DONALD J. TRUMP
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
Fiserve Forum
Milwaukee, WI
July 17, 2024

[DEMOCRACY IN ACTION partial transcript: the first 1/3 of the speech. |  C-SPAN video]

[MUSIC: Lee Greenwood "Proud to Be an American"]

[CHANTS: USA]

TRUMP: Thank you very much.  Thank you very, very much. Wow.

And thank you, Dana.

Thank you Kid Rock, sometimes referred to as Bob.

And thank you Lee, right from the beginning. Thank you very much. What a talent, what a beautiful, beautiful song.

Friends, delegates and fellow citizens, I stand before you this evening with a message of confidence, strength and hope. Four months from now, we will have an incredible victory, and we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country.

Together, we will launch a new year of safety, prosperity and freedom for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed, The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together, or we fall apart.

I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.

So tonight, with faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[CHANTS: Trump]

Thank you very much.

And we will do it right. We will do it right.

Let me begin this evening by expressing my gratitude to the American people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt at my rally on Saturday.

As you already know, the assassin's bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. So many people have asked me, what happened. Tell us what happened, please. And therefore 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.

It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening in Butler township in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Music was loudly playing, and the campaign was doing really well. I went to the stage and the crowd was cheering wildly. Everybody was happy. I began speaking very strongly, powerfully and happily, because I was discussing the great job my administration did on immigration at the southern border. We were very proud of it.

Behind me and to the right was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership—the numbers were absolutely amazing. In order to see the chart, I started to, like this, turn to my right, and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I'm very lucky I didn't do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear,

I said to myself, Wow, What was that?

It can only be a bullet, and moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down. My hand was covered with blood, just absolutely blood all over the place. I immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack, and in one movement, proceeded to drop to the ground. Bullets were continuing to fly as very brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage. And they really did. They rushed to the stage.

These are great people at great risk, I will tell you. And pounced on top of me so that I would be protected. There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side.

The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together. The most incredible aspect of what took place on that terrible evening in the fading sun was actually seen later. In almost all cases, as you probably know, and when even a single bullet is fired, just a single bullet—and we had many bullets that were being fired—crowds run for the exits or stampede, but not in this case, very unusual.

This massive crowd of tens of thousands of people stood by and didn't move an inch. In fact, many of them bravely but automatically stood up looking for where the sniper would be. They knew immediately it was a sniper, and then began pointing at him. You can see that if you look at the group behind me, that was just a small group compared to what was in front.

Nobody ran, and by not stampeding, many lives were saved. But that isn't the reason that they didn't move. The reason is that they knew I was in very serious trouble. They saw it. They saw me go down. They saw the blood and thought actually, most did that I was dead. They knew it was a shot to the head. They saw the blood.

And there's an interesting statistic, the ears are the bloodiest part. If something happens with the ears, they bleed more than any other part of the body, for whatever reason. The doctors told me that. I said, Why is there so much blood? He said, It's the ears; they bleed more. So we learned something. But they just, they just this beautiful crowd, hey didn't want to leave me. They knew I was in trouble. They didn't want to leave me. And you can see that love written all over their faces. Incredible people. They're incredible people.

Bullets were flying over us, yet I felt serene, but now the Secret Service agents were putting themselves in peril. They were in very dangerous territory. Bullets were flying right over them, missing them by a very small amount of inches, snd then it all stopped. Our Secret Service sniper from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used, took the assassin's life, took them out.

I'm not supposed to be here tonight. Not supposed to be here.

[CHANTS: Yes you are.]

Thank you. But I'm not. And I'll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.

In watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment. Probably was. When I rose surrounded by Secret Service, the crowd was confused, because they thought I was dead, and there was great, great sorrow. I could see that on their faces as I looked out. They didn't know I was looking out. They thought it was over, but I could see it. I wanted to do something to let them know I was okay. I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousandss of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting, fight, fight, fight.

[CHANTS: Fight.]

Once my clenched fist went up—and it was high into the air, you've all seen that—the crowd realized I was okay and roared with pride for our country like no crowd I have ever heard before. Never heard anything like it.

For the rest of my life, I will be grateful for the love shown by that giant audience of patriots that stood bravely on that fateful evening in Pennsylvania. Tragically, the shooter claimed the life of one of our fellow Americans. Corey Comperatore, unbelievable person, everybody tells me. Unbelievable.

And seriously wounded two other great warriors—spoke to them today—David Dutch, James Copenhaver, two great people. I also spoke to all three families of these tremendous people. Our love and prayers are with them, and always will be. We're never going to forget them. They came for a great rally. They were serious Trumpsters. I want to tell you they were serious Trumpsters, and still are, but Corey, unfortunately, we have to use the past tense. He was incredible.

He was a highly respected former fire chief, respected by everybody. Was accompanied by his wife, Helen, incredible woman, I spoke to her today, devastated, and two precious daughters. He lost his life selflessly acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets. He went right over the top of them and was hit. What a fine man he was.

