The Republican National Convention kicks off in earnest tonight in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Donald Trump will be making his first public appearance since surviving an assassination attempt on Saturday — as well as introducing his new running mate — Senator J.D. Vance — who is joining the Trump ticket against Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this fall. Below are live updates on Trump’s VP pick, the run-up to tonight’s prime-time speeches, and how the first night of the RNC plays out.

Jonathan Chait writes about the evolution of a man who once called Donald Trump “America’s Hitler:”

Eight years ago, J.D. Vance privately confessed his true feelings about Donald Trump. “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful),” he wrote on Facebook, “or that he’s America’s Hitler.”

Vance has claimed he was wrong about Trump, and he has no doubt altered his beliefs, as have many other observers. But what changed about his assessment of Trump was not his cynical appraisal. What changed was his premise that the two possibilities — not bad and potentially useful or dangerous fascist — were mutually exclusive. He seems to have concluded, instead, that Trump is an authoritarian demagogue who is also not bad and has proven useful.

And the person Trump has proven most useful to may be Vance himself, who has now secured Trump’s nomination for vice-president and positioned himself as the MAGA movement’s next leader.

With extreme positions on abortion guns, government, and pretty much any other social issues, Vance makes for a convenient Democratic foil. President Biden’s campaign wasted little time pushing out widely available clips and quotes of Vance that make their argument for them.

JD Vance says women should stay in violent marriages “for the sake of their kids” pic.twitter.com/zqM15Aqhvm

Biden campaign says that Vice President Harris has accepted a CBS News debate and is eager to debate JD Vance.

“The VP will take it to JD Vance,” Elizabeth Warren tells reporters on a campaign call. “I’m looking forward to this debate.”

This is Donald Trump’s third convention as presumptive Republican nominee, so by now he and his staff are thoroughly familiar with how to run an operation that is tightly disciplined in terms of both operations and message. They have been unusually secretive about the convention schedule, even for tonight; we have a good idea who will speak at some point during the convention but the precise running-order remains under wraps at this point. But more important is message control, particularly since Trump has sent some mixed signals about the tone he wants to set. To put it simply, his idea of “national unity” is probably not yours or mine, particularly since his first and most important decision was to choose a controversial and divisive running-mate.

Whatever Team Trump has decided on, however, will almost certainly be imposed on convention speakers via a vetting operation that controls the teleprompter where final speech texts will appear.........

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