Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet, causing his ear to bleed, as gunshots were fired at the former President at a rally in Pennsylvania. The Mail has more.
Trump grabbed at the side of his face and blood spattered across his cheek as several popping sounds were heard, sending supporters running for safety.
The former President quickly pumped a fist at the crowd to show he was not severely injured, as Secret Service agents raced to the stage to hurry him away. …
The shooting unfolded as Trump addressed supporters at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday afternoon.
Frantic scenes took hold as shots rang out, with Trump supporters streaming out from the stands and away from the event.
Within seconds, Trump was put to the floor by several Secret Service agents as they protected him from the shooter.
Trump stood up shortly after and pumped his fist at the crowd, leading to chants of “USA” and “Make America Great Again”.
Watch the moment of the shooting on X.
Trump’s Communications Director, Steven Cheung, says the former President is “fine”:
President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility.
However, Richard Goldinger, the Butler County District Attorney, says that someone in the crowd has been killed and another is in a serious condition. The shooter was killed by secret service snipers.
A Trump supporter said he signalled to police and secret service agents that there was was a man “bear-crawling” on the roof of a building. He said he was pointing to the gunman for “two or three minutes” but authorities did not react until after “five shots rang out”. He told the BBC
He had a rifle. We’re like [telling police he is] ‘right here on the roof, we see him… he’s crawling.’ I’m thinking to myself, why is Trump still speaking?
The Telegraph reports on how it happened:
The location of the shooter was said to be about 130 yards from where Trump was standing in front of a lectern.
Bystanders who were outside the rally said they were signalling to security that a man armed with a rife was crawling on a shed roof.
They wondered why no one was responding to them and then realised it was likely the police couldn’t see the gunman from their positions.
Richard Goldinger, the Butler County District Attorney, has now confirmed the shooter was outside of the security perimeter.
“He was outside of the ground, so to speak,” he told CNN. “So quite frankly, I don’t know how he would have gotten to the location where he was but he was outside the grounds and I think that’s something that we’re gonna have to figure out how he got there.”
He added that the security services had “maybe got a little lackadaisical about it” and thought that “this wouldn’t happen to a president or a former President”.
“Maybe it’s just the state of our current political situation, but yeah, you just wouldn’t even think it would happen, especially in where I live in Butler County.”
In the Times, Tom Newton Dunn, who was at the rally, has given an eye-witness account of what happened:
When the first shots rang out, there was silence. Then, the screaming started.
It was just after ten past six on Saturday evening at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. We and tens of thousands of others had been waiting for hours in the 35-degree heat to hear Donald Trump speak.
When he finally took to the stage, at 6.04pm, the crowd, many of them dressed in red Maga hats, cheered and whooped as he started speaking, about 50 metres from us.
Then a volley of jarring sounds cut through the summer air: high-pitched rattles that sounded like firecrackers. Everyone looked around, and just for a moment, there was a deadly quiet.
Secret Service agents clad in black suits jumped on Trump and pulled him to the ground. An instant later, the crowd of about 30,000 realised what had happened.
Someone near me shouted: “Get down, get down.”
“Oh my god, what the f***,” a man next to me shouted.
A woman close by just repeated over again: “Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, they’ve got him.”
In the Telegraph, Poppy Cockburn says this will help Trump in the forthcoming Presidential contest:
It was the shot heard around the world.
Former President Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in the swing state of Pennsylvania, seemingly narrowly dodged certain death after gunshots sounded, apparently clipping his ear.
Trump was hurried away by Secret Service as the crowd screamed around him.
There were multiple shots – and yet, the presidential hopeful stood defiant. Shouts of horror quickly turned to ecstatic calls of “USA, USA!”.
A picture of the former president covered in blood and holding his fist to the air is bound to define the election cycle, one of the most powerful – regardless on one’s political opinion – of modern times.
We do not yet know the motive or identity of the shooter. But it is still worth considering the extreme polarisation that permeates the United States at the current moment.
Comments made by sitting President Joe Biden speaking of a “bullseye” on Trump, and tweets about him being a would-be “dictator” will, justified or not, lead to extreme scrutiny of remarks made by the White House prior to this seismic event.
Fundamentally, there is now little to no doubt that Donald Trump will now become the 47th president of the United States of America.
His campaign, already trouncing Joe Biden in a number of key swing states, can only benefit from this public act of bravery in the worst of circumstances.
The American people will not forget the words Trump appeared to utter as he was ushered off the stage: “fight, fight”.
And Tony Diver, the Telegraph’s US Editor, agrees:
The constant threat of violent death is something of an occupational hazard for American commanders-in-chief, and four sitting presidents have succumbed to it.
Nonetheless, there is no denying that this incident will have a significant impact on this year’s presidential race.
Trump has built his campaign on the idea that everyone is out to get him. Federal prosecutors, judges, election officials, rival politicians and journalists have all been accused of trying to bring down his campaign and prevent his return to the White House.
Many of those claims have rightly been contested. But after the incident in Pennsylvania, even Trump’s worst enemies cannot deny that there are some who would rather see him dead than re-elected.
The polls already suggest that Trump is likely to win back the presidency in November, after a torrid few months for his opponent and a criminal conviction that has had little impact on his popularity.
If history tells us anything, the events of Saturday will only increase his support. In the months after Mr Reagan was shot, the newly-elected Republican President saw a poll boost of eight points.
This is a breaking story and we will update it below as more news comes in.
Stop Press: According to the New York Post, the shooter has been identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20.
The gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump Saturday was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, sources told the Post.
Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pa., squeezed off shots — one of which grazed Trump in the ear — at an outdoor rally in Butler, just outside Pittsburgh.
Sources said Crooks was planted on a roof of a manufacturing plant more than 130 yards away from the stage at Butler Farm Show grounds.
He was killed by Secret Service snipers. An AR-style rifle was later recovered.
Bethel Park is a village 40 miles south of where the Butler rally was held.
Why Crooks fired on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is unclear.
Stop Press 2: The Associated Press reports that Crooks was a registered Republican in Pennsylvania. However, he gave $15 (£12) to a progressive political action committee on January 20th 2021, the day President Biden was sworn in to office.
Stop Press 3: Tony Diver reports that numerous Republicans are blaming Joe Biden for the assassination attempt on Trump, citing his remarks about putting his rival “in the bullseye”.
Eight Republicans have blamed Mr. Biden directly for the shooting, while a further 21 have blamed critics of Trump more generally.
Steve Scalise, a senior Republican in the House of Representative, said: “For weeks Democrat leaders have been fuelling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America. Clearly we’ve seen far Left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop.”
Wesley Hunt, a Texas Congressman, pointed to remarks by Mr Biden in 2022, when he said Trump was a “threat to the very soul of this country”. “THIS is the rhetoric that leads to political violence,” Mr. Hunt said.
Keith Self, who represents the same state, said: “Every American should be outraged at Joe Biden for inciting violence against Donald J. Trump.”
Rick Scott, a Florida Senator, accused Mr. Biden of saying he “wanted to put Trump in the crosshairs”.
“This isn’t some unfortunate incident. This was an assassination attempt by a madman inspired by the rhetoric of the radical Left,” he said.
J.D. Vance, a Senator who is on the shortlist to be Mr. Trump’s running mate in this year’s Presidential election, said the events at his rally in Pennsylvania were “not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
Tim Scott, a Republican Senator from South Carolina who is one of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders, added: “Let’s be clear: This was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascist, or worse.”
Several Republicans pointed to comments by Mr. Biden on a call with donors earlier this week, in which he said Trump should be put in a “bullseye”. “So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye,” he reportedly said.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.