Chants of 'we love Trump' could be heard as he entered the RNC.
MILWAUKEE -- The Republican National Convention is officially underway in Milwaukee on Monday -- just two days after Donald Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday evening.
Despite the shooting, the gathering of more than 50,000 attendees, including an expected 2,400 Republican delegates, is slated to maintain its original programming as a time to bring the party together -- but now newly energized by Trump's amazing survival and raised-fist show of defiance.
One of the most anticipated moments of Trump's campaign happened Monday when Trump named 39-year-old Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate.
In a morning news conference, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said 2 people were arrested near the security perimeter. They were both "heavily intoxicated," he said.
Some people also needed medical attention due to the heat in Milwaukee.
A day after being grazed by a bullet in an attempted assassination, former president Donald Trump said he plans to take advantage of the moment and deliver a message of unity to meet the moment.
"The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger," Trump said as he boarded his flight en route to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. "Honestly, it's going to be a whole different speech now."
"It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance," Trump added.
He said that many people from the political spectrum have called him over the past 24 hours and described the moment he turned his head on stage to look at the screen, which ultimately could have saved his life.
"That reality is just setting in," Trump said. "I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?"
The world has now seen the image of the former president raising his fist with blood on his ear, and Trump said he did that because he wanted the country to know he was going to be OK. He wanted the Pennsylvania crowd to know that "America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong."
Trump recalled, "The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it's hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK."
Inside the Fiserv Forum and the immediate security perimeter around the Republican National Convention guns are not allowed. However, guns will be allowed immediately outside the convention center in the outer perimeter surrounding the Secret Service-controlled area due to Wisconsin state law.
The situation is facing increased scrutiny in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Due to Wisconsin state law, people will be allowed to openly carry guns and can conceal-carry with a permit inside the so-called "soft perimeter," which surrounds the Secret Service patrolled inner "hard perimeter." City officials tell ABC News they are frustrated following Saturday's developments but don't expect a change.
A recently passed Milwaukee city ordinance outlines what is banned in the outer perimeter, including tennis balls and paintball guns. But it doesn't cover most firearms and only prohibits weapons already outlawed by the state, including fully automatic guns.
That means that within walking distance of the RNC convention hall -- in that "soft perimeter" -- people cannot carry a paintball gun but can carry an AR-15.
Donald Trump goes into the Republican National Convention with bold promises about the U.S. economy, but he has sketched out notably few details about how his plans would actually work.
The convention's first day is still expected to focus on the economy even after Saturday's shooting.
If the program goes ahead as planned, expect speakers to argue that Trump's agenda of sweeping tariffs and lower taxes would jump-start the economy.
The former president says he wants tariffs on trade partners and no taxes on tips and would like to knock the corporate tax rate down a tick. The Republican platform also promises to "defeat" inflation and "quickly bring down all prices," in addition to pumping out more oil, natural gas and coal.
The platform would address illegal immigration in part with the "largest deportation program in American history." And Trump would also scrap President Joe Biden's policies to develop the market for electric vehicles and renewable energy.
