U.S. Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a campaign rally on August 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona, U.S.A.
| Photo Credit: AP

Donald Trump has added former White House hopefuls Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to his transition team if he wins November’s U.S. presidential election, his campaign said on Tuesday (August 27, 2024).

Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Gabbard hail from outside the Republican party sphere where former President Trump draws most of his support.

“As President Trump’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands across partisan lines, we are proud that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team,” Mr. Trump campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes said in a statement.

Mr. Kennedy, 70, an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist and descendent of a Democratic political dynasty, was running as an independent presidential candidate until he suspended his campaign last week and endorsed Mr. Trump. He joined the race for the White House as a Democratic challenger to Biden before switching to run as an independent.

A former Democratic congresswoman, Ms. Gabbard ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. She left the party in 2022 to become an independent. Increasingly critical of Mr. Biden and his administration, she is now popular among conservatives, frequently appearing as a guest on far-right TV and radio shows.

In an interview posted on X on Monday, Mr. Kennedy told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson he had been asked to join Mr. Trump’s transition team “to help pick the people who will be running the government.”

In exchange for endorsing Mr. Trump, Mr. Kennedy is hoping for a job in a potential Trump administration, a super PAC supporting Mr. Kennedy told Reuters last week.

Strategists have said it was unclear how Mr. Kennedy’s endorsement would help Mr. Trump, who is in a tight contest with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Voter interest in Mr. Kennedy waned this summer as Mr. Trump survived an assassination attempt and Mr. Biden passed the campaign torch to Ms. Harris.

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during a campaign rally, at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame in Asheboro, North Carolina.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

In his first outdoor rally since last month’s assassination attempt, Donald Trump appeared on stage in North Carolina to talk about national security as part of his weeklong trip across the country to draw attention away from Democrats and their national convention.

“Seventy-six days from now, we’re going to win this state and we’re going to win the White House,” Trump said at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame from behind a podium surrounded by panes of bulletproof glass that formed a protective wall across the stage.

Storage containers were stacked around the perimeter to create additional walls and block sight lines. Snipers were positioned on roofs at the venue, where old aircraft were sitting behind the podium and a large American flag was suspended from cranes.

The event, billed as being focused on national security issues, is part of Trump’s weeklong series of counterprogramming to the Democratic National Convention, which is underway in Chicago. Allies have been urging him to focus on policy instead of personal attacks as he struggles to adjust to running against Vice President Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

On Tuesday night, the convention showcased a double dose of Obama firepower, as the former president and former first lady assailed Trump, calling him out repeatedly by name.

“His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black,” Michelle Obama said of Trump in a rousing speech.

She also referenced a comment he made in a June debate, asking: “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”

Barack Obama mocked Trump’s obsession with his crowd sizes and called Trump “a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”

“It’s been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala,” the former president said.

Trump was joined Wednesday by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who cast Harris as a candidate selected by power brokers instead of voters and lambasted her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, before Trump took the stage.

That included continuing to hammer Walz for, at times, mischaracterizing his service record as an Army National Guard member, as well as Walz’s retirement from service before his unit’s deployment to Iraq.

“What won’t Stolen Valor Tim Walz lie about?” Vance, who served four years as a Marine, asked the crowd.

Trump has spent the week visiting battleground states in his busiest week of campaigning since the Republican primaries.

Reflecting the importance of North Carolina in this year’s election, the trip is Trump’s second to the state in just the past week. Last Wednesday, he appeared in Asheville, North Carolina, for a speech on the economy.

Trump won North Carolina by a comfortable margin in 2016. The state delivered the former president his closest statewide margin of victory four years ago and is once again considered a key battleground in 2024.

Before Trump arrived, his plane did a flyover of the rally site. The crowd erupted into cheers.

Edna Ryan, a 68-year-old retired flight attendant and private pilot, said she was bullish on the Republican’s chances, but said: “We need to be strong because otherwise we’re going to be very sorry.”

Lisa Watts, a retired business owner from Hickory, North Carolina, who was attending her fifth Trump rally, said she’s feeling “very positive” about the race against Harris.

“A month ago they never spoke her name and now she’s like, quote quote the ‘savior for the country,’” Watts said. “I don’t think that her record proves that she is ready to run this country.”

Watts said she doesn’t think Trump’s chances of winning are much different now from when Biden was the Democratic nominee.

“I think the Democrats are going to try to do everything they can to keep her up on that pedestal,” she said, predicting the hype around Harris will fade.

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Howell, Michigan.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former President Donald Trump pledged on Tuesday to “Make America Safe Again” while campaigning in Michigan as the Democrats who gathered in Chicago to nominate Kamala Harris branded him a career criminal.

