These Are The Speakers For The RNC’s ‘Make America Safe Again’ Night

Melania Trump attends the TIME 100 Gala, celebrating the 100 most influential people in the world, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
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The Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland Monday with a roster of speakers expected to address how Donald Trump will “Make America Safe Again.”

The daytime hours will be filled with remarks from an eclectic mix of actors, law enforcement officers and parents whose children were killed by undocumented immigrants. “Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson, ’80s TV star Scott Baio, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) are among the speakers. Headline slots are reserved for elected officials who have backed Trump, combat veterans and Trump’s wife, Melania.

Below, get to know the marquee guests slated to speak about crime in the United States at the Quicken Loans Arena.

Melania Trump

Donald Trump’s third wife is a Slovenian model and socialite who released a caviar-enriched line of skin creams. She has mostly stayed off to the sidelines since the start of Trump’s presidential campaign last summer, saying she prefers staying at home with their young son Barron to the spotlight. In her rare joint interviews and rally appearances, she has lamented her husband’s penchant for retweeting inflammatory Twitter posts but expressed unwavering support for him.

According to Donald Trump, Melania Trump’s speech will be about “her love of the country.”

Retired General Michael Flynn

The retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and onetime director of the Defense Intelligence Agency has served as an informal foreign policy advisor to Trump. In that capacity, he’s urged Trump to use “more precision” when discussing world affairs and national security threats.

Flynn was briefly floated as a potential running mate for the real estate mogul and made headlines in the week leading up to the convention by publicly diverging from Trump on hot-button issues, from abortion to gay marriage. In a series of interviews, he first signaled support for abortion rights before insisting he was a “pro-life Democrat” and said he was unconcerned if gay people who loved each other wanted to be married. After Trump announced he chose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) as his running mate, Flynn said the presumptive GOP nominee made “the right choice for America.”

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA)

An army veteran and former state senator from Iowa, Ernst first gained national attention with a campaign ad for her successful 2013 U.S. Senate bid in which she described castrating pigs on the farm where she grew up. She explained in the spot that she would be a natural at trimming the federal budget because she knew “how to cut pork.”

In the Senate, Ernst emerged as a hardline conservative who advocated eliminating the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Education and Environmental Protection Agency. Ernst, who was also floated as a potential VP pick, earned praise from Trump for the “fantastic job” she’s done in the Senate before withdrawing her name from consideration. Though she said she would “love” to assist Trump on the campaign trail, she claimed her “heart” was in Iowa and she had “a lot more to do in the United States Senate.”

She told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that her convention speech would focus on the “void of leadership” the United States faces in addressing national security issues.

Jason Beardsley

The Army and Navy veteran now serves double duty as Special Operations Advisor for Concerned Veterans for America and as CEO of the Underground Movement, a company that designs custom graphic T-shirts. In his Twitter bio, Beardsley describes himself as an “American thoroughbred, Green Beret, dipped in Africa, scuffed by Middle East, martinis, motorcycles, cigars & b-tiful women (wife & 3 daughters) bleed (sic).” He regularly appears on conservative networks like Fox News and Newsmax to discuss national security concerns. Though Beardsley has no known affiliation with the Trump campaign, he has applauded Trump’s support for veterans on social media.

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT)

A former Navy SEAL, Zinke served as a member of the Montana state Senate before winning election as the U.S. representative for Montana’s at-large congressional district in 2014. Zinke threw his weight behind Trump soon after he emerged as the presumptive nominee in May, praising him as the farthest-right candidate on immigration and jobs. He said he would be honored to play any role to help defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton, whom he once described as “the antichrist,” including serving on Trump’s cabinet.

He was slated to serve as a Trump delegate for Montana at the convention, but backed out at the last minute over language in the GOP platform that promoted shifting some federally controlled public lands to the states. KULR reported that land control was a major issue in Montana’s U.S. House race, and Zinke withdrew because he thought the language related to it was “more divisive than uniting.”

Zinke sent several tweets over the weekend applauding Trump’s choice of Mike Pence as a running mate, calling it proof he would “surround himself w/the best.”

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