Donald Trump has appeared to huge applause at the National Republican Convention on Monday night with a white bandage covering his right ear.

It’s the first time the former president has appeared in public since he was shot by 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks on Saturday night.

As he walked into the packed room, Mr Trump waved and raised his fist as the crowd chanted, “fight, fight, fight”.

He stayed among his supporters for around an hour.

Read more: Trump shooting: How the security operation unfolded

Earlier in the evening, JD Vance was announced as his running mate, a former critic who once compared Mr Trump to Hitler and described him as “cultural heroin”.

Senator Vance is now a devoted follower of Trump’s politics and regularly repeats his theory that the Democrats “stole” the 2020 election.

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“I said some bad things about Trump ten years ago, but I think it’s actually important to be able again to admit that you’re wrong,” he said to Fox News on Monday night.

Read more: Who is JD Vance?

Trump and Biden’s phone call

President Biden said he and Mr Trump had a “very cordial” phone conversation after the attempt on Mr Trump’s life on Saturday.

“He sounded good,” said President Biden in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday night.

“He said he was fine and he thanked me for calling him. I told him he was literally in the prayers of Jill and me, and I hope his whole family was weathering this.”

Donald Trump said Mr Biden “couldn’t have been nicer” on the call, in an interview with ABC.

‘Bullseye’ comment was a ‘mistake’

During his NBC interview, President Biden said it was a mistake to tell supporters “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye” before the attempt on the former president’s life on Saturday.

“I meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing, focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate,” he said.

The US president called for a “cooling down” of political rhetoric after the assassination attempt at a Republican campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

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“It matters whether or not you accept the outcome of elections,” he said.

“It matters whether or not you… talk about how you’re gonna deal with the border instead of talking about people as being vermin. Those things matter. That’s the kind of language that is inflammatory.”

Asked if he was considering dropping out of the presidential election, Mr Biden replied: “No”.

He said he had been “demonstrating to the American people that I have command of all my faculties” since his debate with Mr Trump where he stumbled over words, misspoke and left long, frequent pauses.

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“I don’t need notes. I don’t need [teleprompters]. I can go out and answer any questions at all. When NATO was in town. I stood there for an hour and answered questions,” said the president.

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