Donald Trump returns to Butler, Pa. for election rally at site of assassination attempt

Returning to the site where an attempted assassin’s bullet grazed his ear, former President Donald Trump got finish what he started in July.

“As I was saying,” Trump joked early in his speech to the crowd of thousands in Butler.

Trump’s Butler return comes just three weeks after the Secret Service thwarted a second assassination attempt in Florida. And it comes just one month before Election Day as Pennsylvania promises to play a pivotal role in determining the outcome in the race between and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump wrapped his rally in Butler Saturday by talking of the prospect of having the “American Dream” if he’s reelected while invoking important symbols in Pennsylvania history, like the Liberty Bell and Valley Forge.

“From Gettysburg to Germantown and Philadelphia to Barren Hill, and from Brandywine to right here in Butler, this is the place where Pennsylvania patriots poured out their blood with the love of their country,” Trump said.

During Trump’s speech, his campaign sent out news releases that Trump will be holding two campaign events in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, one in Reading and one in Scranton, emphasizing the continued importance of the commonwealth’s battleground status.

Trump repeated a debunked claim Saturday night that over 13,000 “murderers” have come into the United States.

“Over the last short period of time, murderers that have been released from penitentiaries, prisons, jails, released into our country,” Trump said.

This claim is false and misleading and was spurred by a response from Immigration and Customs Enforcement director P.J. Lechleitner to a question posed by Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.). Lechleitner noted 662,566 people with criminal histories (convicted or pending) not detained by ICE including 13,099 individuals convicted of homicide were not detained by ICE, while they await immigration proceedings.

Elon Musk took the stage in Butler Saturday, during what is believed to be Musk’s first time at a Trump rally to applaud the former president’s “courage under fire” and encouraged the crowd to register to vote and urge others to do the same.

“I have one ask for everyone in the audience, everyone who watches this video… it’s very important, register to vote,” Musk said. “And get everyone you know and everyone you don’t know, drag them to register to vote.”

Musk's sentiments, in his somewhat rambling speech, echoed that of other speakers at the rally who emphasized the importance of voting in the 2024 election.

Trump celebrated the solidarity that his most loyal supporters have shown him throughout his political career.

“You have always stood with me, you have always stood with me, no matter what you saw what was going on, you saw the hoaxes and the scams. You saw everything that went on. We are a team. We’re a great team. I think we’re probably the best team ever in the history of our country,” Trump said.

He marveled that he and his supporters have “fought together” and “endured together” and “right here in Pennsylvania, we have bled together,” Trump said.

In some of the first few moments of his speech, Trump thanked law enforcement and first responders for their actions following the July rally shooting and honored Corey Comperatore and David Dutch and James Copenhaver.

Trump said the Butler Farm Show grounds are “now a monument to the valor of our first responders, to the resilience of our fellow citizens and to the sacrifice of a loving and devoted father. A really great man.”

The former president said Corey is “somewhat of a folk hero” before searching for Comperatore’s wife, daughters, and relatives in the crowd.

“...As I was saying.”

That’s what Trump said in his very first few moments on stage at the Butler Farm Show grounds Saturday, a nod to how his speech at the July 13 Butler rally was cut short after a gunman opened fire. The crowd broke into cheers at the reference.

After walking out to a live performance of "God Bless the U.S.A.," Trump began his speech at the exact site where a bullet grazed his ear nearly three months ago, except now he — and the speakers before him — are standing behind a protective glass shield.

Angelina Marx, 20, a Butler Community College student who lives in Harmony in Butler County, said she’s glad she’ll be able to have a say and vote for president for the first time, but she’s also nervous about not being educated enough about the candidates to vote.

“I feel like that’s a big reason why I’m here, it’s because I want to make sure that I believe in what I’m voting for,” said Marx, who had never been to a Trump rally before Saturday.

Marx said she’s either going to vote for Trump, or not vote at all. She said she comes from a working class family of business owners, and that her mother and siblings emigrated from Mexico. She likes the idea of a female president, but not Vice President Kamala Harris.

Eric Trump made unfounded claims about FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida and criticized the Biden-Harris’ administration’s support for Ukraine.

“What does Kamala do? She comes out and says ‘Yes, I’d like to give that family $750.”

This claim is misleading and has sparked a lot of outrage amid conservatives. President Joe Biden approved 100% reimbursements for local and state emergency costs related to the hurricane, including food, water, shelter and debris removal, Vice President Kamala Harris shared in her visit to Augusta Georgia Tuesday.

Tom Genaway, 57, of Prospect Pa., said it doesn’t surprise him that former President Donald Trump returned to Butler.

