BUTLER, Pa. - Former president Donald Trump on Saturday was quickly rushed offstage after a shooting that authorities are investigating as an assassination attempt, leaving a campaign rally with appeared to be blood on one side of his face. The incident was a shocking turn in a tense election season where concerns about violence have already been running high.
A campaign spokesman said Trump was taken to a medical facility but is “fine.” The scene unfolded just days before he is set to formally receive the GOP nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee - and renewed fears about rising threats of political violence in the country.
Trump, in a Truth Social post Saturday night, said he was shot in his upper right ear and offered his thanks to law enforcement. He also extended his condolences to the families of a person who was shot and killed and another who was injured.
“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country,” he wrote.
The incident is being investigated as an attempted assassination, with the FBI, Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all working on the case, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said two people were killed, one audience member and one person who was the apparent shooter. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that during the rally, “a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue.” The suspected shooter is dead, Guglielmi said, and one spectator was killed and two others critically injured.
Minutes into his remarks here, Trump appeared to touch his right ear and then duck after the first of several pops, which sent the crowd into a panic. Smoke rose into air. The former president was not visible for a time as security rushed to his aid, but later he could be seen standing onstage with security surrounding him. The crowd cheered as officers moved with Trump offstage.
What sounded like multiple shots could be heard as Trump reached for his right ear with his hand, pulled his hand back quickly and then crouched behind the lectern.
A voice was heard saying, “Get down, get down, get down!” Several more apparent shots followed a couple of seconds later. Audience members screamed.
Members of Trump’s Secret Service detail rushed in, one yelling, “Hawkeye is here!” as members of the Secret Service’s counterassault team mounted the stage, wearing black tactical gear and pointing rifles at the crowd - trying to give the president and his detail cover so that agents could rush him to safety.
Trump pumped his fist while walking off with what appeared to be blood dripping down his right ear and cheek. A Washington Post photographer observed what appeared to be blood on the riser behind the former president.
Trump’s campaign issued a statement condemning the incident. “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,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in the statement.
At a news conference Saturday evening, President Biden - who was at a church in Delaware during the incident - said he had been briefed and had tried to contact Trump, who he understood to be doing well. Biden said he hoped to speak with Trump. “Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick,” Biden said. “It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country.”
The crowd evacuated in an orderly manner, some directing anger over what happened at the media. Police told people to leave because the site was an active crime scene.
Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania - who was in the front row - said during an interview on Fox News that he saw a lot of blood and that Trump is “very lucky to be alive.”
Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said that he was also briefed on the situation and that state police were at the site. “Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable,” Shapiro said in a statement. “It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States.”
National and world leaders across the political spectrum quickly weighed in with horror at what unfolded and offered well wishes for 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.) echoed.
Republicans shared images of Trump fist-pumping toward the crowd.
“God protected President Trump,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a vice-presidential contender, in a posting with the picture. Another possible running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), also shared the photo.
As information about the violence was just beginning to emerge - with authorities saying little about the details of the incident - some Republicans suggested rhetoric from Democrats was to blame. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) went further: “Joe Biden sent the orders,” he wrote on X. There is no evidence that Biden was behind the attack.
Republicans preparing for the Republican National Convention next week in Milwaukee gathered around televisions in a hotel lobby after the incident. Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist, was in the hotel and described an emotional scene with people crossing themselves and looking stunned.
The convention is expected to continue but with additional security, according to an official familiar with the preparations who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
At a moment when threats against elected officials have escalated, presidential historian Tim Naftali said the tone that Trump and other leaders take in the coming days will have an enormous bearing on what happens next.
Describing the country as a “pressure cooker,” Naftali said: “We’ve been turning up the gas - and some kind of political violence seemed increasingly likely.”
“As a country we have been dancing around Pandora’s box,” said Naftali, who teaches presidential studies at Columbia University’s School of International Public Affairs, “and a horrible person today may have opened it.”
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Josh Dawsey, Colby Itkowitz, Maeve Reston, Matt Viser and Joyce Lee contributed to this report.
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