Donald Trump seemed well on his way to the White House after he was shot almost three months ago. He emerged from a dominant debate performance against Joe Biden, led in the national polls and arrived at his nominating convention in Milwaukee a near-martyr.
Trump returns to Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday under markedly different political circumstances.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy upended not only Trump’s campaign but also Republicans’ belief that he could bring the support and goodwill he generated after the attempt on his life straight back to the Oval Office. After struggling all summer to recalibrate against his new opponent, Trump now finds himself in a close race against Harris. According to polling averages, the two are effectively tied in Pennsylvania, and in other battleground states, while Harris has a slight lead in national surveys.
Trump’s supporters see his return to this deep red slice of purple Pennsylvania as an opportunity for the former president to reinvigorate his base in this key state at a critical time, with Election Day just a month away.
For some Trump allies, the meeting is also a reminder of their own uneasy feelings about the July attack, which deeply upset both the former president and his supporters.
“There’s a message here, right? Getting back to the scene, how many people would do that? How many people would be scared — just from a psychological perspective, intimidated to return to the place where you almost lost your life,” said Sam DeMarco, chairman of the neighboring Republican Party in Allegheny County.
“And it’s something that’s going to put wind in the sails of his supporters and many of the people working on the campaign as they head into the final few weeks of this election, and get them to go out and make additional voter contacts ,” DeMarco said.
But Saturday’s rally is also a deeply personal moment for Trump and his supporters, who recalled in interviews this week the trauma the shooting inflicted on them, their families and the broader Butler community, which is now irreversibly in the international spotlight placed.
One man, Corey Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter and father, was killed while shielding his family from the bullets, and two other men were hospitalized with injuries from the shooting.
The assassination attempt stunned residents of the steel town of about 13,000 in western Pennsylvania, which has now been marked as a crime scene and turned into something of a tourist attraction. A local artist created a 4,000-nail sculpture of Trump raising his fist in the air, which now stands on the farm property where it happened.
“The idea that something like this would happen in our home to the president is difficult to fathom. … It certainly had a negative impact on everyone, and it didn’t put a good spotlight on Butler County,” said Jondavid Longo, mayor of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, a borough in Butler County. Longo was in the front row of the rally when Trump was shot and will be part of the speaker program at Saturday’s event.
“This is what I can only describe as a triumphant return [Trump]Longo said. But it is also ‘part of our healing process’.
The former president is expected Saturday to honor Comperatore’s life and pay tribute to the two men injured in the attack, as well as first responders. Trump also plans to revisit themes of unity that he set aside just days after the shooting, according to his campaign.
The Butler assassination attempt — the first time a president or candidate has been harmed since Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981 — led to intense scrutiny of Trump’s safety and security and the effectiveness of Secret Service protections.
Those concerns only increased after a gunman armed with an AK-47-style rifle, two bags and other equipment was arrested after authorities saw him pointing the gun through a fence at Trump at his West golf course less than a month ago Palm Beach. . The suspect was later charged with attempting to assassinate Trump. The former president and his campaign were also informed by federal law enforcement authorities of “real and specific threats by Iran to kill him.”
Security will be tight at Saturday’s rally and new protocols will be in place for the thousands of supporters expected to attend. There will be an increased Secret Service presence, a command center with local and federal law enforcement, as well as more snipers and snipers in the area. The building that allowed Trump’s would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, to climb atop “will be secured,” said Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), who attended the July 13 rally in Butler. and will be there on Saturday.
Meuser added that resources to protect Trump “remain an issue, but the Secret Service is improving, and two weeks ago we unanimously passed a bill to fund a major increase for the Secret Service.”
In addition to an FBI investigation, a bipartisan House task force was formed to investigate Trump’s near-assassination and security lapses in Pennsylvania and the second apparent assassination attempt in Florida.
Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, co-chair of the Republican task force, said at a recent hearing: “There were security concerns on multiple fronts” leading up to the Butler meeting. Lawmakers have raised questions about why the Secret Service didn’t communicate better with local law enforcement. An internal Secret Service investigation blamed communications breakdowns between law enforcement agencies, problems with drone technology and “complacency” among members of the Secret Service retainer for creating the conditions that allowed Crooks to open fire on the former president.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), is expected to appear with Trump. Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump shortly after the first assassination attempt, said he planned to attend the Butler meeting.
According to a list of guests sent by the campaign, Senate candidate Dave McCormick; Pennsylvania lawmakers; first responders who treated the victims; and local officials who were sitting next to Trump when the shots rang out, such as Longo, Butler County Commissioners Leslie Osche and Kimberly Geyer, will return to the venue and speak as opening acts.
“The trauma of that day is something you can never walk away from – it’s not something we experience, especially in my backyard,” Osche said. “But that said, we cannot be torn apart or frightened by those who would try… resilience will be a focus.”
Zach Scherer, a Trump supporter from the Butler County borough of Chicora, recalled the moment the gunshots rang out as he sat with his father just a few rows away from the stage where the former president spoke.
“I grabbed my father, sat under my chair and started praying that we wouldn’t get shot,” Scherer said in an interview this week. “It was absurd.”
Scherer’s family did not want him to continue attending Trump rallies afterward. But he traveled to Trump’s campaign event in Indiana, Pennsylvania, late last month and plans to return to the farm show grounds on Saturday.
“You can’t live in fear every day because shootings happen everywhere,” Scherer said.
And about Trump: “He’s a fighter,” Scherer said. “He won’t back down.”
