KTAF NEWS

Former US President Donald Trump was officially chosen as the candidate for the presidential election in November at the Republican Party Convention. The delegates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, cheered him euphorically. The 78-year-old, who appeared on stage with a bandage on his ear, raised his fist again. He will not give a speech until Thursday (local time).

Grazing bullet to the ear

On Saturday, Trump narrowly survived an attack at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania – he was shot and slightly injured in the right ear. In addition to the suspected shooter, a spectator was killed; two other men in the audience suffered serious injuries. In response, Trump announced that he wanted to give a speech at the party convention “that unites our country”. However, he wanted to abandon the originally planned “extremely harsh speech”, he told the tabloid newspaper “New York Post”.

The majority of the approximately 2,400 delegates in Milwaukee also voted for Trump’s vice-candidate J. D. Vance. The so-called running mate would take over the office of vice president in the event of a victory. The 39-year-old is one of the most politically inexperienced candidates for this post in recent US history. He has only been a senator in Congress since 2023, representing his home state of Ohio, where he grew up in unstable family circumstances.

“Hillbilly Elegy” about his own roots

His memoirs about this time were published in 2016 and became a bestseller: The book “Hillbilly Elegy” made Vance known to a wider audience; a film version later appeared on Netflix. The reflections on the white working class not only show autobiographical details – they also provide insights into the class to which Trump owed his first victory in the 2016 presidential election.

In previous years, the law graduate had few kind words for the real estate entrepreneur from New York. Vance spoke of himself as a “Never Trumper” and bluntly called the Republican an “idiot”. But in the course of his candidacy for the US Senate, he threw his old concerns overboard and praised Trump, who in turn supported him.

Figurehead of isolationism

He is particularly clear in his opposition to the billions in aid the United States is providing to Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia. Vance is an example of the conservative isolationism that has prevailed in the party. At the same time, he supports Israel in the fight against Hamas, which many states classify as a terrorist organization and which triggered the most recent war in the Gaza Strip with its major attack on October 7.

In domestic politics, the former financial manager and venture capitalist is a staunch opponent of abortion. He calls for immigration based on merit and the completion of the wall on the border with Mexico that Trump is pushing for. He denied the result of the 2020 presidential election. In his announcement of the appointment, Trump wrote that Vance would focus on workers and farmers in contested states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota.

Mixed-faith lawyer couple

He is likely to be supported in this by his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance, a daughter of Indian immigrants, with whom he has three children. The two met at the elite Yale University. The lawyer left the law firm where she worked after her husband was chosen as her running mate. A decade ago, she worked as an assistant to Brett Kavanaugh, who would later be nominated by Trump as a judge on the Supreme Court of the United States. The 38-year-old is Hindu, her husband belongs to the Catholic Church.

Trump and Vance are currently competing in the election on November 5 with Democrat Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris. The 81-year-old incumbent is also under great pressure within the party because of his age and several failed appearances in the recent past.

Success in the document scandal

Trump, on the other hand, was able to score a legal victory in time for the party convention. Federal judge Aileen Cannon, whom he himself appointed, has now dropped the proceedings against him for taking and improperly storing secret documents after his election defeat. She justified her decision by saying that the Justice Department had violated the Constitution by appointing a special investigator in the case. The special investigator himself, Jack Smith, appealed the decision.

The former president had stored secret government documents in his private residence Mar-a-Lago in Florida after leaving office in January 2021 and, according to the prosecution, later hid them from the judicial system. The documents are said to have been stored unsecured. US presidents are required to hand over all official documents to the National Archives after leaving office.