicians for decades. She hasn’t cast a vote in 28 years since backing Bill Clinton, she said, and now, “It’s Trump.”

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