(NewsNation) — The Republican National Convention will kick off Monday, July 15, bringing some of the country’s most prominent conservatives to Milwaukee ahead of former President Donald Trump‘s selection as the 2024 election‘s GOP candidate.
Trump’s campaign released the full RNC speaker list on Saturday, July 13. Here are some of the political personalities who will take the Fiserv Forum stage during the four-day event.
Donald Trump
The Republican candidate and presumptive nominee will round out the convention as its last speaker on Thursday, July 18.
Going into the event, Trump leads President Joe Biden by a point in the national polling average maintained by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) as of the evening of July 12.
Trump’s vice president pick
A speech from Trump’s running mate is scheduled for Wednesday, July 17, though who will take on the role remains up in the air.
Names floated for the position include:
- Nikki Haley
- Marco Rubio
- Tim Scott
- Vivek Ramaswamy
- J.D. Vance
- Ben Carson
- Doug Burgum
- Byron Donalds
- Kristi Noem
- Ron DeSantis
- Elise Stefanik
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won the plurality of votes for the position with 16.11% in an early July NewsNation/DDHQ poll. But an even bigger portion of respondents, 30.86%, chose “somebody else” over the nine named options.
Ron DeSantis
Florida governor and previous Trump opponent Ron DeSantis has been added to the RNC schedule after previously having no role, CNN first reported and NBC confirmed.
“I will confirm a change in schedule that means he will now be speaking,” a source familiar with the decision who is helping plan convention activities told NBC News.
A source close to DeSantis said otherwise, telling NBC: “We have been told for a while we had a speaking slot and have never been told we do not.”
Dana White
Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White will take the stage immediately before Trump’s acceptance speech, the Washington Examiner confirmed.
Amber Rose
Model Amber Rose, former girlfriend of rapper Kanye West, confirmed via X that she will take the RNC stage. She also shared her support for Trump, saying, “It’s True…#MAGA.”
The pro-Trump speech is a departure from her 2016 views when Rose called the Republican front-runner a “f***ing idiot” in an interview with The Cut: “He’s so weird. I really hope he’s not president.”
Savannah Chrisley
“Chrisley Knows Best” star Savannah Chrisley is set to speak during Tuesday evening programming at the convention, themed “Make America Safe Again,” ABC reports.
Savannah Chrisley has begun advocating for criminal justice reform following the conviction of her parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley, for conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans.
Michael Morin
The brother of Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother killed while on a walk on a popular trail, will speak. The suspect in her death, 23-year-old Victor Martinez Hernandez of El Salvador, was arrested in Oklahoma and transferred to Maryland in late June.
Sources told NewsNation’s Ali Bradley he crossed near El Paso multiple times in 2023 and was removed by border authorities. He reentered in February 2023, with an Interpol alert issued one month later, potentially connecting Hernandez to another killing he’s accused of in his home country.
The day and time of Michael Morin’s speech has not yet been released.
UNC frat members
Also in attendance will be a group of fraternity brothers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who the Trump campaign says “patriotically protected an American flag that had been disturbed by demonstrators during an anti-Israel protest on their campus.”
Donald Trump Jr.
The president’s son is expected to address the convention right before his father’s vice president pick is announced, as reported by USA Today. The younger Trump is a vocal supporter of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who is on the running list of potential VP picks for the GOP candidate.
Two people familiar with the Republican National Convention schedule told USA Today that Trump Jr. has been scheduled to speak on Wednesday for weeks, and his appearance does not indicate any favoritism toward a particular VP pick.
