MILWAUKEE — Donald Trump in an unusual speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination Thursday at the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention gave a detailed account about the attempt on his life last weekend when a gunman shot at him during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

“I will tell you exactly what happened. And you’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s actually too painful to tell,” Trump said in his first public remarks about the shooting that killed one rally goer and injured two others. The gunman was killed by law enforcement at the scene.

Turning his head to look at a chart, which was later displayed on multiple screens inside the Fiserv Forum, is what saved his life, Trump said.

“I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear,” Trump recalled. “I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.’ I moved my hand to my right ear, brought it down, and my hand was covered with blood.”

Trump said he knew immediately that he was “under attack” and praised the Secret Service agents for rushing on stage to shield him with their own bodies, calling them “great people” who took “great risk,” to applause from the crowd.

He thanked the supporters in attendance last weekend for not panicking and stampeding, which can cause injuries and deaths during a mass shooting.

Trump in his 90-minute remarks appeared to seriously reflect on how close he came to being killed at one point, commenting that he wasn’t sure he was meant to survive the attack.

“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump said, before the crowd began chanting, “Yes, you are!”

“I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God,” he added.

Republicans’ bestowal of the nomination on Trump at the finale of their convention is significant in that he becomes the first convicted felon to accept a major political party’s presidential nod. Trump still faces charges in multiple criminal cases after one of the cases was dropped earlier this week.

Divine intervention seen

Trump’s comments about being saved by God followed days of politicians from throughout the country claiming the bullet only grazing his ear was an act of divine intervention.

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, from Detroit, said earlier in the night that people “can’t deny the power of God” in Trump’s life.

“You can’t deny that God protected him, you cannot deny that it was a millimeter miracle that was able to save this man’s life,” Sewell said. “Could it be that Jesus Christ preserved him for such a time as this?”

“Could it be that the King of Glory, the Lord God, strong and mighty, the God who is mighty in battle, protected Donald Trump, because he wants to use him for such a time as this?” Sewell added.

J.D. Vance pitches for swing-state votes in accepting Trump VP nomination

Tucker Carlson, former Fox News television personality and conservative pundit, said that “a lot of people” are wondering what’s going on following the shooting on Saturday.

“Something bigger is going on here. I think people who don’t even believe in God are starting to think, ‘Well, maybe there’s something to this,’” Carlson said. “And I’m starting to think it’s going to be okay, actually.”

Trump wore a white bandage on his right ear concealing the wound he received last Saturday before Secret Service agents rushed to shield him from bullets.

Trump spoke about Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief attending the rally with his family, who was killed in the shooting as well as the two people who were injured.

Trump called Comperatore a “highly respected” fire chief before walking over to his fire jacket and helmet, which had been placed on the stage, and kissing the helmet in a solemn moment.

Trump said he spoke with Comperatore’s wife as well as the two injured people earlier in the day, who were doing “very well” in recovering from their injuries. The convention then observed a moment of silence for Comperatore.

GOP seeks unity as Democrats debate Biden’s fate

The Republican National Convention and Trump’s acceptance speech provided a prime opportunity for the GOP to show unity as Democrats increasingly questioned whether President Joe Biden should formally become their nominee in the weeks ahead.

Trump repeatedly criticized Democrats’ policies and said they were a threat to the country’s future, though he only mentioned Biden once, saying the damage the current president could inflict on the country is “unthinkable.”

“If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States… and added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done,” Trump said.

Voters, he said, must “rescue our nation from failed and even incompetent leadership” by voting for him and Republicans during November’s election.

“This will be the most important election in the history of our country,” Trump said.

‘The stakes have never been higher,’ Biden campaign says

Biden-Harris Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon released a written statement rebuking Trump’s speech, saying he “rambled on for well over an hour.”

“He failed to mention how he had inflicted pain and cruelty on the women of America by overturning Roe v Wade. He failed to mention his plan to take over the civil service and to pardon the January 6th insurrectionists,” Dillon wrote.

Biden, on the other hand, is “running for an America where we defend democracy, not diminish it,” she wrote.

“The stakes have never been higher,” Dillon wrote. “The choice has never been more clear. President Biden is more determined than ever to defeat Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda in November.”

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a written statement that in “Trump’s Republican Party, there’s only space for unquestioning loyalists who will put him above our democracy, above our freedoms, and above working families.”

“Over the past four days, we’ve seen speakers endorse a far-right, dangerous vision that would see Americans’ basic liberties stripped away and replace the rule of law with the rule of Trump,” Harrison wrote. “No amount of desperate spin can change how unpopular and out of touch their disastrous plans are for the American people.”

No stain left by Jan. 6

Trump’s speech solidified a significant turnaround for the former president, who earned rebukes from many of the party’s leaders following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The events of that day, which led to the deaths of police officers and ended the country’s centuries-long peaceful transition of power, would traditionally have been viewed as a black spot by the party that lauds itself as supporting “law and order” as well as the country’s founding principles.

Instead, Trump has succeeded in convincing his supporters that the people convicted for violent acts should be pardoned as “political prisoners” and the several court cases against him are about his politics and not his actions.

