5 things to watch in Trump’s RNC speech

MILWAUKEE — Former President Trump will close out the Republican National Convention on Thursday night with a highly anticipated keynote address, his first speech since he was wounded in an assassination attempt less than a week ago.

The shooting at Trump’s Butler, Pa., rally Saturday has loomed over this week’s proceedings in Wisconsin and will likely be front of mind when Trump takes the stage around 10:30 p.m. EDT. But how Trump delivers his message and how much he focuses on policy also bears watching. 

Here are five things to watch for in Trump’s speech.

What’s the tone

Trump and those close to him have said repeatedly after Saturday’s shooting that he ripped up his original speech and will instead give a completely different address.

“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump said Monday.

Trump’s rallies are typically filled with personal attacks on Biden. The former president routinely decries his successor as “incompetent” and the worst president in the country’s history. He often bemoans at rallies that the U.S. is a third-world country on the verge of collapse if he does not win.

Multiple Trump allies have spoken publicly about how they think Trump’s brush with death has changed him and his outlook, and how that may be reflected in his speech.

“I think he’s changed his speech. … Went from a much tougher speech really prosecuting the administration for a lot of failures, for every failure that we know about that our country’s going through right now, to a very unifying speech, and I’m proud of that,” the former president’s son, Eric Trump, said Wednesday on CBS.

But as always with Trump, it’s unclear how long the new tone will hold.

How does Trump invoke Saturday’s shooting

There will be a visual reminder of the recent assassination attempt when Trump takes the stage Thursday. He has a large white bandage on his right ear, where he said he was hit with a bullet at Saturday’s rally.

But how much Trump speaks about the events of a few days ago is an open question. Several speakers throughout the week have invoked the shooting, particularly to suggest Trump was spared by divine intervention.

Others have used the tragedy — one attendee was killed and two others were injured by a gunman who himself was shot and killed by Secret Service countersnipers — to portray Trump as a strong and courageous figure in the face of danger. And some Trump family members have spoken about the shooting to try to humanize the former president, describing the shooting through the lens of those close to him.

“They say you can’t truly know how you’ll respond in a moment of danger until you’re actually confronted with it,” his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said Wednesday. “So what was my father’s instinct as his life was on the line? Not to cower, not to surrender, but to show for all the world to see that the next American president has the heart of a lion.”

How much does he detail a second term

Trump’s speech Thursday will provide a test of how interested he is in discussing policy, and whether he will try to present a more moderate platform to audiences watching at home.

Trump has laid out a series of policy proposals for a second term, including tariffs on all imports, mass deportations of immigrants living in the country without permission, an increase in domestic drilling and pulling back from support for Ukraine.

Those policies were prominently displayed in the party platform the Republican National Committee adopted at the start of the week, and signs carried by delegates during the week read “Mass deportations now!” and “Trump will end the Ukraine war.”

Trump’s policies have been well-articulated on his campaign website, and he touches on them at rallies. Democrats have aggressively tried to tie Trump to Project 2025, a policy blueprint crafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation, to paint a potential second term as extreme, particularly on abortion and climate.

Trump has in recent weeks tried to distance himself from Project 2025 and its authors, saying he doesn’t know the people behind the effort and suggesting it goes too far on some issues.

Ivanka and Melania join the show

Two high-profile guests will make their convention debuts Thursday. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, will be in attendance for the final day of the convention.

Neither is expected to speak, but they will be in the audience Thursday night in a show of support for the former president’s candidacy.

Melania Trump has mostly been absent from her husband’s 2024 White House bid. She delivered remarks at the 2016 GOP convention, which later drew scrutiny for similarities to a Michelle Obama speech, and she spoke again at the 2020 convention.

Ivanka Trump said following the launch of her father’s 2024 campaign in 2022 that she would not be involved in his political efforts. She introduced him at the 2016 and 2020 campaigns and served as a senior White House adviser during his first term.

Much has been made of their absence on the campaign trail thus far. But for one night at least, the Trump family is expected to be a united front.

Does Biden overshadow Trump’s big night?

If there’s one thing that could bump Trump out of the spotlight Thursday night, it’s drama involving his Democratic opponent.

Networks on Wednesday opted not to cover some of the convention speeches because of new reporting revealed top Democrats in Congress had urged Biden to consider stepping aside as the nominee. Biden also had to scrap a planned campaign event in Nevada on Wednesday after he tested positive for COVID-19.

Democrats have been mulling for weeks whether Biden can defeat Trump in November following a disastrous debate for the Democrat on June 27. But calls for Biden to step aside appear to have resumed after a brief hiatus following Saturday’s shooting at Trump’s rally, with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Wednesday urging Biden to pass the torch.

Should a big-name Democrat come forward Thursday night calling on Biden to bow out of the race, it could overshadow Trump’s marquee speech.