Former President Donald Trump will hold a rally Oct. 5 in Butler, Pa. — at the exact spot where he was nearly killed by a would-be assassin on July 13, his campaign announced Wednesday.
Trump, 78, had long teased plans to revisit the Butler Farm Show grounds following his brush with death. NBC News first reported the date for the rally.
“During his visit, President Trump will honor the memory of Corey Comperatore, who heroically sacrificed his life to shield his wife and daughters from the bullets on that terrible day,” the campaign said in a statement.
“President Trump will also recognize the two other Americans who were wounded by the shooter, David Dutch and James Copenhaver. He will express his deep gratitude to law enforcement and first responders, and thank the entire community for their outpouring of love and support in the wake of the attack.”
The 45th president was targeted by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired eight shots at Trump from atop a building just off the farm show grounds, a distance of fewer than 150 yards. Trump was shot and wounded in the right ear by one of Crooks’ bullets, having just turned his head to look at a chart of immigration statistics. Crooks was killed by a counter-sniper seconds later.
Since the attempt on his life, Trump and his campaign has have suggested he was spared by God so that he can regain the presidency he lost four years ago, claiming in Wednesday’s statement that the ex-commander-in-chief was “saved in what the world has recognized as an act of divine providence.”
Days after the attempt on his life, Trump paid tribute to firefighter Comperatore, 50, by kissing his helmet and protective gear while accepting the Republican nomination in Milwaukee.
The assassination attempt has been followed by a series of investigations into the security failures preceeding the shooting, leading to the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 94-page report Wednesday revealing that the lead advance agent was aware of “credible intelligence” of a threat against Trump, but failed to pass it on to others.
Two months and two days after the Butler shooting, investigators say, Trump was targeted at his eponymous golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla. by Ryan Wesley Routh, who lay in wait for nearly 12 hours with a sniper rifle before being spotted and shot at by a Secret Service agent on advance patrol as the former president played a round.
“After not one, but two attempts on his life in the past nine weeks, President Trump is more determined than ever to see his mission through to the end. In that Butler field on July 13th, he took a bullet for democracy—and on November 5th, he is going to save our democracy,” his campaign stressed Wednesday.
In addition to the two high-profile assassination attempts against Trump, federal authorities have also claimed in court documents to have unearthed a recruitment effort by Iran to take Trump’s life.
“There have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran, but I don’t really know,” Trump said during a Wednesday event in Mint Hill, NC.
The Republican campaign stated that Trump had been briefed Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”
ODNI has previously assessed that Iran sought to tank Trump politically during the 2020 election cycle.
The Shiite Muslim theocracy is also alleged to have backed a hack into the Trump campaign, which resulted in a leak of internal information to Politico and The Washington Post — both of whom have declined to publish it — and a similar offer to the re-election campaign of President Biden.