As part of a battleground campaign swing designed to counter the Democratic National Convention, Trump stood alongside sheriff’s deputies in the city of Howell and tarred Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, as the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement” across the country.

“Kamala Harris will deliver crime, chaos, destruction and death,” Trump said in one of many generalizations about an America under Harris. “You’ll see levels of crime that you’ve never seen before. … I will deliver law, order, safety and peace.” Trump has sought in recent weeks to blunt the enthusiasm that Harris has attracted since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed her. That has involved both dark predictions about what electing Harris would mean for the country and efforts by Trump’s advisers to set up events where he can try to draw specific policy contrasts. On Tuesday in Michigan, the subject was crime and public safety.

“Our policemen and women have the backs of law-abiding citizens every day,” Trump said. “When we go back to the White House, you’re going to see support the likes of which you haven’t seen, certainly in four years.” In excerpts released before his speech, Trump’s campaign also said he would call for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers; he did not mention that during his remarks.

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The event was the latest billed as focused on a specific issue. But on these occasions, Trump has spent considerable time attacking Harris personally and taking shots at Biden, and the same was true after their appearances on Monday at the Democratic convention.

“I watched last night in amazement as they tried to pretend everything was great,” Trump said, singling out inflation and the U.S.-Mexico border as topics Democrats glossed over. “We have a fool as president,” he said of Biden.

Trump presented a bleak portrait of life in the U.S. and the threat of a Harris presidency, though he was short on specifics and heavy on hyperbole.

“It’s just insane,” Trump said. “You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get mugged, you get raped, you get whatever it may be. And you’ve seen it, and I’ve seen it, and it’s time for a change.” Trump making such claims, surrounded by supportive law enforcement officers, stood in stark contrast to the Democrats’ convention. Speaker after speaker found ways Monday night in Chicago to remind Americans that Trump is the first former president ever convicted of felony crimes, has been found civilly liable for sexual assault, and still faces multiple indictments, including for his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat to Biden.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas skewered Trump on Monday night as “a career criminal, with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star,” a reference to his payments to an adult film actress at issue in his New York conviction for business fraud.

As the crowd roared, Crockett kept going, hailing Harris as a former prosecutor who “has a resume” while Trump “has a rap sheet.” The derision reached its peak as Hillary Clinton, whom Trump defeated in 2016, stood back from the podium and smiled as delegates chanted: “Lock him up! Lock him up!” — a turnabout from Trump supporters’ chants about Clinton eight years ago despite the former secretary of state never having been charged with any crime.

Republican candidate Donald Trump was evacuated from the stage at today’s rally after what sounded like shots rang out at the event in Pennsylvania
| Photo Credit: AFP

Donald Trump’s campaign said in a statement that the former president was “fine” after a shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A local prosecutor says the suspected gunman and at least one attendee are dead.

“President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act,” spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility. More details will follow.”

The Secret Service said in a statement that “the former President is safe.”

U.S. President Joe Biden, after the incident, said there is “no place for this kind of violence”.

“I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well,” Mr. Biden said in a statement, adding: “I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information.”

“There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it”, he added.

Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger said in a phone interview that the suspected gunman was dead and at least one rally attendee was killed.

Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers during his last rally before the Republican National Convention opens Monday when the apparent shots began.

As the first pop rang out, Mr. Trump said, “Oh,” and grabbed his ear as two more pops could be heard and he crouched down.

Someone could be heard saying near the microphone at Mr. Trump’s lectern, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!” as agents tackled the former president. They piled atop him to shield him with their bodies, as is their training protocol, as other agents took up positions on stage to search for the threat.

Screams were heard in the crowd of several thousand people. The bangs continued as agents tended to him on stage.

Mr. Trump got to his feet moments later and could be seen reaching with his right hand toward his face. There appeared to be blood on his face.

The crowd cheered as he got back up and pumped his fist.

His motorcade left the venue moments later. His condition was not immediately known.

Police began vacating the fairgrounds shortly after Mr. Trump left the stage in what local officers described as a crime scene.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident, the White House said. He received an updated briefing from Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the United States Secretary Service, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.

Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., posted a photo on X of Mr. Trump, his fist raised and his face bloody in front of an American flag, with the words: “He’ll never stop fighting to Save America.”

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the three men on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, all quickly sent out statements expressing concern for the former president, with Rubio sharing an image taken as Trump was escorted off stage with his fist in the air and a streak of blood on his face along with the words “God protected President Trump.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a statement on X that he had been briefed on the situation and Pennsylvania state police were on hand at the rally site.

“Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable. It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States,” he said.