RNC 2024: Trump accepts Republican nomination in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE - Donald Trump took the Republican National Convention stage to accept his party's nomination for president on Thursday night, July 18.

In Milwaukee, Trump his first public remarks following Saturday's attempted assassination in Pennsylvania.

Republicans at the convention have called for party unity. Some of Trump's former competitors shared that message in Milwaukee.

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Thursday marked the third time Trump accepted the GOP nomination. But who he'll face in November is still a question mark, as some top Democrats are critical of their own nominee staying in the race.

Democratic response

Democrats weighed in on Trump's speech to accept the Republican nomination for president on Thursday night.

Joe Zepecki, Democrat strategist: "The former president sounds subdued tonight, but the words and the tone don't diminish what happened in the four years that he was in the White House, and they do not make real the vision of America that he is trying to sell to the American people tonight. The economy under Joe Biden is doing much better than anyone thought it would four years ago, including much better than Donald Trump thought it would four years ago. That's the reality, and you're not hearing that from the stage tonight."

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler issued the following statement:

"Tonight, Donald Trump fully broke his promise of ‘unity’ in prime time, doubling down on an extreme agenda that would roll back core freedoms, attack our middle class, and enrich the ultra-wealthy at the expense of everyone else. In his single, failed term as President, Donald Trump disgraced our nation – appointing Supreme Court justices hand-picked to shred Roe vs. Wade and undermine unions,  doling out tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy while leaving working families behind, and refusing to respect the peaceful transfer of power and inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol. Given another four years in office, Trump and Vance would take their disastrous agenda even further, with an extreme Project 2025 plan to roll back freedoms, make everything more expensive, and undercut democracy itself. With Trump’s coronation on stage in Milwaukee tonight, the Republican Party is now fully committed to an anti-freedom, pro-dictatorship agenda – a promise Wisconsinites will reject in full this November."

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison released the following statement: 

"This week, convicted felon Donald Trump reminded the American people why they voted him out of office four years ago – because he doesn’t care about working families, he only cares about himself. 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. That’s why Trump chose JD Vance to be his running mate, and it’s why Trump’s former vice president – who he tried to get to overturn the election – was nowhere to be found this week in Milwaukee. 

"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. No amount of desperate spin can change how unpopular and out of touch their disastrous plans are for the American people.

"Trump and Vance are running on the dangerous Project 2025 agenda to put tax cuts for billionaires above lowering costs for working people, outlaw abortion and threaten other basic rights, and put our democracy at risk. The more voters learn about the Trump-Vance ticket – the most extreme running mates in modern American history – the more fired up they are to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this November."