[CHANTS: Corey]

[Trump goes over to the uniform]

I want to thank the fire department and the family for sending his helmet, his outfit, and it was just something that they're going to do something very special when they get it, but we did something which cannot match what happened, not even close. But I am very proud to say that over the past few days, we've raised $6.3 million for the families of David, James and Corey, including from a friend of mine just called up. He sent me a check right here. I just got it, $1 million.  From Dan Newlin; thank you Dan.

And again, when speaking to the family, I told them, I said, well, going to be sending you a lot of money, but it can't compensate. They all said the same thing. You're right, sir, we appreciate so much what you're doing, but nothing can take the place in the case of Corey and the other two. By the way, they were very, very seriously injured, but now they're doing very well. They're going to be okay. They're going to be doing very well. They're warriors.

So now I ask that we observe a moment of silence in honor of our friend Corey.


There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for others. This is the spirit that forged America in her darkest hours, and this is the love that will lead America back to the summit of human achievement and greatness. This is what we need. Despite such a heinous attack, we unite this evening more determined than ever. I am more determined than ever, and so are you. So is everybody.

[CHANTS: We love Trump]

Thank you very much.

Our resolve is unbroken and our purpose is unchanged, to deliver a government that serves the American people better than ever before. Nothing will stop me in this mission, because our vision is righteous and our cause is pure, 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, your family and our magnificent country. Never.

And everything I have to give with all of the energy and fight in my heart and soul, I pledge to our nation tonight. Thank you very much. I pledge that to our nation. Going to turn our nation around, and we're going to do it very quickly. Thank you.


This election should be about the issues facing our country and how to make America successful, safe, free and great again.

In an age when our politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens. We are one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

And we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what's been happening in our country lately at a level that nobody has ever seen before. In that spirit, the Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy,

Especially since that is not true. In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.

And very big news, as you probably just read. On Monday, a major ruling was handed down from a highly respected federal judge in Florida, Eileen Cannon, finding that the prosecutor and the fake documents case against me were totally unconstitutional and the entire case was thrown out of court, with all of that publicity, thrown out of court.

If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts, which I have been going through for approximately eight years, and they should do that without delay and allow an election to proceed that is worthy of our people. We're going to win it anyway, but worthy of our people.

On this journey, I am deeply honored to be joined by my amazing wife, Melania.

And Melania, thank you very much. You also did something really beautiful, a letter to America, calling for national unity. And it really took the Republican Party by surprise. I will tell you it was beautiful.

In fact some very serious people said that we should take that letter and put it as part of the Republican platform. That would be an honor wouldn't it, right, Mr. Congressman. But it captivated so many. So I also want to thank my entire family for being here. Don, Kimberly, Ivanka and Jared, Eric and Lara, Tiffany and Michael, Barron; we love our Baron,

And, of course, my ten wonderful grandchildren. You saw a few of them up there on my lap before.

And how good was Dana? Was Dana good? Was he good? You know, he was on probably the only vacation he's had in about maybe ever, because he works, but about 10 years with his wife, very far away. I won't tell you where, but very, very far away, beautiful place. And my people called, and he said, Yeah, I won't be able to do it. This is many, many years; I promised my wife. I can't do it. And they came in, they said, Dana won't be able to do it. Because he was my first, second, and third choice. I said, Well, you know, that's too bad, but I understand he's away, and it's good; it's good for him. And that was it. About 30 minutes later, she came back in. Sir, Dana just called. He's going to do it. And his wife, she said, You can't turn him down. You just can't do it. You have to go. That's a good wife.

So he got on a plane. He got here a little while ago. Now he's going to get on the plane in a little while, and he's going to go back home to his wife. But they're great, and I just want to thank her and him and their whole family, because that's not easy.

And Kid Rock. Same thing. Called. He said, he said, I want to be a part of it. I want to be a part. Because, you know, Kid does his great song, big, big, monster song. I had no idea. Became a friend of mine over the last 10 years. And he's amazing. Everyone loves him. I didn't even know how big he was. You know, he has rallies, 35-40,000 people he gets every time he goes out. I think he's making so much money, he doesn't know what the hell to do with it. You want to know.

And then we have my other friend, and I've known him so long, and we took that song and it was a big success, but we made that—. I saw a chart of great songs to America that was number one on the chart recently, number one. So that's Lee Greenwood, very special, beautiful person. He's a beautiful man.

But they all wanted to be here. They called, and how about the Hulkster? How good was he? Is here? Where is he? Boy, oh, boy. You know they may call it, hey may call that entertainment. I know about entertainment, but when he used to lift a 350 pound man over his shoulders and then bench press him two rows into the audience. I say maybe entertainment, but he is one strong son of a gun. I will tell you. I watched it many times. There aren't a lot of entertainers that could do that, right? You were fantastic. Thank you very much.

Followed by Eric. What was that all about? Boy, that was good. I didn't want to really come up here. But he was so great, and he's such a good young man. He went through a lot of trouble. And Don last night was incredible. They went through so much trouble. They got subpoenaed more than any people, probably in the history of the United States. Every week they get another subpoena from the Democrats. Crazy Nancy Pelosi, the whole thing, just boom, boom, boom.

