'I felt very emotional' - Trump faithful moved by ex-president's convention entrance

Two days after a bloodied Donald Trump raised his fist and mouthed “Fight!" as he narrowly survived an assassination attempt, he entered the Republican National Convention on Monday night and watched the crowd echo the word back at him.

They balled their hands into fists as they chanted, thrusting them into the air. Down on the floor, delegates grew emotional as their nominee stood above them, very much alive and bearing evidence of his injury.

“I felt very emotional seeing a bandage,” Jessica Davidson, a delegate from Oregon, said of the dressings over his ear, “because somebody tried to assassinate him.”

The former president’s appearance at the first day of the convention drew rapturous cheers from his followers.

The carefully orchestrated moment was a show of political strength, which seemed designed to convey that if a bullet could not stop his candidacy, then nothing else would either.

“He's evidently a strong leader,” said Shirley Mabini Young, a delegate from Guam. “And he needs us to see that because we all have to be strong just like him.”

Trump first appeared on the convention hall’s large screen, his ear covered in a white bandage as he looked into the camera.

Jessica Davidson (right) said she felt emotional seeing Trump's bandage

At the first sight of him, Republicans in the arena began to roar their approval.

As he walked out to screams and cheers, the former president seemed moved by the show of support.

He climbed the stairs to a VIP-section just above the arena floor, where he was joined by members of his family as well as House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson.

“He had the whole crowd captivated just watching him walk out,” said Erin Lucas, a 35-year-old delegate from Indiana. “I think everyone was happy to see him healthy, strong, living, breathing.

“It takes a lot to come back from something that tragic that happened to you.”

The attack at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday recalibrated his approach to the weeklong convention, which has officially nominated him as the Republican presidential candidate.

“Saturday scared me,” said Joe Mullins, a delegate from Florida

Trump said that after the shooting he “threw away” the prepared text of the speech he will deliver later this week, underscoring how his brush with death has changed the dynamics of this, one of the biggest moments of any presidential campaign.

Speakers referred to the attack in their convention addresses.

“An American lion got up on his feet and he roared!” South Carolina Senator Tim Scott told the crowd, earning his biggest applause of the evening.

The shooting, which left one dead and two others seriously injured, was still fresh in many minds on the floor of the RNC.

“Saturday scared me,” Joe Mullins, a delegate from Florida, said. “We’d be in a whole different world if not for half an inch.

“I had tears in my eyes. I haven’t cried like that since I lost my mother.”

While some attendees expressed anger at the shooting, and others called for displays of solidarity and well wishes for Trump, the overarching mood in Milwaukee is still one of celebration.

“It's electric,” said Terasa Filsoof, who is attending the RNC with the Republican Jewish Coalition. "It's been wonderful.” She has made her own disco-ball cowboy hat, and adorned it with red ribbons and a US flag.

A delegate from Wisconsin, Cindy Werner, meanwhile, told the BBC she felt moved when her state pledged its delegates to the former president.

“I felt proud,” she said. “I felt that we will have a fighter that will get back into the fight.”