In a shocking turn of events, former President Donald Trump was rushed from a campaign rally stage to a hospital after an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Gunshots rang out shortly after Trump began his speech to supporters at the Butler Farm Show Grounds late Saturday afternoon. The former president grabbed his right ear, then ducked behind a lectern as his Secret Service detail swarmed him, lifting him off the ground and carrying him off stage. Screams filled the crowd, and blood was seen running down the right side of Trump’s face and ear as he raised his fist to supporters. The event was immediately evacuated and declared a crime scene.
According to law enforcement officials, Secret Service agents killed the suspected shooter, who was outside the security perimeter when the shots were fired. Tragically, a spectator was killed, and two others were critically injured. The suspected gunman appeared to have been perched on a rooftop with an AR-style rifle outside the rally.
In a statement on Truth Social hours later, Trump confirmed that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” He described the moment he realized something was wrong, stating, “I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
A Trump campaign spokesperson assured that the former president was “fine” and received treatment at a nearby medical facility immediately after the incident.
President Joe Biden, speaking from Delaware, condemned the violence, stating, “We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.” He later spoke with Trump by phone, and both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris received a briefing from federal law enforcement before returning to Washington, D.C.
Witnesses described the chaotic scene. An ER physician with blood smeared across his T-shirt recounted hearing people shout that “someone had been shot” and trying to save a person trapped between benches. Erin Autenreith, a front-row attendee, initially thought the sounds were fireworks. She said, “Secret Service swarmed the stage and the guys with the guns said ‘lift him.’”
Eduardo Vargas, sitting about 15 feet behind Trump, said, “I saw half the people around me start crying. I thought I just saw the president get killed in front of my face.” Another witness told BBC News he tried to alert Secret Service agents to a rifle-wielding man on a nearby rooftop before gunshots rang out.
The incident drew widespread condemnation of political violence from current and former Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was shot in 2017, and former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, joined calls urging Americans to denounce such acts. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose husband survived a violent attack in 2022, expressed relief that Trump was safe and called for prayers for all attendees.
The attack in Butler, a city of about 13,000 people an hour northeast of Pittsburgh, occurred just three days before the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin, where Trump is expected to receive the party’s nomination for president for the third consecutive time. Campaign officials confirmed that the convention would proceed as scheduled.
The last assassination attempt on an American president was in 1981 when John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots at then-President Ronald Reagan, wounding him and three others. Reagan survived the attack, but White House press secretary James Brady suffered brain damage and was permanently disabled. Brady’s death in 2014 was ultimately ruled a homicide.
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