How Trump is changing the Republican party. NYT: Tycoon ahead of Biden in the 7 swing states

Also absent were Dan Quayle, who was vice-president under Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, and Dick Cheney, vice-president under the younger Bush. His daughter Liz Cheney, a former congresswoman and one of Trump's leading Republican critics, made the same decision.

Mike Pence, the former Indiana governor who briefly ran against Trump for the nomination last year, and who had served as his deputy in his first term, did not show up either. Then Mitt Romney, the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2012, now a senator from Utah and one of Trump's main critics.

Paul Ryan, Romney's running mate and former speaker of the House, was not seen either, although the convention is being held in his home state. No news from another former speaker, John Boehner.

The group of establishment Republicans has been a target of Trump over the years and it is only natural that they would not show up at a convention that supports a figure they so detest. Suffice it to say that on Monday the delegates booed loudly when an image of Mitch McConnell, leader of the Senate Republicans and frequent critic of Trump, appeared on a big screen in the hall.

According to Gingrich, 'this says how much the world has changed' and emphasises how former leaders 'no longer have power'.

The convention is giving clear signs of a new party, which increasingly embraces economic populism at home and isolationism abroad. Trump's new running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, has declared that the GOP is in a 'late Republican period' and that the party needs to 'get pretty wild and get away from here'. And that is exactly what is happening in Milwaukee.

It's not just the choice of Vance as vice-president - a big opponent of aid to Ukraine who has openly said he is 'not interested' in what goes on between Russia and Ukraine. It is also about the party's adoption of a reduced platform on abortion - changing a decades-old position on the issue - and the criticism of corporations that was voiced at the convention.

The new party is the result of a confluence of economic, demographic and cultural changes, including a recently rising labour movement that is increasingly attracting the GOP.

Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff from 2019 to 2021, said that "we are witnessing a real frontal assault on conservatism". "This is a huge departure from what our party has been about and I don't think it's a recipe for success," he added.

Meanwhile come the first attacks on Vance. "Let's not be confused: JD Vance will only be loyal to Donald Trump, not to our country. And unlike Mike Pence, Vance said he would carry out Trump's plan to subvert the 2020 election." That's what Vice President Kamala Harris says in a video that was released on the day the Ohio senator's first speech as a Republican vice presidential candidate is expected at the Republican convention. "Trump chose his new 'running mate,' he wanted someone willing to ratify his extremist agenda," Joe Biden's deputy says again in the video, recalling that Vance "will help implement the extremist plan, Project 2025, for Trump's second term that will target crucial programs like Medicare." "But," Harris concluded, "we will not allow that to happen.

Trump, however, can rejoice in the meantime. The tycoon is ahead of Joe Biden in the seven major swing states. The latest New York Times poll reveals this. These are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The narrowest margin is in Michigan, where the tycoon has 42% of the vote against the president's 40%, and in Pennsylvania (43% against 40%).