MILWAUKEE — With rhetoric noticeably cooled since the attempt on Donald J. Trump’s life, Republicans made him their official presidential nominee Monday, proclaimed by his son, Eric, in carefully staged moment.
The son cast all 125 votes from Florida on behalf of the father, putting the president over the top with a family flourish, underscoring that the Republican brand is synonymous with Trump, the GOP nominee for a third consecutive time.
“On behalf of our entire family, and on behalf of the 125 delegates in the unbelievable state of Florida, we hereby nominate every single one of them for the greatest president that’s ever lived, and that’s Donald J. Trump,” Eric Trump said.
He was flanked by two of his siblings, Donald Trump Jr. and Tiffany Trump, as well as his wife Lara Trump, who serves co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
As the roll call proceeded, word spread that Trump’s running mate would be Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, who had said Saturday that the rhetoric of President Joe Biden’s campaign “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
“We fight for what’s right, not what’s easy,” said Michael McDonald, the Republican chair of Nevada, in nominating Trump, calling the race a battle for the soul of America.
“Fight, fight,” was what Trump yelled moments after the shooting.
But cries of battle were at odds with the overall tone set by a Trump campaign now singing the song of unity at a moment extreme political division. When chants of “fight, fight, fight” broke out Monday, convention managers waved them off.
“No fight chants!” Ben Proto, the Connecticut chair, yelled to his delegates. “We’re trying to tone it down.”
Connecticut is one of the northeastern states where the Trump era has been problematic for down-ballot Republicans, but delegates and guests from Biden states insisted intra-party differences disappeared Saturday in Butler, Pa.
“It truly was the hand of God that saved him,” said Leora Levy of Greenwich, a Trump loyalist who delivered the closing prayer Monday afternoon. “He has more work to do.”
Richard Lowes, a party activist from suburban Pittsburgh, where Democrats prevail, predicted that the campaign’s call for unity would be embraced. Lowes said he was in the front row at the Butler rally.
“That’s me in the red hat,” Lowes said, pointing to a picture on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He said Democratic friends immediately called him, inquiring about his safety — and telling him the race effectively was over.
“The Republicans are more united now than ever,” said Lowes said.
The convention vote came 45 days after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies related to alleged hush-money paid to cover up an affair with a porn star, a first for a former U.S. president that is deemed irrelevant in the GOP.
The Trump campaign’s only reference to history was that Trump could become the first man to defeat the president who defeated him.
When Proto cast Connecticut’s votes, he touted the state’s role as a defense contractor and its home to UConn basketball.
“Connecticut, the Constitution state, the arsenal of democracy and the home of the two-time, soon-to-be three-time NCAA men’s basketball champion UConn Huskies, proudly cast 28 votes for the 45th president and soon to be 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” Proto said.
Proto stood next to Levy, who recently lost a bitter fight for another term on the Republican National Committee despite her Trump connection. Levy won a Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2022 after a late endorsement by Trump.
Her opponent was the party-endorsed candidate, former state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, who had disclosed not voting for Trump in 2020 after being a Trump delegate in 2016.
Klarides is a not a delegate this year.
The delegates had filed into the arena at noon with no word from Trump about his running mate, even though they would be asked to accept the choice before breaking for dinner.
Vice presidential petitions that circulated among five state delegations, Connecticut among them, a technicality to place a name in nomination, did not identify the nominee.
Proto circulated a clip board with the forms. Levy signed, then handed the clipboard back to the chair, who gave it to John Frey, the former state representative from Ridgefield who sits on the Republican National Committee.
The Trump campaign assured the delegations that signatures could be stricken if the announced choice was unacceptable. Proto smiled and said he did not anticipate any objections.
Democrats pounced on the choice of Vance, a Marine veteran and graduate of Yale Law School who first came prominence as the author of a best seller, “Hillbilly Elegy,” and a critic of Trump.
Democrats were quick to point out Vance’s past criticism of Trump’s candidacy during the 2016 presidential election, though their relationship was mended when the former president endorsed Vance’s run for U.S. senator in 2022.
But Biden allies are characterizing the new minted vice presidential pick as “passing the MAGA litmus test with flying colors.”
“J.D. Vance is the embodiment of the new MAGA GOP, and a mirror for Donald Trump,” said Nancy DiNardo, the Connecticut Democratic chair. “He supports a national abortion ban, he thinks Project 2025 is ‘full of good ideas,’ and he wouldn’t have certified the 2020 election.”
In a call arranged by Biden’s campaign on Monday afternoon, Democrats contrasted the two presidential tickets, specifically highlighting Vance’s opposition to abortion rights as well as his stance on Social Security and Medicare.
“Trump’s VP pick is great news for the wealthiest Americans and lousy news for everyone else,” U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said on the call. “Billionaires on Wall Street and Silicon Valley are cheering, but there is no joy for working people. Vance thinks seniors should get by with less.”
Staff writer Lisa Hagen contributed to this story from Washington, D.C.
