When is Trump speaking at the RNC?

WASHINGTON — The Republican National Convention is kicking off Monday, where Donald Trump will formally accept his party's nomination as the GOP candidate for the presidential election. 

The event comes just days after Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. 

Even before Saturday's deadly shooting, the RNC was set to be a major event in the campaign. Trump will unveil his pick for running mate, the person who will be his vice president if he wins the election in November. And party members will likely be trying to put their best foot forward through speeches and presentations as possible future leaders of the GOP conference. If Trump wins in November, he will be term-limited out from running again, meaning a new Republican candidate will have to emerge for 2028. 

But before that, Trump is expected to take the stage and address the Republican party. 

When will Donald Trump speak at the RNC? 

Trump is the headliner for the event, and is expected to address delegates on Thursday evening, the last day of the convention. His remarks will come as those delegates cast their votes for him as the party's nominee. 

In a joint statement released Saturday evening, the Trump campaign and RNC said Trump "looks forward to joining you all in Milwaukee as we proceed with our convention to nominate him to serve as the 47th President of the United States."

Has Trump changed his speech? 

After the assassination attempt on Trump, anger and anxiety are coursing through the party, even as many top Republicans call for calm and a lowering of tensions. 

As elected officials, politicians and a few regular Americans address the conference, the question is which tone will prevail in the aftermath of the attack: Will it make speeches even more fiery or will calls for calm prevail?

Trump, for his part, has reportedly been changing his speech in response to the shooting. 

Much of the speech was originally focused on the Biden administration's policies, and likely wouldn't have sounded much different from his usual campaign rally stump speeches — tangential, off the cuff and undeniably Trumpian. 

But in the wake of the shooting, the former president has reportedly sought a softer message. He has been calling for national unity, as members of his party and Democrats, including President Joe Biden, call for cooler heads to prevail and for political violence to be avoided. 

Trump has said he will carry that message into the convention. He told The Washington Examiner that he has rewritten his speech after being the target of an attempted assassination.

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he told the news outlet in an article posted Sunday evening.

In the interview, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee says he will now call for a new effort at national unity, noting that people from different political views have called him after the attack.

When will Trump pick his vice president? 

Trump told Fox News Channel host Bret Baier in a call that he planned to make his pick Monday. 

Traditionally the candidate for vice president addresses the convention on Wednesday. 

Because Trump isn't scheduled to speak until Thursday, he may announce his pick online, through his social media platform Truth Social. 

It remains unclear whether the shooting Saturday at his Pennsylvania rally has changed the former president's thinking about his potential second-in-command. 

After the shooting, Trump's choice carries considerably more gravity. If a bullet had struck just a little bit to the right, Trump likely would have been killed or seriously injured.

The close call puts in stark relief the significance of a position that is a heartbeat away from the presidency. Trump has repeatedly claimed that choosing someone who was qualified to take over as commander in chief was his top consideration for the role.

“You need somebody that can be good just in case, that horrible just in case,” he said in an interview with “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” in May.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.