Trump returns to the site of the assassination attempt with Musk

“Tonight I return to Butler after tragedy and heartache to deliver a simple message to the people of Pennsylvania and the people of America,” the Republican presidential candidate said. “Our movement to make America great again, stronger, prouder, more united, more determined and closer to victory than ever before.”

Trump’s campaign wanted to maximize the event’s potential to grab headlines with just 30 days to go in his race against his Democratic running mate Kamala Harris. Trump said the assassin tried to silence him, calling him “a mean monster” and saying he failed “by the hand of providence and the grace of God.”

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, took the stage at the Butler Farm Show to speak in front of the former president and reflected on the day’s events as he slammed Democrats for naming Trump “a threat to democracy”, saying the language was “inflammatory”.

“You heard the shots. You saw the blood. We all feared the worst. But you knew everything was going to be okay when President Trump raised his fist in the air and yelled, ‘Fight, fight!'” said Vance, who was chosen as his vice presidential running mate less than two days later. “Now I think it is as certain as it is here today that what happened was a true miracle.”

Billionaire Elon Musk is also expected to speak as the campaign ramps up the headline-making potential of his comeback in the tight race against Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. A billboard on the way to the rally said “WE TRUST IN MOSCOW” and showed him the photo.

A massive crowd stood shoulder-to-shoulder from the stage to the press booth several hundred yards away for the event billed as a “tribute to the American spirit.” Hotels, motels and inns in the area were said to be full, and some rally participants had arrived on Friday.

Crowds lined up at sunrise on Saturday. A memorial for firefighter Corey Comperatore, who died while protecting family members from gunfire, was set up in the stands, his fireman’s jacket on display surrounded by flowers. His sisters cried when the speakers mentioned him. There was a very visible increased security presence, with armed law enforcement in camouflage uniforms on the rooftops.

Trump’s plane flew over the venue before his arrival, drawing cheers from those gathered on the field below. As viewers saw Trump’s plane overhead, cell phones appeared in the air.

Trump planned to use the event to remember Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter who was struck and killed at the July 13 rally, and to recognize the other two injured rallygoers, David Dutch and James Copenhaver. They and Trump were hit when 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire from an unsecured rooftop nearby before being fatally shot by snipers.

The building from which Crooks fired was completely obscured by tractor trailers, a large grassy perimeter and a fence. Most of the stands were now to the side rather than behind Trump.

How Crooks was able to outrun law enforcement that day and sneak to the top of a building within easy reach of the former president is among many questions that remain unanswered about the Secret Service’s worst security failure since the last decades. Another is his reason.

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 fairly.”

County Sheriff Mike Slupe told the station he estimates the Secret Service has deployed “quadruple the assets” it did in July. The agency suffered a painful reckoning in its handling of two attempts on Trump’s life.

Butler County, on the western edge of a coveted presidential swing state, is a Trump stronghold. He won the county with about 66% of the vote in both 2016 and 2020. About 57% of the county’s 139,000 registered voters are Republicans, compared to about 29% who are Democrats and 14% other.

Chris Harpster, 30, of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, was accompanied by his girlfriend on Saturday as he returned to the scene. On July 13, he said: “I was scared” – and so were his parents, who were watching at home, who texted him immediately after the shots rang out.

The increased security measures made him feel better now, as well as the presence of his girlfriend, who was participating in rallies for the first time. Harpster said she will vote a third time for Trump in November, based on the Republican nominee’s positions on immigration, guns, abortion and energy. Harpster said he hopes Pennsylvania goes Republican, particularly because of concern about oil and gas jobs.

Other townspeople were divided on the value of Trump’s return. Heidi Priest, a Butler resident who started a Facebook group supporting Harris, said Trump’s latest visit has fueled political tensions in the city.

“Whenever you see people who support him and are excited about him being here, it scares the crap out of people who don’t want to see him re-elected,” she said.

Terri Palmquist came from Bakersfield, California, and said her 18-year-old daughter tried to dissuade her. “I realize that we must not let fear control us. That’s what the other side wants is fear. If fear controls us, we lose,” she said.

She said she was not worried about her own safety.

“Honestly, I think God took Trump, for some reason. Yes. So we support him.”

But Trump needs to increase voter turnout in conservative strongholds like Butler County, an overwhelmingly white, rural-suburban community, if he wants to win Pennsylvania in November. Harris has also focused his campaign efforts on Pennsylvania, rallying there repeatedly as part of his aggressive swing state work.