Republican National Convention 2024 as it happened: Donald Trump appears 48 hours after shooting, selects J.D. Vance as running mate

Almost all trade unions in the US have endorsed Joe Biden, whose party has long been the friend of workers and the opponent of big business.

But the Republican Party has increasingly been trying to appeal to workers, despite Trump’s policies to cut taxes for corporations.

One influential union has withheld support for Biden.

The president of the influential International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Sean O’Brien, has appeared at the Republican convention in front of an onlooking Donald Trump, saying his union is “not beholden to any party”.

He praised Trump, saying: “No other [Republican] nominee would have invited the Teamsters into their arena

“You can have whatever opinion you want, but one thing is clear ... Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud and often critical voices.

“In light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough SOB.”

US media outlets said the anti-business speech from the unionist received a mixed response on the floor of the convention.

Donald Trump is now watching model, rapper and social media influencer Amber Rose deliver a rousing endorsement of the former president.

Rose said she was shocked years ago when her father started supporting Trump. The 40-year-old said the mainstream media and the political left had conditioned her to believe Trump was a racist, which upset her as a member of a racially diverse family.

The celebrity, who has 3 million Instagram followers, said she did her own research and learnt Trump was in fact no racist and the MAGA movement accepted racially and sexually diverse people for who they were.

“When you cut through the lies, you realise the truth,” she said in a pitch to younger and undecided voters, who may not be natural Trump supporters.

“When you fill up your gas tank, you’re pissed. And when you turn on the news, you’re just exhausted. And you know in your heart, it was not like this under Donald Trump.”

Donald Trump’s appearance at the Republican convention, an emotional crescendo on day one of the conference, was not scheduled.

Wearing a bandage on his injured ear, he appeared at the Milwaukee arena at about 9pm (Milwaukee time) with his wife Melania and his children, shaking hands with top Republicans including his new running mate J.D. Vance.

It is his first public appearance since he was shot on the weekend in Butler, Pennsylvania.

It is not clear if Trump will address the crowd tonight. He is expected to formally accept his presidential nomination later this week. Trump is now sitting in the crowd listening to speeches from Republicans.

He smiled and pumped his fists for a few minutes as Lee Greenwood’s famous song, Proud To Be An American, played on the loudspeakers.

Chants of “USA! USA! USA!” rang out after the song ended, before the crowd yelled “Fight! Fight! Fight!” in reference to the words spoken by Trump moments after he was shot.

Watch live as Donald Trump appears at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, wearing a bandage on his injured ear:

Our US correspondent, Farrah Tomazin, on five things to look out for at the 2024 Republican convention in Milwaukee.

A change in tone?
Trump is expected to make his big speech formally accepting the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday (Friday AEST).

But after his near-death experience on Saturday, the former US president said he had rewritten his address, describing it as a chance to “bring the whole country, even the whole world, together”.

The return of Nikki Haley
One of the more notable speakers expected this week is Trump’s former UN ambassador turned presidential rival Nikki Haley, who spent months on the primary elections campaign trail warning Americans that the world would not survive another four years under Trump.

After calling him “unhinged”, “chaos” and incapable of winning a general election, Haley declared in May that she would vote for Trump in November, noting that while he “has not been perfect”, Biden “has been a catastrophe”.

The weird and wacky
Always expect the unexpected at political conventions. In 2012, for example, actor and director Clint Eastwood addressed the Republican gathering in Florida and spent 12 minutes conversing with an empty chair on stage that was standing in for then-president Barack Obama.

What J.D. says
Trump’s presidential nomination was a certainty months ago, so his choice of a running mate was always going to be one of the most anticipated moments of the campaign. However, it took on an even greater significance following the attempted assassination against him on Saturday.

When Joe Biden picked Vice President Kamala Harris, he wanted someone who was “simpatico” with him, who could take over the top job as needed and who could fulfil the promise he made to the black community to pick a black woman in the role for the first time in history.

But J.D. Vance, 39, is a relative newcomer to the scene, and if elected in November, would be one of the youngest vice presidents in history.

His speech will give Americans their first real glimpse of who he is, what he stands for – and how he may measure up in a vice presidential debate against former prosecutor Harris.

President Joe Biden has dug his heels in on his insistence to remain in the presidential race, declaring he had more to achieve in office.

Before Trump was shot over the weekend, debate in the US was dominated by questions about Biden’s cognitive state and fitness to serve another four years.

Asked on NBC News if the assassination had forced a rethink on his run for president, Biden said “No”.

The 81-year-old said he understood why people might ask about his health and mental acuity.

“I’ve done 22 major events; met thousands of people, overwhelming crowds, a lot happening. I’m on the horse. What I’m doing is going out and demonstrating to the American people that I’m in command of all my faculties,” Biden said.

“14 million people voted for me to be the nominee, in the Democratic Party – OK? I listen to them.”

“The polling data shows a lot of different things, but there’s no wide gap between us.”

Asked what the implications would be if he had another performance as poor as his debate performance against Trump last month, Biden said he did not plan to replicate what he described as a “bad, bad” night.

After what Biden claimed was one of the most successful presidential terms in modern history, it made sense to question if he should exit politics after one term.

“The answer is: because the job isn’t finished,” Biden said.

President Joe Biden says he has not thought about whether the shooting of Donald Trump had tilted the presidential race in the Republican’s favour.

“I don’t know,” Biden said in an NBC News interview, adding that he was more focused on Trump’s health.

Biden said he had asked for an independent analysis of the Butler shooting and could not yet say whether the incident represented a security failing.

“I feel safe with the Secret Service,” Biden said.

“The question is: should they have anticipated what happened?” he asked, saying it was an open question.