Just days after surviving an assassination attempt, Donald Trump is expected to be formally nominated by Republicans for U.S. president during what will be one of the most closely watched political conventions in recent memory.
Party and Trump campaign officials confirmed that the Republican National Convention would open as planned on Monday, two days after Trump was shot in the ear while speaking at an outdoor election rally in Pennsylvania.
Thousands of political delegates and throngs of protesters will converge on the upper midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the four-day convention, along with a police presence expected to be massively expanded.
Amid a maze of security barriers that have been erected in the city's downtown, VOA spoke to residents and convention participants, some of whom said they were concerned about the possibility of more unrest.
"I think it's going to get worse than it is now. I mean, they're shutting down the streets every hour," Milwaukee resident James Houser said.
Laura Baigert, an alternate Trump delegate from Tennessee, called the assassination attempt "shocking and heartbreaking."
"I expect [the convention] to be safe, but you just never know … it's scary, when you think about it — it was a head shot. We're just lucky that God was watching over him."
FBI officials have identified the suspected shooter as 20-year-old Matthew Crooks, who lived about an hour away from Butler, Pennsylvania, where the shooting occurred. No motive has been established, according to FBI officials, who said the investigation may take months.
The shooting is one of the most serious acts of U.S. political violence since 9/11, said Jacob Ware, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"This is a horrendous day in the history of our country," said Ware. "I don't think there's any reason to believe that this is the last violence that we see."
President Joe Biden, Trump's presidential rival, condemned the shooting as "sick," and said there is no room for political violence in the United States.
Even before the shooting, fears of election-related unrest were mounting — especially after Trump's support of protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol during a deadly riot following his 2020 election loss to Biden.
Trump and many of his supporters who say they feel disenfranchised have long complained that the 2020 election was stolen, though no evidence of widespread voter fraud has been presented.
Many Republicans are also upset that Trump has faced an unprecedented wave of criminal charges after leaving office, including some that were brought by the U.S. Justice Department.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in May, two-thirds of Americans said they were concerned about the possibility of extremists committing acts of violence if they are unhappy with the November election result.
Some in Milwaukee are particularly worried about the Republican convention, especially since Wisconsin state law prohibits authorities from banning firearms in the expanded convention security zone known as the "footprint."
Earlier this year, some local politicians in Milwaukee tried, but failed, to pass legislation that would ban guns in the footprint. The Secret Service says it will not allow members of the public to carry any weapons in the "hard perimeter," where credentials are required to enter.
One local alderman called the regulations "absurd," noting those in the footprint will be allowed to carry semi-automatic rifles but not tennis balls, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Brett Bruen, a former U.S diplomat who now heads a crisis communications agency called the Global Situation Room, said there is an urgent need for those in U.S. politics to tone down their radical rhetoric.
"Leaders from both sides need to take a step back," said Bruen, who lamented that some U.S. politicians had already begun politicizing the tragedy.
As details of the shooting were still emerging Saturday, Mike Collins, a member of the House of Representatives from Georgia, appeared to accuse Biden, without evidence, of orchestrating an assassination attempt.
"Joe Biden sent the orders," Collins said in a post on the social media site X.
Collins was referring to Biden's recent comment that "it's time to put Trump in a bullseye" — an attempt to shift media focus away from what observers said was a poor debate performance.
Trump has also frequently used inflammatory rhetoric — for instance, mocking the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who sustained serious injuries after an intruder beat him with a hammer during a home invasion in 2022.
But Alex Gray, the former chief of staff in Trump's National Security Council, objected to comments by left-leaning figures that frame Trump as a fascist dictator.
"We hear a lot of talk about President Trump supposedly being a threat to democracy. I think what we all need to do is take a step back," Gray said.
Gray, who is attending the convention, said he is confident about security at the event. He said he hopes the convention would become an opportunity for Trump and other Republicans to outline an "uplifting and unifying vision" for America's democratic institutions.
"He is now the first American president since Ronald Reagan to have faced an assassin's bullet. He is uniquely set up to make comments about the strength and resiliency and durability of our democracy," Gray added.
Many observers, including Ware, say the dramatic images of a bloodied Trump defiantly pumping his fist after being shot will invigorate his supporters, possibly boosting his election chances. However, the incident also increases the chances of additional unrest, he said.
"We are in a very frightening moment," he added. "And I'm not quite sure what our country looks like waking up tomorrow after an incident like this."
VOA's Marko Protic also contributed to this report.
