Former U.S. President Donald Trump. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Former President Donald Trump plans to return on Saturday (October 5, 2024) to the site where a gunman tried to assassinate him in July, setting aside what are now near-constant worries for his physical safety in order to fulfill a promise — “really an obligation,” he said recently — to the people of Butler, Pennsylvania.

“I’ll probably start off by saying, ‘As I was saying …,’” the Republican Presidential nominee has joked, in a bit of black humour about a speech cut short when a bullet struck Mr. Trump’s ear and he was whisked off stage — fist aloft — with blood dripping across his face.

Mr. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance will also be on hand at the Butler Farm Show grounds, as will billionaire Elon Musk, as the campaign elevates the headline-generating potential of his return with just 30 days to go in their tight campaign against Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

The campaign is predicting that tens of thousands of people will attend what is being pitched as a “tribute to the American spirit.” Local hotels, motels and inns are reportedly full and some eager rallygoers already arrived on Friday ( October 4, 2024) according to a local Facebook page.

“President Trump looks forward to returning to Butler, Pennsylvania to honour the victims from that tragic day,” said Mr. Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. “The willingness of Pennsylvanians to join President Trump in his return to Butler represents the strength and resiliency of the American people.”

Mr. Trump will use the 5 p.m. eastern time event to remember Corey Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter struck and killed at the July 13 rally, and to recognise the two other rallygoers injured, David Dutch and James Copenhaver. Mr. Trump and the two were struck when 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire from an unsecured rooftop nearby before he was fatally shot by sharpshooters.

How Crooks managed to outmaneuver law enforcement that day and scramble on top of a building within easy shooting distance of the ex-President is among myriad questions that remain unanswered about the worst Secret Service security failure in decades. Another is his motive, which has never been determined.

Butler County District Attorney Rich Goldinger told WPXI-TV this week that “everyone is doubling down on their efforts to make sure this is done safely and correctly.” Mike Slupe, the county sheriff, told the station he estimates the Secret Service — which has undergone a painful reckoning over its handling of two attempts on Mr. Trump’s life — is deploying ”quadruple the assets” it did in July.

Butler County, on the western edge of a coveted Presidential swing state, is a Trump stronghold. He won the county — where turnout hovers around an impressive 80% — with about 66% of the vote in both 2016 and 2020. About 57% of Butler County’s 1,39,000 registered voters are Republicans, compared with about 29% who are Democrats and 14% something else.

Three months later, townspeople are divided over the value of his return. Heidi Priest, a Butler resident who started a Facebook group supporting Ms. Harris, said Mr. Trump’s last visit fanned political tensions in the city.

“Whenever you see people supporting him and getting excited about him being here, it scares the people who don’t want to see him reelected,” she said.

Mr. Trump needs to drive up voter turnout in conservative strongholds such as Butler County, an overwhelmingly white, rural-suburban community, if he wants to win Pennsylvania in November. Ms. Harris, too, has targeted her campaign efforts at Pennsylvania, rallying there repeatedly as part of her aggressive outreach in critical swing states.