Trump Says He’s Revised His Convention Speech in Wake of Shooting

Former President Donald J. Trump, in his first interviews since surviving an assassination attempt, said he had thrown out the speech that he planned to deliver at the Republican National Convention this week and was drafting one that was more unifying.

“I want to try to unite our country, but I don’t know if that’s possible,” he told The New York Post on Sunday in an interview on his private plane as he traveled to Milwaukee for the convention. “People are very divided.”

“I had all prepared an extremely tough speech, really good, all about the corrupt, horrible administration,” he said. “But I threw it away.”

Mr. Trump will formally accept the Republican presidential nomination for a third election cycle during the party’s convention, which starts on Monday.

He made similar comments to The Washington Examiner, which reported that Mr. Trump was wearing a gauze bandage over his ear. “I think it would be very bad if I got up and started going wild about how horrible everybody is, and how corrupt and crooked, even if it’s true,” he said.

But the assassination attempt may be more likely to further polarize American voters than unify them. As soon as the shooting happened, conspiracy theories began to take off. Some Republicans blamed President Biden and his supporters for the attack, while some Democrats blamed Mr. Trump for encouraging political violence.

After the shooting, Mr. Trump pumped his fist at the crowd and shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” An Associated Press photographer captured the moment against the backdrop of an American flag, in a photo that the Trump campaign is already using on its fund-raising site. In the interview with The Post, Mr. Trump said, “A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever