Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, wife of his son Eric, told the Republican National Convention that she had prepared a very different speech before the attempt on Trump’s life on Saturday.

Nothing could have prepared the family for the moment “someone tried to kill a person you love”, the Republican National Committee co-chair said. “Millimetres separated him from life and certain death.”

“Last Saturday was a jarring reminder … there is more that unites us than divides us. We all want this country to be great.”

She said that “with every bone in my body I can tell you” that all Trump wants to do is “make America great again for all of us”.

“He is a lion, he is bold, he is strong, he is fearless, and he is exactly what this country needs right now,” Lara Trump said.

She said she had “seen this man dragged through hell and back … and yet, he has never backed down”, prompting chants of “We love Trump.”

Trump “hoisted his fist in the air” after the failed assassination attempt, in a “signal to the world that no matter what America will always prevail”, she said.