Your Guide To The Speakers Closing Out The RNC Tonight In Cleveland

Donald Trump’s raucous Republican National Convention will come to an end Thursday night when he takes the stage at Quicken Loans Arena to formally accept the Republican Party’s nomination for President.

In the hours leading up to his coronation, a broad range of speakers, including a religious leader, two businessmen, and several elected officials, will address the audience with speeches tied to the theme “Make America One Again.” Motivational speaker Brock Mealer, Oklahoma Gov. May Fallin (R), RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and Jerry Falwell Jr., president of the evangelical Liberty University, are all slated to speak.

Here’s a rundown of the primetime speakers closing the RNC tonight.

Peter Thiel

The reclusive Silicon Valley venture capitalist made his fortune by co-founding PayPal and serving as the first outside investor in Facebook, where he still sits on the board. The outspoken libertarian has thrown his billions behind a number of controversial causes, including providing young people with grants to skip going to college and funding the legally questionable “sting” videos produced by conservative activist James O’Keefe. He is also well known for his outlandish personal causes, such as his movement to construct self-sufficient libertarian colonies in the middle of the ocean.

Thiel cropped up in the news this spring when he admitted that he was bankrolling a series of defamation lawsuits filed by wrestler Hulk Hogan against Gawker Media that ultimately led to the company’s bankruptcy. Thiel, who is gay, said he was funding the suits to financially drain the company for outing him in the mid-2000s. He is expected to announce that he is a “proud gay man” in his RNC speech.

Thiel announced his support for Trump in May and is serving as a California delegate.

Tom Barrack

A real estate investor and close associate of the GOP nominee, Barrack filed paperwork with the FEC for a pro-Donald Trump super PAC, dubbed Rebuilding America Now, last month. In an interview on CNN, Barrack said his group had $32 million in donations to throw behind electing Trump, a sum he said came from four donors.

Barrack shares some commonalities with his candidate of choice: they’re both billionaires who made their fortunes in the real estate business. Through Barrack’s company Colony Capital, he runs international hotel chains in Asia, the Bahamas and elsewhere.

It’s also not his first time dabbling in politics. Barrack served in Ronald Reagan’s administration as deputy undersecretary of the interior before moving back into the private sector.

Ivanka Trump

An entrepreneur and businesswoman in her own right, Donald Trump’s oldest daughter is one of her father’s closest advisers in the Trump Organization, where she is an executive vice president. Joined by Trump’s wife, Melania, Ivanka has reportedly urged her father to tone down his most hard-bitten rhetoric – particularly on Twitter – but has largely stayed out of the spotlight of the campaign trail.

She is married to Jared Kushner, the publisher of the New York Observer who recently came under fire for his father-in-law’s tweeting an image widely read as anti-Semitic.

Ivanka is slated to introduce her father before he officially accepts the party’s nomination.

Donald Trump

Love him or hate him, the bombastic real estate mogul is here to stay – at least until November.

Riding a wave a nativist populism, Trump’s rise has continually confounded the political and pundit classes with his signature off-the-cuff speaking style, unwillingness to play nice with opponents who cross him, and ever-evolving plans for domestic and foreign policy.

Tonight, he becomes the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.