Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is set to return early this morning to the rural Pennsylvania site where he was nearly assassinated for a rally in the critical battleground state exactly one month before the November 5 election.
Trump ally Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of social media platform X, also set to attend the rally, his first time at a Trump campaign event since he endorsed the former president after the July 13 assassination attempt.
Trump narrowly escaped being shot in the head in Butler by a bullet that whizzed by and left his right ear bleeding, a near-miss that exposed serious gaps in security for the former president and led to heightened protection measures for his subsequent outdoor rallies.
Thousands of people wearing Trump regalia had filled the event site at the local fairgrounds. Some chanted the “fight, fight, fight” slogan Trump used to rally his followers moments after he was shot.
Trailers were lined up around the site as a protective measure, blocking the view, for example, from the building where the shooter had opened fire.
The crowd cheered as three parachutists with American flags streaming behind them hurtled down and landed near the building.
July 13 was the first of two attempts on Trump’s life. On September 15, a gunman hid undetected for nearly 12 hours at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, with plans to kill him, prosecutors have said, but was thwarted by a US Secret Service agent patrolling the course ahead of Trump.
Republican officials hope Trump’s return to Butler will generate more support among his hardcore followers and drive up turnout for him in Pennsylvania, a state he and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, see as crucial to winning on November 5.
“I’m going back to Butler because I feel I have an obligation to go back to Butler,” Trump told the NewsNation cable news network earlier this week. “We never finished what we were supposed to do.”
Trump was also set to join at the rally by his vice presidential running mate, Senator JD Vance, and the family of firemen Corey Comperatore, who was fatally shot during the attempt on Trump’s life.
Introductory speakers at the rally focused on remembering Comperatore. “We will not let that tragic day overshadow our community’s light,” said JD Longo, mayor of the nearby town of Slippery Rock.
An attendee of the July rally, Shane Chesher, 37, said he would return for what he expects will be an emotional event.
Chesher said he witnessed the assassination attempt from a seat on the stage behind Trump and is still processing what happened. “Honestly, I don’t know that I understand still to this day what we experienced that day,” Chesher said in an interview. Returning to the site, he said, “will be spiritual, and I think it will be very emotional, good and bad.”
The Butler shooting led to widespread criticism of the US Secret Service and the resignation of its director.
Critics raised concerns about how the 20-year-old suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was subsequently shot to death by Secret Service agents, was able to access a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to where Trump was speaking.
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