Trump in Milwaukee for RNC; Biden calls for national unity

Stock futures were higher as investors evaluated the impact of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and geared up for a big week of key corporate earnings.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 204 points, or 0.51%. S&P 500 futures added 0.43% and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.5%.

Read the full story here.

“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump told the New York Post in an exclusive interview published Sunday.

Trump spoke to the news outlet while on his way to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention after Saturday’s assassination attempt.

NYPost journalist Michael Goodwin described Trump as “sporting a loose, large white bandage that covered his right ear.” Photos were prohibited.

Read the full interview here.

— Matt Clinch

U.S. Treasury yields were mixed on Monday as investors weighed the impact of the assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump and looked ahead to comments from Federal Reserve officials.

At 4:33 a.m. ET, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was up by over two basis points to 4.2100%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last down by more than one basis point to 4.4428%.

Read the full story here.

Buckingham Palace confirmed that King Charles on Sunday wrote to Donald Trump following the assassination attempt over the weekend.

Although the letter’s contents have not been published, it is believed to contain similar sentiments to those of U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer.

In a tweet on Sunday, Starmer sent Trump and his family his best wishes, adding that he was “appalled by the shocking scenes” at the political rally.

“Political violence in any form has no place in our societies and my thoughts are with all the victims of this attack,” the prime minister added.

— Katrina Bishop

Donald Trump may receive a short-term election boost from Saturday’s attempted assassination, but President Joe Biden will have more to gain as attention turns away from his mental acuity, policy advisor Rob Casey said Monday.

“If there’s a silver lining for anyone in this instance, it’s President Joe Biden,” Casey, partner at Signum Global, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“Joe Biden now is going to experience something of a reprieve, and that is because the focus is no longer on his acuity and his candidacy moving forward.”

Casey said the pressure on Biden had been “turned down a few notches” following the weekend’s events, adding that he now looked likely to remain the Democratic candidate in November’s presidential run-off.

Two witnesses told NBC News there was a lack of safety measures beyond the rally’s security perimeter.

Despite having tickets to attend the rally, Valerie Fennell and Deb Kuminkoski decided to watch the rally from Fennell’s backyard to avoid the large crowd and heat. Her backyard was between where the crowd gathered and the AGR factory where the shooter was camped on a roof.

In hindsight, Fennell said she was in disbelief that she was not contacted ahead of the rally.

“The entire area just outside the event’s perimeter was open and people were walking around freely within 150 yards of where Trump was speaking with no security visible,” the two women told NBC.

Read the full report in NBC News.

— Charmaine Jacob

Biden will to return to the campaign trail this week, which includes a keynote speech at the NAACP convention in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

The president’s planned trip to the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin on Monday has been postponed.

Although no new date has been announced, Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation, said the visit could happen in the coming weeks.

“We are honored President Biden remains committed to joining us at the LBJ Library to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and we look forward to hosting him later this month,” Updegrove said on X.

— Charmaine Jacob

Trump’s support base is “very much consolidated” entering the Republican National Convention and would have been even without the attempted assassination, said former U.S. Ambassador to Singapore David Adelman.

Adelman told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” that he expects the attempted assassination to be “a subject for discussion over the entirety of the campaign.”

“These are very uncommon occurrences in the United States, and I think Americans are rightfully traumatized by what has occurred,” he said.

—Lee Ying Shan

Trump said his speech at the Republican National Convention will now focus on national unity, instead of targeting Joe Biden’s policies.

The former president told the Washington Examiner “he wanted to take advantage of a historic moment and draw the country together.”

“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,” he said in an interview following the assassination attempt against him. Trump’s speech is slated for Thursday.

The former president also explained that holding his fist in the air despite blood trickling down his face was a sign to show people that he was fine, and “that America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong.”

— Charmaine Jacob

Trump has arrived in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention where he is expected to be nominated as the Republican presidential candidate.

The former president was initially going to delay the trip by two days due to the attempted assassination, but decided otherwise.

“I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” the former president wrote on social media platform Truth Social.

The four-day convention kicks off on Monday.

— Lee Ying Shan

President Joe Biden in a rare Oval Office address responded to the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump by condemning violence and urging Americans to cool down their inflamed political discourse.

“We can’t allow this violence to be normalized,” Biden said. “You know, the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down.”

The shooting “calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here,” Biden said in the speech, which lasted less than seven minutes.

Watch the entire address below:

Biden ended his Oval Office address by stressing that democratic norms of decency, dignity and fair play are more than just “quaint notions,” but “living, breathing realities.”

“Look, let’s never lose sight of who we are,” Biden said.

“Let’s remember we are the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together,” he said. “God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.”

Biden spoke for less than seven minutes.

— Kevin Breuninger

Biden’s Oval Office address tonight was his third since taking office. It is the seventh time in his presidency that he has delivered an address in primetime, not including his State of the Union addresses.

His most recent primetime address from the Oval Office before Sunday was on Oct. 19, 2023, when Biden delivered remarks on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

– Josephine Rozzelle

Biden condemned political violence in all its forms, declaring that the natural disagreements that arise in a free country must never devolve into a “killing field.”

“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy. It’s part of human nature,” Biden said. “But politics must never be a literal battlefield or, God forbid, a killing field.”

Biden’s speech invoked not just the assassination attempt against Trump but also the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot; and other events.

— Kevin Breuninger

President Joe Biden said at the start of his national address that he wanted to speak about “the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics.”

Biden began speaking from the Oval Office at 8:01 p.m. ET.

— Kevin Breuninger

President Biden is set to deliver remarks from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. ET, where he will make a plea to end political violence in light of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, a Biden campaign official previewed to NBC News.

Throughout his campaign, Biden has repeatedly condemned examples of political violence like the 2017 Charlottesville riots and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, both of which he has at least in part blamed Trump for inciting.

“He has been clear that we don’t settle our differences through violence,” the Biden campaign official told NBC News. “We settle them at the ballot box.”

In the hours since the Trump assassination attempt, some Republican lawmakers have blamed Biden’s campaign rhetoric for the shooting.

The campaign official staunchly rejected that notion: “In a moment when Americans should come together and unite to condemn this horrifying attack, anyone – especially elected officials with national platforms – politicizing this tragedy, spreading disinformation, and seeking to further divide Americans isn’t just unacceptable – it’s an abdication of leadership.”

The official said Biden will continue to “draw the contrast” with Republicans’ agendas throughout the rest of the week, as the Republican National Convention is in full swing.

After tonight’s address, Biden will sit for an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt on Monday.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Democratic donor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman penned a lengthy X post Sunday afternoon wishing former President Donald Trump a speedy recovery and clarifying a previous comment he made from Sun Valley, Idaho, on Trump being a martyr.

“At a recent business conference, Peter Thiel said that my lawsuit work against Trump was “turning a clown into a martyr.” In that context, I replied that I wished that Trump would martyr himself – meaning let himself be held accountable – for his assaults on and lies about women,” Hoffman wrote.

“Of course I meant nothing about any sort of physical harm or violence, which I categorically deplore.”

Hoffman previously provided financing to E. Jean Carroll’s legal efforts against Trump. The two civil trials resulted in a judge ruling that Trump owed Carroll more than $88 million in damages for sexual abuse and defamation.

— Jake Piazza

Donald Trump has landed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention, which will take place Monday to Thursday. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend.

— Rebecca Picciotto