Trump Is Expected to Detail Assassination Attempt in Convention Speech

Five days after a gunman tried to assassinate him at a political rally, former President Donald J. Trump on Thursday night is expected to describe his personal experience of the shooting as he formally accepts the Republican Party’s presidential nomination and calls on Americans to unify behind him, according to prepared excerpts provided by his campaign.

“As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life,” Mr. Trump is expected to say at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “So many people have asked me what happened, and therefore, I’ll tell you what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell.”

And Mr. Trump — who frequently mocks his political enemies, has promised retribution against them and often insists this election is the country’s “final battle” — will insist that Americans must put aside the divisions he has often stoked.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed,” Mr. Trump will say. “As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart."

As he has throughout his political career, Mr. Trump is expected to again portray an America in decay, one that can only be rescued by his restoration to the White House in November. He will directly contrast President Biden’s leadership to his own, which he will characterize as a time of great American strength and prosperity.

“We cannot, and will not, let this continue,” Mr. Trump is expected to say about the state of the country. “Less than four years ago, we were a great nation, and we will soon be a great nation again.”