During the rally, “a suspected gunman fired multiple shots at the stage from an elevated location outside the rally venue,” according to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Guglielmi said the suspected gunman had died and confirmed other deaths and injuries.
In a social media post Saturday night, Trump said he was shot in the upper right ear and thanked police. He also offered condolences to the families of the one killed and one wounded in the shooting. A campaign spokesman said the former president was taken to a medical facility but was “OK.”
“I cannot believe this kind of behavior would happen in our country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The incident comes just days before Trump is due to formally accept the Republican presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, rekindling concerns about the growing threat of political violence.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said the shooter was on the roof of an office building outside the secured area of the incident.The incident is being investigated as an attempted assassination and is being investigated by the FBI, Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, two people familiar with the matter said.
A few minutes into his speech, Trump reached over his right ear and crouched behind the podium after the first few explosions were heard, and the crowd erupted in panic. “Down, down, down!” was heard, followed a few seconds later by what sounded like several more gunshots. Members of the audience screamed and smoke rose into the air.
Members of Trump’s Secret Service rushed in, with one shouting, “Here comes Hawkeye!” as members of the Secret Service’s strike force team took to the stage, clad in black tactical gear and pointing rifles at the crowd, to provide cover for the former president and his team so agents could rush him to safety.
The crowd cheered as Trump and the police began to leave the stage. Trump left with his fist raised, blood running from his right ear and a trail of blood running down his cheek. A Washington Post photographer saw what appeared to be bloodstains on the steps behind Trump.
The Trump campaign issued a statement condemning the incident. “President Trump thanks the police and emergency responders who acted swiftly in response to this heinous act. He is in good spirits and is being examined at a local medical facility,” campaign spokesman Steven Chung said in a statement. Later that day, Trump campaign advisers and Republican officials said in a joint statement that Trump looked forward to hosting the convention.
At a press conference Saturday evening, President Biden, who was at a church in Delaware at the time of the attack, said he had been briefed on the situation and had attempted to contact Trump, who he understood to be in good spirits. “Look, we have no place in America for this kind of violence. This is sick,” Biden said. “This is sick. This is one of the reasons we have to unite our country.” Later that evening, a White House official said Biden and Trump had spoken.
Biden campaign officials said Saturday night they were working to pull the TV ads as quickly as possible.
District Attorney Goldinger said the shooter was on the roof of a nearby office at American Glass Research. William Bellis, chief financial officer of AGR International, which owns American Glass Research and is based in the complex of buildings closest to the Trump rally, said Saturday night that the company had worked with local police in advance about security concerns. Police had blocked off public access to the company’s parking lot and made the space available for law enforcement use, Bellis said.
Rico Elmore, a former Republican candidate for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives who spoke before Trump, was a few feet from the stage when shots rang out. He said he first heard what sounded like firecrackers. Elmore, an airman, said he yelled for people to get down and then heard someone call for medics.
Elmore said a man in the audience to Trump’s right, about 10 feet away, was bleeding from his head. Before medical personnel could reach the man, Elmore jumped over a barrier to try to apply pressure to the head wound, but blood spread onto Elmore’s white shirt.
“I held down his head and kept him intact, but it was a serious injury,” Elmore said. He didn’t believe the man survived. He also said he saw the woman unconscious, but she didn’t appear to be bleeding.
“There was a lot of anger, a lot of fear, a lot of tears. There were some people praying,” said Cindy Hildebrand, chair of the Butler County Republican Association, who was at the rally. A woman next to her had her 7-year-old daughter hanging from a pole, excited to meet Trump. “There’s a 7-year-old out there somewhere right now who is totally traumatized.”
As Republicans voiced alarm over the harsh criticism of some of Trump’s opponents, Hildebrand said her group received a call after the shooting from a woman who said “he got what he deserved.”
The crowd evacuated in an orderly fashion, although some lashed out at the media. Police instructed people to evacuate as the area had become a crime scene.
Dave McCormick, a Republican candidate for the Pennsylvania Senate, who was sitting in the front row, said in an interview with Fox News that he saw a lot of blood and that Trump was “very lucky to be alive.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that he had been briefed on the shooting and had briefed the president. Garland said the FBI, ATF, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Department of Justice’s National Security Division were working with other law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service, adding that “violence like this is an attack on our democracy.”
Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, said he had been briefed on the situation and that state police were on the scene. “We have zero tolerance for violence targeted at any political party or political leader,” Shapiro said in a statement. “It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States.”
Political leaders across the world and around the world were quick to express their horror at the unfolding events and offered best wishes to President Trump.
“There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy,” former President Barack Obama said in a statement.
“Political violence has no place in our country,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) agreed.
Republicans shared images of Trump pumping his fist at the crowd.
“God protects President Trump,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the running mate, wrote in a photo posted to the rally, which was also shared by Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the other running mate.
As authorities offered few details about the incident and information about the violence finally began to emerge, some Republicans suggested Democrats were to blame. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) went further, writing on X that “Joe Biden gave the order.”
There is no evidence that Biden was behind the attack.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, said in a social media statement that the shooting was “more than just an isolated incident.”
“The Biden campaign’s central argument is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote. “This rhetoric led directly to the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
Republicans preparing for their convention in Milwaukee gathered around a television in the hotel lobby after the attack. Pennsylvania-based Republican strategist Charlie Gerow, who was at the hotel, said the scenes of people making the sign of the cross and looking stunned were moving.
The event is expected to go ahead with extra security measures, said an official familiar with the preparations, who, like others familiar with the matter, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
As threats against elected officials escalate, presidential historian Tim Naftali said the attitude Trump and other leaders take over the next few days will have a huge impact on what happens next.
Describing the country as a “pressure cooker,” Naftali said: “We are increasing the pressure and the likelihood of some kind of political violence is increasing.”
“Our country has been circling Pandora’s box,” said Naftali, a professor of presidential studies at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, “and today, a terrible person may have opened that box.”
Josh Dawsey, Colby Itkowitz, Maeve Reston, Matt Viser, Joyce Lee, Carol D. Leonnig, Perry Stein, Theodoric Meyer and Shawn Boburg contributed to this report.
