Joyful mood at the RNC

On the Campaign Trail

U.S. Elections 2024

By James Oliphant, national political correspondent

Before the attempt on Donald Trump's life, this was supposed to be the doom-and-gloom convention.

After all, Trump is the candidate who has riffed endlessly about how crime, drugs and illegal migration were trashing the nation's cities. Following last week's assassination attempt against Trump, the expectation was that his supporters might be in a grim and even threatening mood.

But that has not proven to be the case. If anything, Trump's I'm-lucky-to-be-alive sentiment seems to have pervaded the entire event here in Milwaukee, resulting in a rather joyous, even worshipful vibe.

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Happy go lucky

On Tuesday night, I rode in a passenger bus full of Trump supporters, all in their MAGA regalia and clutching TRUMP signs coming back from the convention hall. They were happily sharing videos and swapping stories, looking a lot like a group returning from a college football game. The notion that the man they are counting on to get the country back on track came within inches of being killed didn't seem to be weighing on anyone.

Moreover, Trump's choice of U.S. Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate seemed to energize the party delegates at the Republican National Convention, many of whom view him as Trump's potential MAGA successor. (Democrats meanwhile see an opening with Vance, who has taken a harder line on abortion than Trump.)

It hasn't all been rainbows. During the convention's programming, there has been the requisite bashing of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, complaining of high inflation, foreign wars and a surge of migrants. There was a lot of focus on mass deportation of immigrants, blaming them for violent crime while asserting that there only "two genders" in the world. And a lot of talk about how "ordinary Americans" (Republicans' term) are suffering.

The real test will come tonight, when Trump gives his formal acceptance speech. Will he be the glowering figure detailing a laundry list of the nation's ills, or will he, as his advisers have promised, try to strike a more optimistic tone? The guess is that it will be some combination of the two.

Right now, it's the Democrats who are feeling grim. Biden, who tested positive for COVID-19 while visiting Las Vegas on Wednesday, continues to resist calls from some lawmakers in his party to step aside and let a younger candidate such as Harris take on Trump and Vance. Anxiety on the Democratic side is likely to spike even higher after Trump was treated returning hero on Thursday night by an adoring crowd.

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Fact check of the week

The shots were fired and almost immediately after Trump's attempted assassination, misinformation began spreading on social media. First, people got the shooter wrong. Some misidentified an Italian soccer commentator as being involved, others falsely said it was a man called Maxwell Yearick, who had been arrested in 2016 while protesting at a Trump rally.

Others were quick to say the shooting was "staged" while sharing digitally edited photographs that showed Trump and his security detail smiling, while others said the animated TV show "The Simpsons" had predicted Trump would die in 2024 by sharing a fake screenshot of a cartoon Trump in a coffin. You can keep up with the latest Fact Checks from Reuters here.

In this section, the Reuters fact-checking team addresses misinformation connected to the U.S. elections. Find more fact-checks from around the world here.

The view from Europe

Alarm bells are ringing loudly across Europe with Trump's pick of Vance as his running mate. In February, Europe's political and foreign policy elite heard directly from the Ohio senator on his opposition to military aid for Ukraine and his blunt warning that Europe will have to rely less on the United States to defend the continent.

Vance's addition to the Republican presidential ticket has stoked fears that if Trump returns to the White House, he will drop, or curb, U.S. support for Kyiv and push Ukraine into peace negotiations to end the war that would give Moscow a substantial slice of Ukraine and embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin to pursue further military adventures.

Photo from the trail

Donald Trump gestures to the crowd on Day 3 of the RNC, at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Cheney Orr

What to watch for

July 18: Harris campaigns in Fayetteville, North Carolina
July 20: Trump holds first rally with new running mate Vance in Grand Rapids, Michigan
July 21: The DNC's Rules Committee meets virtually about nomination
July 22: Biden is scheduled to meet Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The who, what and when

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