Donald Trump's rally in Butler County came to a shocking end Saturday when shots were apparently fired at Trump in front of thousands of supporters a few minutes into his speech at the Farm Show grounds.
The Trump campaign said the candidate was "fine" and was being examined at a nearby medical facility.
Trump was a little more than six minutes into his speech, decrying President Joe Biden's record on immigration, when the shots appeared to ring out. The former president was showing a graphic about immigration trends on a big screen and then said the data was old.
"If you want to really see something that's sad, take a look at what happened — oh," Trump said. He then appeared to reach toward his right ear as if stung, while a cluster of three shots could be heard.
About two seconds later, another cluster of shots were audible. Secret Service agents ran to protect Trump, who could be seen briefly pumping his first but seemingly had a smear of blood on his face.
"I heard the gunshots, I saw Trump go down," said rallygoer Mark McEvoy of Weirton, West Virginia. "But then he got back up. ... What I saw was he got up and he raised his hand. A lot of people were ducking."
McAvoy and other witnesses said they heard between eight and 10 shots. It was not immediately clear who fired them, or from where, as eyewitness accounts differed.
"Somebody had a small-caliber gun on this side of the bleachers, on the left side, [and ] shot what looked like at Trump but missed and hit somebody on the right side of the bleachers, maybe two people ... He might have gotten hit, I don't know," said John Myers of Karns City in Butler County. "It looked like there was a little bit of blood on the stage, but they had him hunkered down pretty good.
"I was sitting right behind President Trump, and the first one that popped — I thought that somebody got a firecracker in here ... that's all it sounded like, was a small-caliber firecracker," Myers added. "But then, chaos started happening on the right side [and] then the secret service jumped in and ... got Trump down... [It's] Very sad. They had a lot of security, so I don't know how they got that weapon in."
Rick Ivanisin of Butler said he saw at least one law enforcement sniper return fire from atop a metal building near the rally stage.
"The guys up on the roof over there, on that metal building — he kept looking with binoculars ... towards that water tower," before mounting his weapon on a tripod and returning fire, Ivanisin said. "The shots came from over there [and] hit the people on the stage" as well as a structure that held up large speakers to amplify the speech.
When people in the crowd realized what was happening, "They were mad,'" he added "We just come here to have a good time, and they ruined it."
Minutes after the shooting, other members of the crowd could be heard shouting angrily. "You wanted political violence, now you got it," one attendee said.
"This is the America you want," said another. "You're going to get it."
In a brief statement, the Trump campaign said: "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. More details will follow."
The White House said President Joe Biden had "received an initial briefing on the incident at former President Trump’s rally" but offered no further details. Earlier in the evening, First Lady Jill Biden had been in Pittsburgh to speak at an Italian Sons and Daughters of America dinner at Rivers Casino.
In a tweet, Allegheny County Republican Committee chair Sam DeMarco condemned the violence, calling it a "haunting reminder of how extreme rhetoric and political hatred, can rob a nation of its civility and shared purpose."
"The incident in Butler County has made a few things clear. First, Donald Trump is a fighter who left the stage reluctantly and will come back stronger and even more prepared to fight to make America great ... I hope this will remind Mr. Trump’s haters that words matter."
The incident disrupted what had drawn enthusiastic crowds earlier in the day to the Butler County Farm Show grounds to Trump speak — a visit that comes just days before Republicans hold their national convention next week.
It was Trump’s first Western Pennsylvania stop in the 2024 campaign, and supporters drove in from all around the region so as not to miss it.
Donald Schamus said he was attending his first Trump rally because he didn’t think Trump would return to the area this year. His 24-year-old son Ronnie said he drove from Pleasant Hills to support a candidate who isn’t afraid to say what he thinks. Nobody wears a Biden shirt, Ronnie Schamus said, unless it’s derogatory.
Democrats have “tried whatever they possibly can” to stop Trump, he said, “by removing him off the ballot, sending him to court, trying to throw him in jail, because they're scared, because they know the revolution that's coming.”
