Trump becomes Republican candidate, picks 39-year-old senator as VP

Donald Trump selected a 39-year-old U.S. Senator James D. Vance on Monday to serve as his vice presidential running mate, as the Republican Party officially nominated the former president as its 2024 presidential nominee at the start of the party’s national convention in Milwaukee, Reuters reports.

“As Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The four-day convention opened in downtown Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum two days after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, and hours after he secured a major legal victory when a federal judge dismissed one of Trump’s criminal prosecutions.

Trump is due to formally accept the party’s nomination in a primetime address on Thursday and will challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.

Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, are locked in what opinion polls show to be a tight election rematch.

Trump continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss to Biden was the result of widespread fraud and has not committed to accepting the results of the election were he to lose.

In the wake of the assassination attempt, Trump said he is revising his acceptance speech to emphasize national unity, rather than highlight his differences with Biden.

“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner. The would-be assassin’s bullet clipped Trump’s right ear but did no major harm.

Trump said that following the judge’s decision dismissing the documents case, his other outstanding prosecutions should also be thrown out. He is still awaiting trial on two cases – a federal prosecution in Washington and a Georgia state prosecution – for his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Both of those cases could be hamstrung by a July 1 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that he has immunity for many actions he took as president.

Trump is due to be sentenced in New York in September for trying to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before his 2016 election victory.

“This dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts,” Trump said on his Truth Social site on Monday, also referencing the prosecutions of hundreds of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.