Top Trump campaign official Chris LaCivita refused to say earlier Thursday during an event near the RNC whether Trump would continue to campaign on the promise to pardon Jan. 6 defendants, or “hostages” as he has described them numerous times.

Trump said Thursday night that nothing would prevent him from becoming president following November’s election.

“Our resolve is unbroken and our purpose is unchanged — to deliver a government that serves the American people better than ever before,” Trump said.

“Nothing will stop me to this vision, because our vision is righteous and our cause is pure,” Trump added. “No matter what obstacle comes our way, we will not break, we will not bend, we will not back down and I will never stop fighting for you.”

Scenes from the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Trump’s loss of the popular vote and the Electoral College four years ago led him to make false claims about election fraud, which never bore fruit. Judges threw out numerous court challenges.

Trump faces federal felony charges that he conspired to create false slates of electors in seven states and attempted to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

That, however, hasn’t stopped Trump from repeating the claim and making it a hallmark of his third run for the Oval Office.

Trump reiterated many of those incorrect claims during his speech to applause and cheers from the crowd gathered inside Fiserv Forum.

“They used COVID to cheat,” he said.

Trump: ‘We must not criminalize dissent’

Despite his incessant encouragement of rally chants during the 2016 campaign to lock up former Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, and a willingness to explore jailing his rivals if he wins in November, Trump said “we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement.”

In addition to the federal 2020 election subversion charges, Trump faces racketeering charges in Georgia, sentencing over a guilty verdict in New York, and federal charges over allegedly stealing and hiding classified government documents after leaving the Oval Office.

Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday dropped the classified documents case on the grounds that the government illegally appointed a special counsel to prosecute it. The Department of Justice has since appealed.

The former president reminded the crowd of the “major ruling that was handed down from a highly respected federal judge.”

“If the Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts,” Trump said.

‘Stop wars with a telephone call’

Trump said the “planet is teetering on the edge of World War Three” and he will “end every single international crisis that the current administration has created.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 “would have never happened if I was president,” he said, repeating the same claim about the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

Trump ‘honored the Constitution,’ Noem says in convention speech

“I tell you this, we want our hostages back and they better be back,” Trump said later in the speech about Israeli-American hostages still in Hamas captivity.

Trump praised Victor Orbán — the Hungarian prime minister known for his authoritarian streak — which the crowd cheered. He also touted his friendship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

He said the press criticized him for his congeniality with Kim, but “it’s nice to get along with someone who has a lot of nuclear weapons,” Trump said.

“I could stop wars with a telephone call,” Trump said, but immediately followed with a promise to “build an Iron Dome missile defense system to ensure that no enemy can strike our homeland.”

Trump’s ‘only crime’ is ‘loving America’

Speakers rallying the crowd before Trump’s appearance on Thursday exalted his golf game and business management style, and defended the former president, who they say supports them through long-established ties.

“To me, he is my friend,” Trump’s attorney Alina Habba said tearfully.

“Sham indictments and baseless allegations will not deter us, because the only crime President Trump has committed is loving America,” she said.

Trump’s 2020 election subversion case has sat in a holding pattern for months while he appealed his claim of presidential immunity to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices returned the case to the trial court after issuing a 6-3 majority opinion in early July that grants broad immunity for former presidents’ official acts.

Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in New York state court for falsifying business records related to a hush money payment by his personal lawyer to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.

However, the New York judge handling the case has delayed Trump’s sentencing while his lawyers challenge the case, arguing the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling opens questions about what evidence against a former sitting president can be admitted to court.

Pompeo says no Putin in Ukraine under Trump

Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former CIA director and secretary of State, blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and deaths of its civilians on “weakness” of the Biden administration.

“Last week, we saw what it meant — that Children’s Hospital bombed, innocents killed — it did not have to be,” Pompeo said, referring to the July 8 Russian strike on the medical facility in Kyiv.

World leaders from NATO etched a path for Ukraine to join the alliance at the July summit in Washington, D.C, and pledged more resources for the nation that Russia further invaded in February 2022.

Trump has long criticized NATO, dismissing the post-WWII alliance’s core tenet that an attack against one is an attack against all and threatening to withdraw over funding.

In February he told a rally crowd in South Carolina that he would “encourage (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want” to “delinquent” member countries that do not pay 2% of their GDP on defense.

All members agreed to a 2% commitment in 2014, and 23 are on track to meet the target this year, according to the alliance.

On Wednesday night at the RNC, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, echoed Trump’s words and declared “no more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer.”

Lia Chien contributed to this report.

MILWAUKEE — A top Trump campaign official said Thursday that the 2024 presidential race will not be over until Inauguration Day, rather than after Election Day on Nov. 5 — when voters across the nation go to the polls to cast their ballots and a result normally is projected.

The assertion from Chris LaCivita at a Politico event is notable given former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to President Joe Biden, and the ensuing violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.

It is also significant given that the U.S. Department of Justice alleges after Election Day in 2020, Trump co-conspired with lawyers and election officials in seven states to produce false slates of electors. According to the indictment, those slates were intended to be delivered to Vice President Mike Pence during the routine certification in a joint session of Congress in early January following presidential elections.

