The former president, elated after a triumphant convention that officially named Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for the White House, returns to the campaign trail on Saturday for his first rally since narrowly escaping assassination.

As Trump heads to Michigan to publicly campaign for the first time with his recently announced vice presidential running mate, J.D. Vance, Joe Biden’s campaign is grappling with an internal revolt within the Democratic Party from top lawmakers and donors calling on the 81-year-old president to withdraw from the race.

Biden is currently not active on the campaign trail due to a Covid infection. Together with his inner circle, he is meanwhile putting out political fires. Party loyalists warn that Biden, if he remains on the list, could lead the Democrats to a defeat of the White House and both houses of Congress.

Team Trump, for its part, is bubbling. The Republican National Convention went off without a hitch, and the candidate’s mission to assert absolute control over the party and incite his base appears accomplished.

With Saturday’s rally in an indoor arena in downtown Grand Rapids, Trump is embracing a moment that is remarkable in every way: He is back on stage exactly a week after a 20-year-old gunman shot from a rooftop at an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania, killing one attendee and wounding Trump.

“I had God on my side,” he told the convention Thursday night, detailing how a bullet narrowly missed his head and grazed his ear.

Eyes on safety

However, it is unlikely that those attending Saturday’s 5 p.m. gathering will hear Trump talk about last week’s trauma, as he said at the convention: “You will never hear it from me again, because it is really too painful to tell.”

Instead, he will display his new status as the party’s standard-bearer after officially accepting the nomination at the party congress, and he will bask in the respectful reception that awaits him when he faces the partisan crowd.

He will almost certainly engage in the aggressive rhetoric of his typical campaign speeches, attacking the Biden administration on issues including illegal immigration, inflation, crime, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, China policy, oil drilling and gender issues.

However, all eyes are on the security situation in Grand Rapids, especially given the significant question marks that still surround the shortcomings of the U.S. Secret Service during the event in Pennsylvania.

Saturday’s rally will take place at the Van Andel Arena, a closed-off sports facility with a capacity of 12,000 that allows for more complete perimeter control. But security around Trump is still expected to be extra tight in the wake of the most egregious Secret Service failure in decades.

He is also making his campaign debut with vice presidential nominee Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio who, at 39, is literally half Trump’s age and could appeal to younger voters.

Vance is the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a best-selling book about growing up in poverty in America’s working class. That blue-collar connection could help Trump, a billionaire businessman, win crucial swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign slides from crisis to crisis.

A disastrous debate with Trump three weeks ago raised fears about his age and health, and whether the veteran politician would be able to stop a Trump resurgence in November.

Most polls indicate that Trump is on track to return to the White House.

More than 30 House Democrats and four senators have now called on Biden to withdraw. In addition, several top party leaders, including Barack Obama, have reportedly called on the president to reconsider his decision to stay in the race.