Republicans have formally nominated Donald Trump to be the party's presidential candidate and the former US President picked Ohio Senator JD Vance as his vice presidential pick ahead of the November 5 election.
Donald Trump chose Ohio US Senator JD Vance to be his vice presidential running mate, as the Republican Party officially nominated the former president to run again for the White House at the start of the party's national convention in Milwaukee.
"As Vice President, JD will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The four-day convention opened in downtown Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum, two days after Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, and hours after he secured a major legal victory when a federal judge dismissed one of Trump's criminal prosecutions.
Trump is due to formally accept the party's nomination in a prime-time address on Thursday (July 18) and will challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 election.
Vance, 39, was a fierce Trump critic in 2016 but has since become one of the president's staunchest defenders, embracing his false claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud.
Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, are locked in what opinion polls show to be a tight election rematch. Trump has not committed to accepting the results of the election were he to lose.
Following Saturday's attempt on Trump's life, Biden has tried to bring the temperature down after months of heated political rhetoric.
"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," Biden said in a televised address from the White House on Sunday (July 14).
The shooting immediately altered the dynamics of the presidential campaign, which had been focused on whether Biden should drop out due to concerns about his age and acuity following a halting June 27 debate performance.
Nearly two dozen of Biden's fellow Democrats in Congress have called on him to end his re-election bid and allow the party to pick another standard bearer.
The focus this week will be squarely on Trump.
Having consolidated party control, Trump could seize on the opportunity to deliver a unifying message or paint a dark portrait of a nation under siege by a corrupt leftist elite, as he has done at times on the campaign trail.
