Trump to rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, site of attempted assassination

Visit comes a month before November 5 election, as Trump seeks to boost support in key state.

Former United States President Donald Trump – the Republican candidate in the presidential election – is set to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, where he survived an assassination attempt in July.

Supporters on Saturday were gathering for the rally, which comes just a month before the November 5 election as Trump remains neck-and-neck with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump’s campaign had predicted tens of thousands of people would be at the event, which it billed as a “tribute to the American spirit”. Trump is set to speak at 5pm local time (21:00 GMT).

The former president had been on stage on July 13 when he narrowly avoided a bullet fired by a man perched on a nearby roof. Trump briefly went to the floor as Secret Service agents rushed towards him. He then stood up, his ear bloodied, and pumped his fist in the air chanting “fight, fight, fight” as he was moved off stage.

The shooting, which killed one attendee, transformed the election season, briefly giving Trump a bump in support as his campaign portrayed the incident as a showcase of Trump’s resiliency.

Still, the initial attack was largely overshadowed by US President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race in July and make way for Harris’s rise.

The shooting also raised the spectre of political violence in the US, with Trump briefly pledging to take a more unifying approach before returning to the charged rhetoric that has defined his political career. Trump has broadly blamed the attack on Democrats’ claims that he posed an existential threat to US democracy.

In September, Trump had another brush with an attempted assassin as he golfed at his resort in Florida, further charging the political climate.

‘Strength and resiliency’

Trump’s much-anticipated return to Butler has been widely viewed as an effort to reclaim the momentum he had felt in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

He will be joined by billionaire Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump just minutes after the July attack, his running mate, Senator JD Vance, as well as the family of Corey Comperatore, the man shot dead during the assassination attempt.

“President Trump looks forward to returning to Butler, Pennsylvania to honour the victims from that tragic day,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. “The willingness of Pennsylvanians to join President Trump in his return to Butler represents the strength and resiliency of the American people.”

The former president will speak from behind protective glass as the Secret Service continues to face questions over the security breach that allowed 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks to escape detection as he took position on a roof with a direct line of sight on Trump. Crooks was fatally shot at the scene.

The head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, stepped down in the days after the attack, which prompted both internal investigations and a Congressional probe.

Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service’s chief spokesman, told NBC News that “our people are being pushed to the limit” as they have sought to assure another attack does not happen.

“We recognise that this is not sustainable, and we cannot risk another mission failure,” he said.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies