Donald Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania at Butler Farm Show grounds for the first time since an assassination attempt was made on him in July and where volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed and two other men were hospitalized amid the shooting. They were all struck after 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire from an unsecured rooftop nearby before he was fatally shot by authorities.
It’s one month before Election Day and it was clear the stakes were high at the Saturday event. The rally, which included a solemn moment of silence for Comperatore, with a live rendition of Lee Greenwald’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” and opera singer Christopher Macchio singing “Ave Maria,” also included Trump bringing out key people from his camp to invigorate the tens of thousands of Trump faithfuls, according to Right Side Broadcasting network, to ensure those who support Trump get out to vote.
The big guest was Elon Musk, the billionaire whose takeover of Twitter, now known as X, has been a public disaster. He publicly endorsed Trump after the July assassination attempt, but his MAGA beliefs were set in motion long before then. At the rally on Saturday, Musk proudly sported a black MAGA baseball cap, “I’m dark MAGA,” he joked after joining Trump onstage where he gleefully (and cringingly) jumped around before his speech. Musk falsely claimed that “the other side wants to take away your freedom of speech. They want to take away your right to bear arms. They want to take away your right to vote, effectively,” he claimed.
He then encouraged those listening to vote and get their friends to vote for Trump, too. “This is a must-win situation. So, I have one ask for everyone in the audience … This one request is very important. Register to vote. OK? And get everyone you know and everyone you don’t know, drag them register to vote.”
He added: “And then, make sure they actually do vote. If they don’t, this will be the last election. That’s my prediction.”
Trump’s guests also included his running mate J.D. Vance, and his son Eric Trump and Eric’s wife Lara, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, who all seemingly implied baselessly that Democrats were responsible for the assassination attempt in Butler (Crooks was a registered Republican and made a $15 donation to a progressive, anti-Trump PAC on the day President Joe Biden was inaugurated, according to campaign finance records). Vance claimed: “First, they tried to silence him. When that didn’t work, they tried to bankrupt him. When that didn’t work, they tried to jail him. And with all the hatred they have spewed at President Trump, it was only a matter of time before somebody tried to kill him.”
Meanwhile, Eric Trump claimed: “And then guys, they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him. And it’s because the Democratic party, they can’t do anything right.”
Trump himself on Saturday said, “Over the past eight years, those who want to stop us from achieving this future have slandered me, impeached me, indicted me, tried to throw me off the ballot, and, who knows, maybe even tried to kill me.”
Trump’s last visit to Butler nearly three months ago on July 13 left him injured from the shooting where he was struck by his right ear and he was whisked off stage with blood streaking his face while he pumped his fist in the air.
Butler County in the pivotal presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, has favored Trump. He won the county with about 66 percent of the vote in both 2016 and 2020. The state, with its coveted 19 electoral votes, helped President Joe Biden win the 2020 election after it voted for former President Donald Trump in 2016. Project 538 polls have Harris leading 48.4 percent over Trump’s 45.9 percent nationally, whereas in Pennsylvania the lead is narrowed with Harris at 47.9 percent and Trump at 47.3 percent on Saturday morning.
Trump returns to the campaign trail Sunday, where he’ll appear in Juneau, Wisconsin.