LIVE BLOG – Gunman under investigation after failed attack in public at Trump’s first convention

The first day of the Republican convention is already over. Two days after the attack on a rally in Pennsylvania, it was an eventful day for Donald Trump. Trump appeared with earplugs, but did not address the audience. How did Trump come about?

“Trump was modest about his actions, a little affected, I thought,” American correspondent Björn Soenens said this morning. And that’s the image that emerges in the American media: a surprisingly subdued Trump. He walked thoughtfully to his seat, though the crowd chanted “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” Chanted, he didn’t. His lips formed the word thank you several times.

“He didn’t look like he was in a fighting position, it looked like he had a lump in his throat,” she writes. The New York Times. “No evil laughter, no rehearsing, none of the other hallmarks of a typical Trump performance. (…) Trump seemed overwhelmed. Was this part of the convention choreography, or had everything just sunk in?”

“Normally you’d see irritation or anger or sarcasm on Trump’s face. But now you saw extraordinary emotion. Tears welled up in his eyes. A man who normally exudes strength and wants to dominate every room he enters showed a sign of depression and vulnerability,” according to CNN.

CNN also spoke of a “divine feeling” among those present: “The overwhelming belief in miracles and the feeling that God had saved their hero after almost being killed (…) was elevated to a kind of holy status.”