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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump embraces the firefighter uniform of Corey Comperatore as he speaks on stage on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 18, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Comperatore was killed during the attempt on Trump’s life. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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.
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“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.”
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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.
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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.”
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.
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
“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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.”
PROVIDENCE — Prime Healthcare Foundation has withdrawn its bid to acquire two Rhode Island hospitals owned by Prospect Medical Holdings, leaving the Centurion Foundation, a Georgia-based nonprofit that has struggled to secure financing, as the hospitals’ sole suitor.
Prime, which first publicly signaled interest in Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in early November, had been in talks with state officials and executives with California-based Prospect Medical Holdings. In late October, Prospect filed a motion in bankruptcy court to shut down the hospitals, a scenario state officials and health leaders said would destabilize Rhode Island’s entire health system.
Prime’s exit leaves The Centurion Foundation, which has struggled for months to finance a deal, as the sole remaining prospective buyer once again. Centurion has been unable to attract investors and is expected back in US Bankruptcy Court on Friday to update Chief Judge Stacey Jernigan on the status of their financing. Jernigan said in late November she was frustrated by Centurion’s continued inability to secure the necessary capital for a deal she approved in February.
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“No one wants these closed,” said Jernigan during a court hearing on Nov. 24. “But, as I expressed last time, I’m beyond frustrated with Centurion.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha confirmed to the Globe Thursday morning that Prime advised him on Wednesday that they view the “collective hurdles presented by the proposed transaction as too big a challenge for them to take on at this time.”
“They wanted to see how the Centurion transaction played out,” said Neronha. “I told them that I understood, and I do.”
The collapse of Prime’s bid comes at a critical moment for Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence, two safety-net hospitals that care for many of the state’s most vulnerable, including the uninsured and many who are covered by public insurance. If Prospect is given approval by the court to shutter these hospitals, Rhode Island’s emergency departments would be overwhelmed, and other systems spread thin.
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Part of the reason Prime pulled out was because it would have had to assume existing labor contracts, according to Neronha.
Brad Dufault, a spokesman for United Nurses and Allied Professionals, which is the union represents many of the workers at the hospitals, told the Globe that with time quickly running out, the union is “pleased that the state can now keep the focus 100 percent on closing the Centurion deal.”
“Prime Health has an abysmal record here in Rhode Island and across the country – a record of greed, fraud and deceit,“ said Dufault. ”Rhode Islanders who need quality health care services dodged a major bullet by keeping them away from these important community hospitals.”
Prime owns and operates Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket, where UNAP also represents workers.
Prime and Prospect have been in discussions over the last few weeks on how to address the nearly $90 million in post-bankruptcy petition expenses that either the buyer or the seller would be required to pay. Centurion has agreed to cover those expenses if they close their deal. It’s unclear if Prime was willing.
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Neronha said in a statement that Prime has been in discussions with his office and the Rhode Island Department of Health about “certain necessary commitments regarding capital improvements, assumption of existing labor contracts, preservation of existing lines of medical services, who would cover anticipated losses while they managed but did not yet own the hospitals, a management fee they would be paid (none versus how much), and more.”
Noel True, a spokesperson for Prime, could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.
Centurion’s executives recently warned the state that seeking an alternative buyer, like Prime, would spook investors and undermine their deal to acquire the hospitals, which was first approved by regulators in 2024. Centurion’s President Ben Mingle could not be immediately reached for comment.
This story has been updated with a comment from Brad Dufault.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — The Trump Administration is once again threatening to withhold SNAP funds from some states, including Rhode Island and Massachusetts, because they’re refusing to share the data of the people in each state receiving the benefits.
“That’s a matter of the courts in terms of the information. We believe that handing over private information violates a person’s rights. That’s why we’re in court right now,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said Wednesday.
The information the Trump Administration wants includes the names and immigration status of SNAP recipients.
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Gov. Dan McKee spoke with NBC 10’s Gabrielle Caracciolo. (WJAR)
Twenty-two states, including Rhode Island and Massachusetts, sued the feds earlier this year over the demand to handover the data winning a preliminary injunction in October to halt the request.
Its not clear how the threat to withhold funding will impact the litigation.
“Very short term we can certainly help but we don’t have the funds to backfill that program,” Rhode Island House Speaker Joe Shekarchi said.
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The Trump Administration argues the data is needed to help root out fraud.
“I think when you’re dealing with thousands and thousands of people, you can’t absolutely guarantee it,” McKee said of fraud within the system. “But I know that we make sure that we put the effort in to make sure that the people who are receiving the benefit are entitled to the benefit.”
SNAP benefits sign on a grocery store window. (FILE)
“I don’t think there’s a lot of fraud. I think there may be a lot of waste and a lot of inefficiencies in the program. I could say that’s just about a lot of programs. But there’s a difference between inefficiencies and waste and then actual fraud,” Shekarchi said. ‘Fraud is a criminal act and if there is fraud it should be prosecuted with full extended law and I support that. But overall the program helps a lot of needy Rhode Islanders and just because there may be a small percentage of waste or mismanagement doesn’t mean you stop the program. It means you fix it and make corrections along the way.”
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In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement, “This is truly appalling and cruel. The Trump Administration is once again playing politics with the ability of working parents with children, seniors and people with disabilities to get food. President Trump needs to order Secretary Rollins to release SNAP funding immediately and prevent more Americans from going hungry.”
PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Department of Health has suspended the license of a nursing assistant who allegedly inappropriately touched a resident of an assisted living facility, records show.
The department filed a notice of summary suspension for Julian Rodriguez on Nov. 25, four days after the resident gave “a detailed statement” to the department, the filing states.
The resident allegedly said Rodriguez was assigned to assist him with showering and used “a massage tool on the patient’s genitals,” according to the notice. Rodriguez also allegedly placed his hands on the resident’s genitals, among other inappropriate conduct, the filing states.
“After considering the above facts, the director of the Department of Health finds that public health, safety, or welfare imperatively requires emergency action,” the notice states.
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The filing does not identify the assisted living facility by name, and says only that Rodriguez was employed there “on or about October 2025.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health did not immediately return a request for more information on Wednesday morning.
Court records do not show any criminal charges filed against Rodriguez.
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.
