RNC 2024 Day 1 updates: Bandaged and emotional, Trump makes 1st appearance since assassination attempt
Chants of "we love Trump" could be heard as he entered the RNC.
The first day of the Republican National Convention has wrapped up in Milwaukee -- marked with an appearance by former President Donald Trump just two days he was wounded in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday evening.
Despite the shooting, the gathering of more than 50,000 attendees, including an expected 2,400 Republican delegates, is slated to maintain its original programming as a time to bring the party together -- but now newly energized by Trump's amazing survival and raised-fist show of defiance.
One of the most anticipated moments of Trump's campaign happened Monday when Trump named 39-year-old Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate.
Latest headlines:
Rubio told he is not Trump's running mate
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been told he is not former President Donald Trump's running mate pick, five sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
Trump's pick is expected to be announced at some point Monday.
-ABC News' John Santucci, Katherine Faulders, Rachel Scott, Rick Klein
Trump has made his VP selection
Trump has selected his running mate, a senior campaign official told ABC News.
-ABC News' John Santucci
Vivek Ramaswamy recounts 'anger' after Trump shooting, calls for unity
Vivek Ramaswamy, speaking with reporters after his speech at the Heritage Policy Fest, joined Trump in stressing unity after the shooting at the former president's Pennsylvania rally.
ABC News asked Ramaswamy for his response to Republicans like J.D. Vance going after Democrats and President Joe Biden in the wake of the attempted assassination attempt.
"Look, I think that there is a lot of understandable anger. I was ... my first reaction was anger," Ramaswamy said. "And the reason my first reaction was anger was that the only thing more tragic than what happened on Saturday is that if we're being really honest with ourselves, all of us, it wasn't totally a shock, actually. And that, that is maddening. And that ... makes me angry as a citizen of the United States of America. But the question is, how do we channel that anger?"
Ramaswamy said Republicans have a "second chance that Lincoln didn't have: to unite a country that this time didn't have to fight a civil war, but avoids one."
"If that bullet hit Donald Trump, we'd be in a very different place now," he said. "And the fact that we've been given that chance, I think it's our responsibility to step up and seize it not by compromising on our principles, but by actually reviving the principles that unite all of us. And by seeing the enemy as the ideology that we're up against, rather than our fellow neighbors as our enemy combatants, and that's what I call on not only the Republican Party but every American to do in the wake of what happened on Saturday."
-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler
Pre-planned group of 1,700 National Guardsmen and other troops supporting RNC security
As part of a plan that predates the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, roughly 1,700 National Guardsmen and several active-duty troops will assist other agencies with security at the Republican National Convention, according to Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh.
"In regards to the Republican National Convention, approximately 1,700 National Guard and a small number of active-duty personnel will be providing support to civil authorities from July 13 through 19. These personnel are supporting the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and Milwaukee Metro Police Department for 24/7 operations," Singh said.
Singh emphasized that this support was pre-planned, and not related to the shooting at Trump's rally over the weekend, nor was the force augmented as a result.
-Matt Seyler