Former President Donald Trump is returning to the site where he nearly lost his life in July, holding a rally Saturday that his campaign and allies have hailed as one of the biggest opportunities to boost his candidacy in the final weeks of the presidential race .
Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania – where he was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin, who killed a protester and injured others – will put him in the spotlight for one of his rallies that has been harder for him to grab in recent times . year.
Its importance is further magnified given its relevance in perhaps the most crucial swing state this fall — one that both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are doing everything they can to win.
“It’s a huge opportunity. There will be more coverage than his typical rally these days,” predicted a Trump ally who has worked in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, will also join him at the rally, which is sure to include a memorial to Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief killed in the shooting, and honoring two other people who were injured hit. when Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman from a Pittsburgh suburb, opened fire from a nearby rooftop. He was shot dead by police shortly afterwards.
Karoline Leavitt, a campaign spokesperson, said the former president “looks forward to returning to Butler, Pennsylvania to honor the victims of that tragic day.”
“The willingness of Pennsylvanians to join President Trump in his return to Butler represents the strength and resilience of the American people,” she said.
But the Trump ally feared he wouldn’t be able to deliver on the moment. In recent weeks, Trump’s rhetoric at rallies has darkened, including calling on police to be “really rough” on suspected criminals for “one tough hour” and suggesting Harris was “mentally retarded.”
“It’s just a chance for him to do a little more than the average rally,” this person said. ‘However, I don’t have much confidence that it will be any different. That’s the part that worries me.”
In the week that followed the assassination attempt — which coincided with the Republican Party’s summer nominating convention — Trump and his allies tried to quell some overblown rhetoric. Then President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and was quickly replaced by Harris.
“They had an opportunity to really claim a higher level, and I think they were on that path for a while,” this person said. “The move to Harris really threw them off that track and, in my opinion, created two of the most undisciplined months of Donald Trump’s political career.”
Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick, who sat in the front row at the July rally, subsequently wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for political rhetoric that isn’t “dehumanizing” on either side of the aisle .
Responding to some of Trump’s recent rhetoric, including his comments about Harris’ mental state, McCormick told NBC News that “sometimes the rhetoric on both sides is too heated.”
But he claimed Harris has said “terrible things” about Trump.
“We need to focus on a battle of ideas. That’s the kind of campaign I’m running, and all I can do is run my campaign,” he said.
Butler County is a GOP stronghold in western Pennsylvania, a mix of rural communities and suburbs just north of Pittsburgh. Trump won the county by 38 percentage points in 2016, but his margin shrank to 32 points in 2020 — leading some local right-wing activists to demand audits of the vote there. In 2022, Governor Josh Shapiro managed to limit his margin of defeat there to just 12 points, which was a landslide victory for Democrats across the state.
McCormick, who plans to attend Trump’s rally Saturday, said the July attack helped boost the “strength” of the Republican ticket — and the candidates who were there that day.
“It was one of those iconic moments that you sit next to when history is being made,” he said.
During this week’s vice presidential debate, Trump’s allies echoed McCormick’s comments about the impact of the attempted assassination.
“I think when you almost lose your life, it affects everyone,” said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla. “Donald Trump is not immune to that, but I’m glad he’s going back to Butler because what it shows to the American people is his determination that he will not be intimidated.”
The security of the event will be a priority.
The mistakes that led to the assassination attempt prompted a congressional investigation led by Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., who represents the county. Secret Service protection around Trump has since been strengthened, while law enforcement agencies, including in Butler County and at the state level, know they will be scrutinized for their actions on Saturday.
Joseph Meyn, who witnessed Comperatore’s death, said he thinks about the assassination attempt “several times a day.”
“It’s absolutely the right thing to come back,” he said. “Finish your meeting, finish your speech. Connect with your constituents. But they are bad memories. It’s one of those things where you can go to that meeting, but in the background there will always be that event that happened. There is a certain appeal to this place now.”
Pam Olthof, who sells Trump merchandise at rallies, was in Butler on July 13 and set up just feet from what turned out to be the building the shooter had access to. She came back to town last Saturday to set everything up and said the entire area around the venue was already closed off – a difference from last time.
“It’s impossible to get anywhere near the perimeter without running into security chasing people away,” she said.
On Thursday, trucks brought in shipping containers to surround the area and block sightlines from outside the rally. Leslie Osche, chair of the Butler County Board of Commissioners, said she expects “something along the lines of a fortress” to be built around the rally site.
She added that local officials “have the benefit” of after-action reports and have “spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we could have done better.”
“They all came together,” Osche said of local emergency services. “Our law enforcement and our emergency [management] personally felt bad that we lost one of our own.”
Adam Reed, communications director for the Pennsylvania State Police, also said in a statement that the agency could not comment on details about preparation for the meeting. President Trump returns to Butler.”
The Secret Service, Reed added, is leading the planning for the meeting.
Donalds said, “I think the Secret Service is going to do a great job.”
On September 15, Trump was the target of a second apparent assassination attempt at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when shots were fired in his area. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is charged in connection with the episode.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., predicted that Saturday’s rally would serve as a “very meaningful event” for Trump and the families affected by the would-be killer in July, adding: “We need to have every form of security tackling is no longer necessary.”
“I am also deeply, deeply concerned about the many Iranian threats against President Trump that have also been made public, and that is something that has happened under the watch of the Biden administration and under the watch of Kamala Harris,” she said. “And that should never, ever happen. It should never have gotten to this point. But it is a moment of strength, and the American people will rally behind President Trump, just as they did after the assassination attempt.”
The Trump ally who has worked in the state expressed hope that Trump — “in a Trumpian way” — would talk about the shooting in an impactful and uplifting way.
“There aren’t many opportunities left in this campaign, and I really don’t want it to go to waste,” this person said. “I can’t pick another moment that we know today that will change the trajectory of this. This is probably the closest.”
With Trump having so far declined to participate in another debate with Harris, this week’s showdown between Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, was most likely the last big TV draw of the cycle .
“You have limited ability to change the path we are on,” this person said. ‘I’m not saying we’re losing. I just think it’s a jump ball. And you could change that. It has to be really good, but that’s also possible. I hope they can implement this effectively. Because it is certainly the last real chance he has.”
Allan Smith reported from New York City and Dasha Burns from Butler.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