They've got to stop that, because they're destroying our country. We have to work on making America great again, not on beating people. And we won. We beat them on all, we beat them on the impeachments, we beat them on indictments; we beat them. But the time that you have to spend, the time that you have to spend. If they would devote that genius to helping our country, we'd have a much stronger and better country.

And Jason, the biggest star in country music. Jason, thank you for being here. Jason, thank you very much. Jason Aldean, he's good. I like his I like his wife even better, by the way, she's here. Thank you, Jason.

But I'm thrilled to have a new friend and partner fighting by my side, the next Vice President of the United States, the current senator from Ohio, JD Vance and his incredible wife, Usha,

He's going to be a great Vice President. He's going to be great; he'll be with this country and with this movement—greatest movement in the history of our country, make America great again. When they criticize it, they said, We're going to try and stop MAGA. I said, MAGA is making America great again. What are you going to stop? There's nothing to stop. Then they say, Oh, that's right. It's very tough to fight it. And all of the people that did try and fight it have failed. But he's going to be with us a long time, and it was an honor to select him. Great, great student at Yale. His wife was a great student at Yale. They met at Yale. These are two smart people. So JD, you're going to be doing this for a long time. Enjoy the ride.

And a very special thank you to the extraordinary people of Milwaukee and the great state of— There
they are, that's— you are so easy to spot. And Green Bay is going to have a good team this year, right? They're gonna have a good team. They're gonna have a good team. Most of the audience doesn't like it, but it's true, you have a very good team this year.

And by the way, Wisconsin, we are spending over $250 million here, creating jobs and other economic development all over the place. So I hope you will remember this in November, and give us your vote. I am trying to buy your vote. I'll be honest about that. And I promise we will make Wisconsin great again. We're
going to make Wisconsin—. Thank you, Mr. Governor. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I'm here tonight to lay out a vision for the whole nation, to every citizen, whether you're a young or old man or woman, Democrat, Republican or independent, black or white, Asian or Hispanic, I extend to you a hand of loyalty and of friendship. Together, we will lead America to new heights of greatness like the world has never seen before. We were right there in the first term. We got hit with COVID. We did a great job. Nobody knew what it was, but nobody's ever seen an economy pre COVID, and then we handed over a stock market that was substantially higher than just prior to COVID coming in, did a great job.

Never got credit for that. We got credit for the war and defeating ISIS and so many things. A great economy, the biggest tax cuts ever, the biggest regulation cuts ever, the creation of Space Force, the rebuilding of our military. We did so much. We did so much. Right to Try. Right to Try is a big deal; we got Right to Try. They were trying to get that for 52 years. Somebody who's terminally ill—and hopefully there's nobody in this audience—but it does happen a lot. They're terminally ill and they can't use our new space age drugs and other things that we are way ahead. We have the greatest doctors in the world, the greatest laboratories in the world, and you can't do it. They've been trying to get that approved for 52 years.

Wasn't  that easy. The insurance companies didn't want to do it. They didn't want the risk. The labs didn't want to do it, because if it didn't work, people are pretty far down the line toward death. They didn't want to do it. The doctors didn't want to have it on their record. So I got everybody into an office—52 years they tried. Sounds simple, but it's not. And I got them to agree that somebody that needs it will, instead of going to Asia, Europe or someplace, or if you have no money, going home and dying, just die. We got them to sign an agreement, agree to it, where they're not going to sue anybody. They're going to get all of this stuff. They're going to get it really fast. And what's happened is we're saving thousands and thousands of lives. It's incredible. Right to Try. It's great feeling.

Under our leadership, the United States will be respected again. No nation will question our power. No enemy will doubt our might. Our borders will be totally secure. Our economy will soar. We will return law and order to our streets, patriotism to our schools and importantly, we will restore peace, stability and harmony all throughout the world.

But to achieve this future, we must first rescue our nation from failed and even incompetent leadership. We have totally incompetent leadership. This will be the most important election in the history of our country. Under the current administration, we are indeed a nation in decline. We have an inflation crisis that is making life unaffordable, ravaging the incomes of working and low income families, and crushing, just simply crushing our people like never before. They've never seen anything like it.

We also have an illegal immigration crisis, and it's taking place right now as we sit here in this beautiful arena. It's a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease and disruption to communities all across our land. Nobody's ever seen anything like it.

Then there's an international crisis, the likes of which the world has seldom been part of. Nobody can believe what's happening. War is now raging in Europe and the Middle East, a growing specter of conflict hangs over Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines and all of Asia, and our planet is teetering on the edge of world war three, and this will be a war like no other war because of weaponry. The weapons are no longer army tanks going back and forth, shooting at each other. These weapons are obliteration.

It's time for a change. This administration can't come close to solving the problems. We're dealing with very tough, very fierce people. They're fierce people, and we don't have fierce people. We have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections and a couple of other things, then they're fierce; then they're fierce.


[CONTINUES]