It’s the fourth and final day of the Republican National Convention, and GOP lawmakers, delegates and other officials will wrap up a week of proceedings that saw former President Donald Trump formally nominated as the Republican presidential nominee.
Trump’s running mate also became official this week with the nomination of Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, who headlined Wednesday night’s list of speakers.
Also on stage Wednesday was Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former president; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida.
Trump has made an appearance each night of the convention, seen with a bandage over his right ear where he was injured in an assassination attempt at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the weekend.
Follow along for live updates from the USA TODAY Network:
RNC Speakers Day 4: Trump, Hulk Hogan to speak
Donald Trump will take the RNC stage Thursday night, along with a cadre of celebrities, his former administration officials and everyday Americans. Here’s a look at the big names to watch out for:
- Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State under Trump
- Eric Trump
- Tucker Carlson, founder of Tucker Carlson Network
- Hulk Hogan, professional entertainer and wrestler
- Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship
- Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
— Karissa Waddick
Day 4 lineup:Who is speaking at RNC Day 4? Donald Trump takes the stage with these celebrity guests
Biden campaign: Vance’s speech too ‘boring’ to respond to
Biden-Harris 2024 Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks said he had planned to lead off a Thursday morning news conference by talking about Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance’s Wednesday night speech. But he said it was so “boring,” there was not much to say.
“He might not have inspired a single American to vote for him,” Fulks said. “But he did provide a picture-perfect contrast between himself. He is a spineless backbencher desperate for Trump’s approval. And our own Vice President Kamala Harris is a powerful leader and a terrific partner to President Biden.”
Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio, took the podium at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Wednesday night to officially accept his place on the ballot.
— Brianne Pfannenstiel
Biden ‘will be the Democratic nominee,’ deputy campaign manager says in Milwaukee
The morning after news outlets reported that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately told President Joe Biden that he cannot defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump and is dragging down the rest of the Democratic ticket, Biden-Harris 2024 Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks said the president is not wavering on whether to drop out of the race.
“Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee,” he said.
Pressed further by reporters, Fulks reiterated that Biden’s decision to stay in the race is firm.
“I talk to the president every day, like I said. He is not wavering on anything,” Fulks said. “The president has made his decision. I don’t want to be rude, but I do not know how many more times we can answer that. Joe Biden has said he is running for President of the United States. Our campaign is moving forward with drawing a vision of contrast between that of Project 2025 and what we have seen for the past three days here in Milwaukee.”
— Brianne Pfannentiel
Joe Biden ‘feeling fine’ after testing positive for COVID, continuing to work
Biden-Harris 2024 Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks said during a news conference in Milwaukee Wednesday morning that President Joe Biden is “feeling fine” as he continues to self-isolate in Delaware after testing positive for COVID-19.
“The President’s feeling fine,” Fulks said. “He is self-isolating in Delaware. He’s continuing to make calls and do work. He has some official meetings today, a lot of campaign calls that he’s getting through, I think, some zoom calls that he’s hopping on, potentially.”
Biden tested positive Wednesday after an event in Las Vegas.
“I know President Biden well,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who is also serving on the Biden-Harris national advisory board. “He’s not skipping to beat. He had to isolate a little bit because of COVID. And that shouldn’t surprise anybody. … COVID numbers are up. It’s part of our new reality.”
— Brianne Pfannenstiel
‘The ghost of Cornpop’: Who was Donald Trump Jr. referring to?
Donald Trump Jr. questioned who is really running the country during his RNC speech Wednesday, alluding to concerns about President Joe Biden’s age and mental acuity after his poor debate performance last month.
“Is it Jill? Is it Hunter? Barack Obama?,” Trump Jr. asked. “Maybe it’s the ghost of Cornpop,”
Who is Cornpop? The reference refers to a story Biden tells about an encounter he had with a Delaware gang member named William Morris, whose nickname was Cornpop, while working as a swimming pool security guard one summer.
— Karissa Waddick
Why won’t George W. Bush talk publicly about Donald Trump? It’s simple.