Similar themes were sounded from the stage as a series of speakers addressed the crowd before Trump’s appearance, which is expected to take place after 5 p.m.
“Can you feel the tide turning?” asked Sean Parnell, a former U.S. Senate candidate and conservative media personality. “We are on the verge of taking back our country from the Biden crime family and the rest of the corrupt Democrats who are destroying America.”
Parnell denounced Biden for a range of sins, ranging from “the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan — we surrendered there” to crime rates: “Our community is less safe because of Soros-funded prosecutors made possible by the Biden crime family,” said Parnell. (District attorneys are elected locally.)
Parnell offered a familiar litany of conservative complaints about the purported use of “lawfare” and impeachment proceedings to thwart the president. And he added a new charge: That talk within Democratic circles about replacing Biden as the nominee after a disastrous debate performance in late June amounted to “rigging their own elections.”
“They’re trying to remove their candidate from the ballot because he’s getting destroyed,” he said.
Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick also spoke and invoked Biden’s debate performance, seeking to link it to his own election fight. His campaign has hit Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey for voting in lockstep with Biden, and McCormick called it “disgraceful” that Casey hasn’t separated himself from Biden after the debate.
“He says that his buddy Joe Biden is just fine, and he’s ready to be Commander-in-Chief for four more years," McCormick said.
McCormick is also scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention next week, according to a list of speakers provided by the GOP.
Trump’s prospects look solid on the eve of the convention in Milwaukee, which is expected to kick off with the announcement of his choice for vice-presidential running mate. Polls show Trump with a consistent lead in Pennsylvania and the overall national vote. And the crowds of red-hatted supporters on the farm show grounds — who were contending with temperatures in the 90s largely without the benefit of shade — were further evidence of the depth of his support.
Some members of the crowd could be seen waving "Trump Towels," modeled on the famed Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel, prior to Trump's appearance.
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, in whose district the rally took place, said that when the campaign told him about its travel plans, “I said, ‘How many people are you expecting?’ They said, ‘Six to seven thousand.’ I said, ‘You’ve never been here.’
“This election is about America’s last chance,” Kelly added. “We cannot endure another four years of what we’ve gone through. The ‘Hate America’ group has got to go into retirement.”
Trump supporter Kevin Prickett, for one, drove from Jefferson Hills to see Trump speak. A U.S. Steel employee at the Clairton Coke Works, he said he doesn't like that Biden was opposing the sale of the company to Nippon Steel. He said he believes Nippon would have additional money to invest in the company. Although Prickett didn’t know Trump’s position on the sale — Trump has said he, too, would oppose the sale “instantaneously” — he said he liked that Trump imposed tariffs on foreign steel during his presidency.
Biden has continued that policy, and union leadership has embraced him. Local labor leaders and elected officials joined for a Friday lunchtime rally at the United Steelworkers headquarters Downtown to underscore their support. Darrin Kelly, the region’s top labor official, pointed to Biden’s investments in infrastructure — investments that Trump had promised in his term but not delivered — as a rebuke to Trump’s legacy.
Trump is “going to land in an airport he did nothing to build to save when we needed it. He’s going to drive on a road that he swore to fix that he didn’t,” said Kelly. “And he’s going to go and manipulate a bunch of hard-working people that need to wake up.”
Kelly brushed aside concerns about Biden’s age after the debate, saying “he wakes up every day, saying, ‘America first, workers first.’ That doesn’t stop with age. As a matter of fact, that right there should make everyone … stand by that person. And we are very confident in him.”
But many Trump supporters say that economic opportunities have shrunk during Biden’s term.
Brandon Garris and his wife Kayla Shellmmer drove an hour from Shelocta, in Indiana County, to attend the rally on Saturday. Garris said he worked on a pipeline during Trump’s presidency but now works as a landscaper. Like other supporters, he said natural gas and other fossil fuel industries — already operating at historic levels even as Biden sought to put a moratorium on gas exports — would see even further growth in another Trump Administration.
“I would love to be back on the pipeline,” Garris said.
This story is developing and will be updated.
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