Former President Donald Trump arrived in Wisconsin on Sunday ahead of the Republican National Convention, a day after surviving an assassin attempt while campaigning in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s distinctive Boeing 757, nicknamed “Trump Force One,” landed at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport at around 5:45 p.m. local time ahead of a four-day meeting where the Republican Party will formally nominate him as its candidate.
His visit to the key battleground state came after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday afternoon, wounding him in his right ear.
Earlier, Trump, 78, said on Sunday that he had considered postponing a trip to key battleground states because of the assassination attempt but decided against it.
“In light of yesterday’s horrific events, I had intended to postpone my trip to Wisconsin and the Republican National Convention for two days, but have decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter’ or potential assassin to force me to change my schedule or anything else,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee as scheduled today at 3:30 PM.”
The runway at Mitchell International Airport was closed for 30 minutes as Trump’s plane landed as part of security measures.
The US Secret Service announced that it would not be stepping up security at the convention ahead of the former president’s arrival, despite the assassination attempt on Trump.
“We are confident in our plan and are moving forward with it,” Audrey Gibson Cicchino, the Republican National Committee’s Secret Service coordinator, told reporters.
He is set to be the Republican nominee in 2024 and is expected to choose his running mate at the party’s convention.
According to reports, his wife, Melania Trump, is also scheduled to accompany him to the convention, making it a rare occasion for her to appear at a campaign event with her husband at this election.
Melania Trump, 54, said Sunday that when she watched the vicious bullet strike my husband from gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, she realized my life – and Barron’s – was on the brink of devastating change.
Crooks, 20, left Trump bleeding, killed one person and seriously injured two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
