US election: Donald Trump becomes the official Republican presidential nominee
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Donald Trump has received enough votes at the Republican National Convention (RNC) to become the party’s official presidential nominee – days after surviving an assassination attempt.
At the gathering in Milwaukee, the ex-president was confirmed as the Republican candidate ahead of the 5 November election.
The 78-year-old also named Ohio senator JD Vance as his election running mate on his social media platform Truth Social.
Follow live: Trump confirmed as Republican presidential nominee
Florida delegates react after Trump was officially announced as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. Pic: AP
Mr Trump’s dominance over the party was reasserted as his confirmation as the Republican nominee sparked scenes of celebration in the convention hall.
Meanwhile, protests against him were held outside the venue.
It comes after Mr Trump survived an assassination attempt on Saturday when a gunman, named by authorities as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, shot at him during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Mr Trump, who was struck on the ear in the attack, has been the presumptive nominee for months, having easily clinched a majority of convention delegates earlier in the year – brushing aside rivals like South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
However, he didn’t officially become the party’s standard-bearer until Monday’s roll call, where delegates voted for him.
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His son, Eric Trump, announced the delegates from Florida which put the former president over the line.
The leader of each state took turns to announce their result, formally putting Mr Trump back in to battle the Democrat candidate – likely to be incumbent Joe Biden – for control of the White House later this year.
The vast majority of the delegates were already bound to support Mr Trump, with at least 2,243 of the around 2,400, known to be supporting him before the four-day RNC began on Monday.
Trump in the moments after he was shot. Pic: AP
While at least 150 delegates, including the entire delegations from Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota, were technically “unbound” many had already confirmed they planned to vote for Mr Trump prior to the convention.
Biden expected to stand still
Joe Biden condemned the violence against his rival. Pic: Reuters
President Joe Biden is still expected to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee despite coming under increased pressure and scrutiny over questions of his mental fitness and ability to carry out the job.
Despite calls for him to step aside, the 81-year-old is expected to run against Mr Trump once more and Mr Biden has insisted he’s going nowhere.
He will be nominated ahead of the Democratic National Convention on 19 August, due to an Ohio law that could have kept Mr Biden off the ballots in the state if he was not nominated by 7 August.
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Race to the RNC
Mr Trump comfortably beat the internal opposition in the party’s primaries even as he faces a number of legal cases.
Nikki Haley was the last opponent standing against him and had pitched herself as a solid conservative and younger alternative to Mr Trump – who is 25 years older than her.
Despite Ms Haley performing well in the debates, that Mr Trump skipped, and drawing some support from deep-pocketed donors, she, nor anyone else, ever posed a serious threat to Mr Trump.
