Donald Trump He picked up where he left off in July when a shooter tried murder him, but only punched him in the ear before raising his fist and screaming “Fight!” and was swept away with blood on his face.
“Tonight, after the tragedy and the heartache, I return to Butler to deliver a simple message to the people of Pennsylvania and the people of America,” the Republican presidential candidate said. “Our movement is to make America great again, stronger, prouder, more united, more determined and closer to victory than ever before.”
The Trump campaign wanted to maximize the event’s headline potential 30 more days in his race against his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump said the bomber tried to silence him, called him “a vicious monster” and said he failed “by the hand of providence and the grace of God.”
Trump’s vice presidential candidate, Senator from Ohio. JD Vancetook the stage at the Butler Farm Show grounds to address the former president and reflected on the events of that day while harshly criticizing Democrats for calling Trump “a threat to democracy” and said this type of language was “inflammatory.”
“You heard the shots. You saw the blood. We all feared the worst. But you knew everything was going to be OK when President Trump raised his fist high in the air and shouted, ‘Fight, fight!'” said Vance, who was chosen as his vice presidential running mate less than two days later. “Now I believe, as surely as I stand here today, that what happened was a true miracle.”
Billionaire Elon Musk is also expected to speak as the campaign underscores the headline potential of his return to the tight race against Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. A billboard on the way to the rally read “We Trust in Musk” and showed his photo.
The event, billed as a “homage to the American spirit,” featured a huge crowd standing shoulder-to-shoulder from the stage to the press booth several hundred feet away. Hotels, motels and inns in the area were said to be full and some rally participants arrived on Friday.
As the sun rose on Saturday, crowds lined up. A monument to firefighters Corey Comperatorewho died while protecting family members from gunfire, was placed in the stands, his firefighter’s jacket on display surrounded by flowers. His sisters cried when the speakers mentioned him. There was a significantly increased security presence with armed law enforcement officers in camouflage uniforms on rooftops.
Trump’s plane flew over the venue before his arrival, drawing cheers from people gathered on the field below. As spectators saw Trump’s plane overhead, cellphones flew into the air.
Trump wanted to use the event to remember Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter who was attacked and killed at the July 13 rally, and to recognize the two other injured rally participants, David Dutch and James Copenhaver. She and Trump were hit when 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire from an unsecured roof nearby before being fatally shot by snipers.
The building from which Crooks fired was completely obscured by tractor trailers, a large lawn and a fence. Most of the stands were now on the sides rather than behind Trump.
This includes how Crooks managed to outmaneuver law enforcement that day and climb to the roof of a building that was within firing range of the ex-president many questions that remain unanswered about the Secret Service’s worst security failure in decades. Another is his motive.
Butler County District Attorney Rich Goldinger told WPXI-TV this week that “everyone is redoubling their efforts to make sure this is done safely and correctly.”
Mike Slupe, the county’s sheriff, told the station he estimated the Secret Service would “deploy four times its resources” as it did in July. The agency has faced a painful reckoning over its handling of two assassination attempts on Trump.
Butler County, on the western edge of a coveted presidential swing state, is a Trump stronghold. He won the county in both 2016 and 2020 with about 66% of the vote. About 57% of the county’s 139,000 registered voters are Republicans, compared to about 29% Democrats and 14% others.
Chris Harpster, 30, of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, was accompanied by his girlfriend when he returned to the scene Saturday. Of July 13, he said, “I was scared” — as were his parents, who watched at home and texted him immediately after the shooting.
The increased security measures made him feel better, as did the presence of his girlfriend, who was taking part in a rally for the first time. Harpster said he would vote for Trump for a third time in November based on the Republican nominee’s stance on immigration, guns, abortion and energy. Harpster said he hopes Pennsylvania goes Republican, particularly out of concern for jobs in the gas and oil industries.
Other The townspeople were divided about the value of Trump’s return. Heidi Priest, a Butler resident who founded one Facebook A group supporting Harris said Trump’s latest visit inflamed political tensions in the city.
“Whenever you see people supporting him and being happy that he’s here, it scares people who don’t want to see him re-elected,” she said.
Terri Palmquist was from Bakersfield, California, and said her 18-year-old daughter tried to dissuade her. “I just think we shouldn’t let fear control us. That’s what the other side wants: fear. When fear controls us, we lose,” she said.
She said she wasn’t worried about her own safety.
“Honestly, for some reason I believe God has Trump. I do. That’s why we support him.”
But Trump has to do it increase voter turnout in conservative strongholds like Butler County, a predominantly white, rural-suburban community, if he wants to win Pennsylvania in November. Harris has also focused her campaign efforts on Pennsylvania and has repeatedly campaigned there as part of her campaign aggressive use in critical swing states.