“That's the way he is,” Genaway said. “I mean, he's a fighter.”

Genaway wasn’t at the recent rally in Butler, though he was at a Trump rally in Butler four years ago. He was excited to have Trump back in town, and called it history in the making.

Mark Murphy, who lives in Cecil township outside of Pittsburgh, said former President Donald Trump returning to Butler shows “he has a lot of guts, and that’s what we need to run this country.”

He feels that Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, “has no guts.”

Murphy, 65, said that’s not because she’s a woman, though. And as for why more women voters support Harris than Trump in Pennsylvania, per a recent Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, and Siena College poll, Murphy believes it’s about abortion rights. Abortion is a leading issue for Harris in Pennsylvania, the poll also found.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance struck a more combative tone during his speech at Saturday’s Butler rally when he accused Democrats of using inflammatory rhetoric in their political speeches after July's Butler rally shooting.

“Even after that terrible assassination attempt that took one man’s life and nearly took many others, they continue to use dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric, the media has continued to call Donald Trump, the guy who actually won his primary, a threat to democracy.”

Vance then specifically lambasted Vice President Kamala Harris and accused her of using divisive language.

Loren Stephenson, a Pittsburgh professor who was raised in Butler and now lives in Indiana, Pa., proudly held up an “Independents for Trump” sign while decked out in red, white, and blue. Stephenson, 40, wore a cross around her neck and sported a form-fitting American flag dress, American flag draped over her shoulders, and matching bright red sunglasses, headband, and sandals, with red nail polish to match.

Stephenson said being at the rally felt like “redemption” after witnessing the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at his last rally here, over the summer.

She said she noticed an increase in security compared to the last one, such an extra mat inside the fence around the venue. She also said that it was easier to get close to the stage at the last rally and there are more snipers on surrounding buildings this time.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick said that Saturday’s rally in Butler is an opportunity to remember the victims of the July 13 rally shooting Butler, including Corey Comperatore, a firefighter who was killed; and David Dutch and James Copenhaver, the two individuals who were injured.

“We’re here to mourn, really, here in sorrow to mourn the loss of Corey Comperatore, and not only mourn his loss, to honor,” McCormick said. “To honor who he was because he’s sort of the best of everything about America. He was a role model for everything that’s great about this incredible country.”

McCormick, who was in attendance at the July 13 rally, said Trump’s actions after he survived the July assassination attempt paints a clear contrast between him and Vice President Kamala Harris.

A town once celebrated for its agriculture, manufacturing of railroad cars, or production of the Jeep, Butler, Pa. is now mainly known for one thing: being the site of the first assassination attempt against Trump.

“The community is strong, though,” U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R., Pa), whose district includes Butler, told the Inquirer Friday ahead of Saturday's rally. “They’ve rebounded quickly.”

Kelly said he believes the Butler community is “grateful” for Trump’s return and for him to finish the speech that he started on July 13, noting that the move “exudes confidence and strength.”

Elon Musk says he will be in Butler, Pa., Saturday to support former President Donald Trump during a rally at the same site where Trump was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt three months ago.

Musk’s anticipated appearance at the Butler Farm Show grounds highlights the billionaire X CEO’s continued role as a top Trump ally and underscores the national attention that the former president’s “hero’s welcome” is likely to receive. According to a Trump campaign news release, Musk is one of many “special guests” expected. Musk was identified on the list as “Founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer of SpaceX.”

Trump will return to the Butler Farm Show grounds Saturday evening at 5 p.m., the same place where a gunman, 20-year old Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire on July 13 just moments into Trump’s rally speech in a near-miss assassination attempt on the former president, fatally shooting one attendee, seriously wounding two others, and striking Trump in his ear. Crooks was eventually fatally shot by a Secret Service sniper.

Former President Donald Trump is returning to Butler, Pa., on Saturday, the same site where he was nearly killed by a would-be assassin’s bullet in July.

Trump is scheduled to hold a rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds at 5 p.m., which has already gone on lockdown ahead of his visit. Secret Service has been on the ground in Butler all week, according to WPXI, an NBC news affiliate in Pittsburgh.

What time does Trump’s Butler rally start?

Former President Donald Trump has said that the first line he’ll deliver when he returns to the stage in Butler will be “… as I was saying.”

What follows will be the most highly anticipated speech of his campaign since he first talked about the shooting on stage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Returning to Butler — the site of the first assassination attempt on a president or presidential candidate in 43 years — sets up a cinematic hero’s welcome for Trump, whose path to the White House seems less certain than it did in mid-July when the bullet grazed his ear.