Accepting the Republican Party presidential nomination in Milwaukee on Thursday, a somber and reflective President Donald J. Trump promised to deliver “a message of confidence, strength and hope,” just days after an assassination attempt that came within fractions of an inch of killing him. On a public platform before untold millions of people, President Trump credited his survival to “the grace of Almighty God.”

As promised, a more charitable Trump dedicated a large share of his remarks at the Republican National Convention to healing our nation’s longstanding divisions, which boiled over into explosive violence last Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. “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,” he said. “I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America,” Trump insisted — a pledge President Joe Biden repeatedly made in the days following the 2020 election. Yet critics say Biden went on to preside over the most politicized presidency in U.S. history.

The emotional highlight came as President Trump recounted the details of his assassination attempt.

“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,” he told the crowd. “Behind me, and to the right, was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership,” when a bullet rang out. President Trump tilted his head slightly on Saturday night while trying to see an immigration chart, causing his would-be assassin’s bullet to graze the president’s right ear instead of hitting his head. “The assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life.”

The 45th president revealed he had turned his head to the right and “was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I’m very lucky I didn’t do,” as that would have placed his face in the shooter’s bullseye. “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,” he said.

After feeling his ear and seeing blood covering his hand, he “immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack.”

“There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet in a certain way I felt very safe because I had God on my side. I felt that,” he recalled. “I’ll tell you: I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.”

Other speakers also highlighted the seemingly miraculous survival. “I think it was divine intervention," said Tucker Carlson, who reportedly gave his speech earlier in the evening without a text or teleprompter. Carlson, who saw his top-rated Fox News show canceled a weekend after he began discussing spiritual warfare, felt the shooting’s unlikely failure could touch off a spiritual renewal in America. After seeing “what’s happened over the past month since the debate, and particularly on Saturday in Butler, I think a lot of people are wondering, ‘What is this? This doesn’t look like politics. Something bigger’s going on here.’ I think even people who don't believe in God are starting to think, ‘Maybe there’s something to this.’”

Rev. Franklin Graham thanked Jesus Christ by Name for the president’s safety. “Thank You for saving the life of President Donald J. Trump. In his words, it was You, and You alone, who saved him,” he prayed. “Sadly, as a nation, we have forgotten Who is responsible for all the freedoms, the liberties, and the bounty we enjoy. It has all come from You.” America, he said, has become a nation “in trouble. We’re divided politically, racially economically ... You’re the only One Who can fix the complexity of the problems we face today.” Graham went on to pray that God would “continue to protect him from his enemies” and “surround him with men and women who will give him sound counsel and guidance. Graham also implored God’s protection on Trump, vice presidential candidate and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance (R), and all “leaders of this nation, whether they’re Republican, Democrat, or independent.”

In his acceptance speech, President Trump acknowledged Rev. Franklin Graham — whom, he noted, asked him, “Please, don’t use any foul language” on stage — as well as his legendary evangelist father, Rev. Billy Graham, playfully calling the organizer of global mass crusades “a good rally guy.”

Yet the president praised the calm and concern of his audience, which did not crowd out of the exits. “By not stampeding, many lives were saved,” Trump said. He saluted the heroism of the Secret Service agents who dove on top of him to shield his body with their own, as well as retired Fire Chief Corey Comperatore, who lost his life in the attack. In a touching display, President Trump kissed the helmet Comperatore wore while dousing deadly blazes. Before a televised audience numbering the tens of millions, Trump announced he had helped raised $6.2 million for the families of all those who had been injured or killed in the shooting.

The president eventually displayed the same chart — contrasting the sharp decline of illegal border crossings under his presidency with the record-breaking level of illegal immigrants entering the United States during the Biden administration — that he tried to comment on during the assassination attempt.

The “last time I put up that chart, I never really got to look at it,” the president quipped, showing himself in good spirits.

He refused to show intimidation after the potential domestic terrorist attack. “Our resolve is unbroken, and our purpose is unchanged — to deliver a government that serves the American people better than ever before,” he said. “Nothing will stop me in this mission, because our vision is righteous, and our cause is pure.”

In addition to cracking down on illegal immigration, Trump briefly highlighted his administration’s accomplishments: presiding over a booming economy, lowering unemployment rates to historic lows, broadly sharing prosperity with the middle class, enacting “Right to Try” laws that give terminally-ill patients access to experimental medical treatments.

“We got hit with COVID,” Trump noted, saying his administration “did a great job” handling it.

“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,” he promised.

At one point in the speech, Trump seemingly anointed his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, as his designated successor as leader of the America First movement. “J.D., you’re going to be doing this for a long time,” he told the current junior senator from Ohio. “Enjoy the ride.”

Like Vance’s address on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech said nothing about any future federal legislation to protect the unborn from abortion, naming Supreme Court justices from a specific list of judges, upholding the definition of marriage that held until nine years ago, defunding abortionists, or sheltering minors from the transgender industry.

The speech’s priorities mirror the truncated 2024 Republican Party platform, which also contains no concrete promises on those topics — a fact Trump praised.

“It’s very short compared to the long, boring, meaningless agendas of the past,” Trump claimed of previous Republican Party platforms. He also criticized Democratic platforms of the past. (The DNC has yet to adopt its platform for this race or to nominate its official presidential or vice presidential candidates.)

Republicans cheered the final night of the convention, which in addition to Carlson and Rev. Graham, featured an energetic speech by former WWE wrestling champion Hulk Hogan, who called Trump “my hero.”

Some Democrats acknowledged the campaign dynamic at work in the Fiserv Forum. Former Obama Green Jobs Czar and onetime organizer of the Maoist organization STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement) Van Jones, now a CNN commentator, said, “The last time I was at a convention that felt like this was Obama 2008. There’s something happening.”

But not every Democrat shared his enthusiasm. Fellow Obama administration alumnus David Axelrod called Trump’s speech “the first good thing that’s happened to Democrats in the last three weeks.” Axelrod went on to blame political violence such as last weekend’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s rhetoric, mentioning the January 6 riot. “He has done his share to put us where we are,” Axelrod declared.

The Democratic Party formally accused the Republican convention of radicalism but cited promises and policies the president and vice president have not advocated or seemingly oppose. “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,” alleged DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison. In fact, neither Trump nor Vance adopted every plank of the 900-page-plus Project 2025. They have not threatened to repeal fundamental rights such as religious liberty. And they have yet to endorse a single piece of federal legislation to protect unborn children from abortion.