Trump mixes somber remembrance with heated rhetoric in his return to Butler

Former President Donald Trump set the stage for a bruising final month of the presidential campaign during a return visit to the Pennsylvania venue where a gunman attempted to assassinate him this summer.

The trip was Trump’s latest to the Keystone State, which is shaping up to be the most pivotal in this election cycle. As the rally was ongoing, Trump’s campaign announced two additional Pennsylvania events the president would appear at in the coming days.

Speaking before one of his larger rally crowds of the cycle, Trump attacked Democratic leaders for the federal response to Hurricane Helene, baselessly suggested that the party was working to steal the upcoming election from him and repeatedly went after Vice President Kamala Harris for saying in a 2019 ACLU questionnaire that she supported taxpayer funding of gender transition care for immigrants in federal detention facilities.

“Who wants sex change operations for illegal aliens in holding bins? I don’t think so,” Trump said during his roughly 90-minute address. Returning to the subject later, he roped in billionaire mogul Elon Musk, who was in attendance at Trump’s rally, saying, “I don’t think Elon likes that idea. These are not ideas that Elon Musk likes too much.”

Trump featured a parade of wealthy benefactors who spoke at the event, including Musk, hedge fund billionaire John Paulson and real estate investor Steve Witkoff.

During his remarks, Musk described himself as “not just MAGA, I’m dark MAGA,” offering apocalyptic warnings to rallygoers and viewers.

“One request is very important: Register to vote,” Musk said. “OK? And get everyone you know and everyone you don’t know, drag them to register to vote. … Like, text people now [and] make sure they actually do vote. If they don’t, this will be the last election. That’s my prediction. Nothing’s more important.”

The stop comes nearly three months after Trump was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin on July 13 at the same venue. The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was shot and killed by law enforcement on site. Two rallygoers were injured while another, Corey Comparatore, was killed.

“Now you heard the shots, you saw the blood, we all feared the worst,” Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, said in a speech preceding the former president, adding that he believed God intervened to spare Trump’s life. “But you knew everything would be OK when President Trump raised his fist high in the air and shouted ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’”

Much of the opening of Trump’s speech was dedicated to Comperatore and the two others who were injured at the July rally. Trump also praised law enforcement present for the assassination attempt, saying the counter-snipers were responsible for saving “many lives.”

“We have an evil world,” Trump said. “We have a very sick world.”

Trump also held a moment of silence for Comparatore, who he said has “become somewhat of a folk hero.” He met with the fallen attendee’s family prior to his speech on Saturday.

“He was hit hard,” Trump said. “And he gave his life to shield [his loved ones] lives.”

Trump was somewhat more subdued than at other recent events, such as when he called Harris mentally impaired and suggested police be “real rough” with suspected criminals for “one rough hour.” But other speakers filled the void.

Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, described the election as a battle between “good vs. evil.” 

“And good is going to win this battle,” she said.

In his speech, Vance condemned Democrats for labeling Trump as a threat to democracy, directly tying those warnings to the second assassination attempt Trump faced last month.

Pointing to Harris, Vance said: “How dare you talk about threats to democracy.”

“Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy,” he added. “What the hell have you done?”

Trump, meanwhile, said RNC Chairman Michael Whatley is “working mostly on Stop the Steal” as opposed to get-out-the-vote efforts, which have been the subject of some Republican consternation. (One outside group tasked with a significant chunk of the GOP GOTV effort is a super PAC tied to Musk.)

“Because we have a lot of votes,” Trump said, adding, “We’re going to win this thing, and the more we win it, you know, it’s too big to rig.”

Trump also spent time discussing the federal response to Hurricane Helene, which has battered western North Carolina as well as parts of Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia. Trump said the government is only offering flooding victims $750 “and yet they send tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said that $750 is just one type of assistance it offers, and that there are other programs which victims can qualify for after applying for disaster relief.

Trump touched more briefly on local issues, promoting fracking and saying he will not approve Nippon Steel’s agreement to purchase U.S. Steel — a hot topic in Western Pennsylvania. Both Harris and President Joe Biden have also come out against the foreign takeover.

“I don’t like that,” Trump said of the possibility of a Japanese company owning U.S. Steel.

Looking ahead to the coming month, the former president predicted that both he and Vance would be subject to a number of negative reports.

“One month, we’ve got to get there,” he said. “They’ll still drop all sorts of bombs. They’ll be hitting you, JD, they’ll be hitting me. These people, they’ll hit and hit, but I think we’ve almost become immune to it, haven’t we? We’ve become immune to it.”

Trump heaped praise on the wealthy benefactors present for the rally, calling Witkoff “one of the greatest businessmen in the country” while saying Paulson is “truly one of the greats, one of the great pickers, picker, meaning stocks. He knows what he’s doing.”

He later used Musk to describe his vision for the American dream.

“We’re going to have the American dream,” Trump said of if he wins next month. “So every kid in your family is going to grow up and say, ‘I want to be like Elon Musk. I want to have, I want to have $200 billion in cash. I’m going to be like Elon Musk.’ That’s the American dream.”