MILWAUKEE – The third day of the Republican National Convention kicks off Wednesday with Republicans — led by the newly nominated Donald Trump and JD Vance — shifting to issues of national security and foreign policy.
Republicans are expected to focus on Democratic President Joe Biden's handling of the ongoing crises in Europe and the Middle East. Former Trump administration officials are expected to take the stage to outline what foreign policy would look like in a second Trump term.
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The lineup will include speeches from Richard Grenell, Trump's former acting director of national intelligence, and Scott Neil, who served as a Green Beret in Afghanistan.
And Vance is expected to accept his party's nomination for vice president.
Here’s what to watch for on the third day of the RNC:
JD Vance gets his turn in the spotlight
Despite his relative celebrity after publishing the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” the 39-year-old Ohio senator is unknown to many Americans — and even to many top Republicans in Milwaukee. He'll get the chance to address a national audience Wednesday night.
Expect a speech that introduces his family — his wife, Usha, and their three children — and his endorsement of Trump's policies.
Vance beat out North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to be Trump's running mate. He has developed a strong rapport with the former president over the years, speaking regularly by phone.
Trump has also complimented Vance’s beard, saying he “looks like a young Abraham Lincoln."
Ex-White House official will speak at RNC after being released from prison
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro was released from a Florida prison on Wednesday and is expected to speak hours later at the Republican National Convention.
Navarro, who was a Trump trade adviser, was released from custody after completing a four-month sentence for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Navarro will head straight to Milwaukee to speak at the third night of the RNC. He is set to speak in the 6 p.m. hour Central time, according to a person familiar with the schedule who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the schedule’s official release.
Foreign policy will take center stage
Many of the speeches Wednesday will take aim at the Biden administration's handling of global issues, including the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, according to Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee, with the theme of “Make America Strong Once Again.”
“Under Joe Biden, the weakest commander-in-chief in our country’s history, America has become a global laughingstock,” the committee claimed in a statement.
Republicans see foreign policy as one of their strongest campaign issues, arguing that America's standing on the world stage was stronger under Trump despite the party's growing isolationist shift.
“I can tell you, countries around the world, leaders, are absolutely uncomfortable with the unpredictability of Donald Trump," Grenell, Trump’s former ambassador to Germany, said during a reporters' roundtable Monday. “And when I say uncomfortable, that means they don’t know exactly what he’s going to do next. And that’s a positive for us.”
It is an argument he will likely make again Wednesday night.
Border and immigration are likely to be highlighted again
While the focus of Wednesday's session is expected to be beyond America's borders, Republicans are expected to also highlight how Biden's supposed “weakness” on immigration is also endangering the U.S. reputation abroad. Many speakers have already documented claims that a growing number of foreign terrorists have been able to illegally get into the U.S. from Mexico. Republicans have pointed to the arrests last month on U.S. soil of eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State group.
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Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
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