Topline
Former President Donald Trump wrote Saturday he will continue to hold outdoor campaign rallies, just two weeks after a gunman nearly assassinated him at an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania, a shooting that grazed Trump’s ear and sparked an outcry over Secret Service safety measures.
Former President Donald Trump, who has not appeared at an outdoor rally since the assassination … [+]
Key Facts
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the Secret Service agreed to “SUBSTANTIALLY STEP UP THEIR OPERATION,” saying the security agency is “VERY CAPABLE OF DOING SO.”
Trump added: “NO ONE CAN EVER BE ALLOWED TO STOP OR IMPEDE FREE SPEECH OR GATHERING!!!”
Trump has not appeared at an outdoor rally since the assassination attempt, though he spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week—an indoor event with heavy security from local, state and federal law enforcement, including the Secret Service—and an indoor rally on Wednesday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Secret Service still faces heavy criticism over its handling of the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a 20-year-old gunman was able to ascend to a nearby roof with an AR-style rifle and fire directly at the former president.
Facing mounting criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned this week, saying she took “full responsibility” for the security lapse, acknowledging she had “lost the confidence of Congress.”
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What To Watch For
Trump has not set a date for an upcoming outdoor rally. The former president has an indoor rally scheduled with running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, in St. Cloud, Minnesota Saturday night, and another rally at an indoor arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.
Tangent
The matter of what actually hit Trump’s ear has also been called into question, with FBI Director Christopher Wray suggesting in a congressional testimony earlier this week the bureau had not conclusively determined whether Trump was hit by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel. Trump lambasted that claim on Truth Social, arguing the “FBI never even checked,” while his former doctor Ronny Jackson argued there was “absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” citing an evaluation by doctors at Butler Memorial Hospital, where Trump was treated after the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. In a statement Friday night to Forbes, the FBI said Trump was struck by a bullet, “whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle.”
Key Background
Shots rang out just minutes into a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, causing Trump to fall to the ground, where he was quickly surrounded by Secret Service agents, before slowly standing back up with a bloodied ear, pumping his fist in the air. One man at the rally died as a result of the shooting and two other people were seriously wounded. The gunman—identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks—was killed by Secret Service snipers. Following the shooting, an FBI investigation uncovered the 20-year-old shooter had searched for information on Trump, and had conducted a Google search to determine how far Lee Harvey Oswald was from former President John F. Kennedy during his assassination in 1963. While Crooks had been labeled as “ suspicious,” he was not determined to be a “threat” by the Secret Service, and he had not been on the FBI’s radar beforehand. Crooks’ motive still remains unclear.
Further Reading
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