Many Republican convention delegates like to salute the heritage of their party, but few of them these days talk about the next-to-last GOP president, George W. Bush.
And that suits Bush just fine.
For while Bush still keeps up with politics – including the resurgence of Republican successor and fervent critic Donald Trump – he doesn’t like to talk about it publicly.
In paid private speeches, the long-retired 43rd president has been known to joke that both Trump and President Joe Biden are too old for the demands of the office.
Read more on the Bush political dynasty and the current Republican Party.
— David Jackson
Donald Trump’s face dominates merch at 2024 Republican convention
What does Trump 2024 smell like?
Apples, vanilla, with a slight note of cinnamon.
At least that’s what the Trump 2024: Make American Great candle would have you believe – for sale this week at a merchandise table at the Republican National Convention.
The Republican Party faithful have snapped up snarky T-shirts, MAGA hats and elephant pins at the political event that has taken over downtown Milwaukee.
While staid official merchandise in simple reds, whites and blues are for sale, many are flocking to the sideline booths to pick up lapel pins dripping with rhinestones and new T-shirts, hot off the presses, featuring a bloodied Donald Trump photographed after Saturday’s assassination attempt.
Read more on all the merchandise for sale at the RNC.
— Melissa Brown
‘Actual poetic genius?’Donald Trump’s social media posts sold as poetry at GOP convention
GOP makes its case to Latino voters at convention, sets sights past 2024 election
Latino voters in the United States are crucial to cementing a conservative voting majority for the next generation, according to Latino Republican and conservative operatives at the Republican National Convention.
With the Nov. 5 general election more than 100 days away, they’re detailing plans for aggressive engagement efforts beyond traditional conservative circles such as South Florida, home to historically Republican-leaning Latino voters whose origins trace to socialist-led countries in Latin America.
Operatives say they will focus their resources on 21 battleground counties around the U.S. with significant Latino voter populations.
Those include two of the fastest growing areas in the country: Arizona’s Maricopa County, which encompasses the Phoenix metro area and is home to most of the state’s voters, and Nevada’s Clark County, home to sprawling Las Vegas.
Read more on the GOP’s outreach efforts.
— Rafael Carranza
Melania Trump expected to be in family box Thursday night
There’s a mystery guest for Donald Trump’s acceptance speech: Former first lady Melania Trump.
The low-profile spouse is expected to be in the family box for her husband’s remarks, officials said, but they would not otherwise comment on her activities.
She has no public schedule.
Melania Trump has rarely be seen in public during her husband’s 2024 campaign; she did issue a lengthy written statement after Saturday’s assassination attempt.
“A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion – his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” she wrote.
— David Jackson
RNC guests:Melania Trump not seen at RNC through first three days, will she appear Thursday?
JD Vance introduces himself as father, author — and MAGA convert
JD Vance, introducing himself to the American people for the first time Wednesday night, wanted to make this much clear: He’s not a pol.
He is the survivor of a childhood marked by violence and his mother’s drug addiction. He is a Marine veteran, a husband and father, an entrepreneur, an author whose Hillbilly Elegy told the story of the decline of his grandparents’ Appalachia with such pathos that it became a national bestseller and a Netflix movie.
Pol or not, though, James David Vance has scored one of the fastest rises in modern American politics of anyone not named Trump.
Read more on how JD Vance used his speech to introduce himself to a national audience.
— Susan Page
Watch:JD Vance’s full speech at 2024 Republican National Convention
Trump will still be bandaged tonight
Former President Donald Trump will have that big bandage on his ear tonight as he delivers his speech formally accepting the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, according to daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
Lara Trump, who is a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, also told CBS News’ morning show that her father is not on medication.
Trump’s ear bandage has become an icon at the Republican convention. Some delegates have bandaged their own ears in solidarity.
— David Jackson
Will assassination attempt change the way people view Trump?
Convicted but never imprisoned, Donald Trump and his reputation have nonetheless been locked in place in the minds of many Americans after eight fractious years of turmoil, impeachments, insurrection and criminal charges.
The attempt on his life may give him the best chance at breaking free, offering a kind of political parole from voters sympathetic to the bandage on his bullet-grazed ear, and possibly a second look from those who normally oppose him, all while elevating his reputation with true believers to near martyr status.
For three days here at the Republican National Convention, Trump’s family, surrogates and supporters have said the shooting changed the 78-year-old former president, giving him a new outlook; that he tore up an aggressive speech aimed at dismantling his opponent’s administration in favor of one aimed at national unity.
Trump’s remarks Thursday night will be the first time Americans will have a chance to hear if his change of tone has stuck.
Read more on whether views of the former president are changing.
— Zac Anderson and Sarah D. Wire
The 2024 RNC ends Thursday:See the full schedule, how to watch and livestream
JD Vance met with fanfare
Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance was met with fanfare Wednesday in his debut as the heir apparent to the Republican Party under its new MAGA banner.
The 39-year-old Ohio senator was selected to be Donald Trump’s running mate earlier this week in a process that was more like his boss’s old reality TV show, “The Apprentice.”
Allies advertise their newly minted vice presidential pick as the millennial messenger to a conservative cause that is looking to expand its electoral map as it beams with confidence in the last leg of the 2024 presidential election.
Trump is the “last, best hope to restore” the country, he said, before listing a series of issues at stake this year.
Read our Day 3 takeaways from the Republican National Convention.
— Phillip M. Bailey
Never-Trump Republican launches Anti-Psychopath PAC
George Conway, a prominent anti-Trump Republican, launched a new political action committee called the Anti-Psychopath PAC on Thursday to portray Donald Trump as a danger to democracy and mentally unfit for a second term.
The PAC is running 10 billboards around the RNC in Milwaukee that read: “Thanks for nominating a CONVICTED FELON,” and a billboard truck that says “Thanks for nominating a PSYCHO.” Trump was convicted in May on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money trial.
Conway, who also founded the Lincoln Project, told USA TODAY that he isn’t worried about being accused by the Trump campaign of targeting incendiary political rhetoric at the former president after the assassination attempt against him.
“We expect Trump and his allies to accuse us of anything they can think of,” Conway said in a statement. “We condemn violence in all its forms. But we won’t back away from calling out the danger that a second Trump term poses to America. Facts are facts.”
— Karissa Waddick
Who is Trump’s VP pick JD Vance?
JD Vance, 39, is a first-term senator from Ohio, who skyrocketed to fame after publishing his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Vance was first elected to the Senate in 2022 with no prior political experience, but he had widespread name recognition in light of his bestselling book. “Hillbilly Elegy,” later turned into a Netflix feature film, detailed Vance’s journey from a childhood riddled with abuse to a Yale Law School degree that opened doors for him in Silicon Valley.
While Vance was previously critical of Trump, at one point comparing him to an opioid and saying he could be “America’s Hitler,” he changed his tune ahead of his 2022 Senate race. Since then, Vance has become a loyal ally to Trump. He is also close with one of Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr.
— Haley BeMiller and Riley Beggin
Vance and his faith:Will JD Vance’s religious background sway Catholic voters? What experts say.
Kai Trump, Donald Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter, addresses RNC
Kai Trump, Donald Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter, told convention attendees that she sees a side of her grandfather that most people don’t see.
“He calls me during the middle of the school day to ask how my golf game is going and tells me all about his… even when he’s going through all these court cases, he always asks me how I’m doing. He always encourages me to push myself to be the most successful person I can be. Obviously, he sets the bar pretty high but who knows, maybe one day I’ll catch him.”
She said she was “shocked” when she heard the former president had been injured in a shooting on Saturday at his Pennsylvania rally.
“I just wanted to know if he was okay,” she said. “It was heartbreaking that someone would do that to another person. A lot of people put my grandpa through hell, and he’s still standing.”
— Sudiksha Kochi