“It’s not over until he puts his hand on the Bible and takes the oath. It’s not over until then. It’s not over on Election Day, it’s over on Inauguration Day, cause I wouldn’t put anything past anybody,” LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager, told Politico’s Jonathan Martin during a lengthy interview open to press and attendees, and livestreamed, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

J.D. Vance pitches for swing-state votes in accepting Trump VP nomination

Trump did not attend Biden’s inauguration, and he and many Republican lawmakers continue to repeat false claims that he won.

LaCivita interrupted with his comment when Martin was in the middle of asking about the prospects for Democrats on Election Day.

“It’s also possible that Donald Trump can lose,” Martin followed up. LaCivita said the campaign will remain focused on the issues.

A few moments later Martin asked LaCivita if he thinks it’s politically wise for Trump to continue campaigning on pardoning the Jan. 6 rioters.

“I always find it amazing that you guys are the ones that bring it up,” LaCivita said, referring to the press.

“That’s not true,” Martin replied.

“I’ve been in a lot of interviews where it’s the first question you guys ask,” LaCivita said. “What we’re talking about right now are the issues that matter, Social Security, protecting Social Security and Medicare, closing the border. I mean we have so much to talk about and that’s where our focus is.”

“In a perfect Chris LaCivita world (Trump) would never say the words ‘Jan. 6 hostages’ again,” Martin followed up.

LaCivita immediately responded and repeated: “Social Security, Medicaid, closing the border, deportation — yeah I said it — all of those things.”

In March, Trump told reporters he was open to cutting Social Security and other entitlement programs as a way to address the national debt.

Election fraud falsely claimed

Trump repeated false claims of election fraud in the months following the 2020 election and lost numerous court challenges in states that he insisted he won.

The fight erupted in political violence on Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters overran the U.S. Capitol Police with improvised weapons and the goal of stopping Congress from certifying the election results.

The historic criminal indictment of a former sitting U.S. president — handed up from a federal grand jury in August 2023 — charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructing an official proceeding, among other felony counts.

Trump has successfully delayed the federal election subversion case as he appealed his motion to dismiss based on president criminal immunity all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices on July 1 ruled in a 6-3 decision that former presidents enjoy broad immunity for official acts, and sparked major questions over what type of evidence can be used in any such prosecution.

‘How do you utilize’ an assassination attempt?

Reaction to the attempted assassination against Trump on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, has evolved over the RNC’s first three days. It’s gone from initial concerns about political violence to rallying around the event as a symbol of how “Trump Strong” can reshape America, as Donald Trump Jr. said Wednesday night.

Trump supporters wore fake bandages on their ears at the RNC as a political symbol, much like the red “Make America Great Again” hat.

If a presidential nominee drops out, what happens to states’ ballots?

“The energy or the emotion that you feel when something like that happens, how do you utilize it? How do you utilize it to get to where you need to be?” LaCivita said.

“How do you utilize it to win an election or how do you utilize it to bring the country together?” Martin followed up.

“I think it’s both,” LaCivita said.

The co-campaign manager sidestepped a question about whether Trump will make an effort during his RNC speech to tell supporters not to believe conspiracy theories circulating online that the shooting was a Democratic plot. Martin asked if LaCivita agreed that Trump tamping down accusations against his opposing political party would be “good for the country.”

LaCivita said the campaign is planning Trump’s speech to be “forward focused.”

“I mean look, there are not enough facts, and it’s not just up to us to talk about the facts resulting around what happened,” LaCivita said as he added to the chorus of criticism of the U.S. Secret Service and calling on its head to resign.

Hours after the shooting Saturday, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio — announced Monday at the RNC as Trump’s vice presidential pick — wrote on social media that “today is not just some isolated incident.”

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s assassination attempt,” he wrote.

Project 2025 a ‘pain in the ass’ for Trump

Of the themes permeating the RNC, the major conservative Project 2025 has dogged Trump’s campaign in a way that LaCivita described as “a pain in the ass.”

The 922-page document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation roadmaps a presidential transition and plan to overhaul government administrations, to lobby Congress for national abortion restrictions and restoration of “the American family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.”

The organization held an all-day policy fest five blocks from the RNC convention hall Monday.

Trump denies any connection to the project, despite former Trump administration officials identifying their previous positions in the project materials. A CNN analysis found that 140 who previously worked for Trump helped on Project 2025.

LaCivita said any claim that Trump is connected to the project is “utter bulls—t.”

“They do not speak for the campaign.”

Significant rains and flooding are keeping the eastern parts of the state well saturated, but that’s not the case for much of West River.

According to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor report, over a quarter of the state is seeing abnormally dry conditions. Over 10% are experiencing a moderate drought.

The Black Hills and upper northwest corner of the state are seeing the worst of the dryness.

These dry conditions can cause an increased risk for wildfires, as dry grasses serve as an easy fuel and lighting from rolling summer thunderstorms can create a quick spark.

Great Plains Fire Information reports two lightning caused fires this week alone in the Black Hills. Both fires have been controlled.