Fans Hail Trump’s ‘Guts’ as He Returns to Rally Shooting Site

AFP/APP

Butler: Supporters knelt and bowed their heads as Donald Trump led a moment of silence at 6:11 p.m., the time when shots rang out at a rally on the same rural Pennsylvania showground exactly 12 weeks earlier.

An opera singer performed “Ave Maria” while a Secret Service sniper scanned the horizon with binoculars, and a surveillance drone hovered over the tens of thousands of rallygoers. Heavily armed officers patrolled behind the stage.

The crowd in Butler periodically erupted into chants of “fight, fight, fight”—echoing Trump’s rallying cry following the July 13 shooting that grazed his ear and briefly disrupted his campaign for November’s election.

“I love the fact that he came back… He said he’d come back to finish his speech, and to me that takes guts,” said Robert Dupain, 53, a local construction worker who had attended the July rally. “That’s what these 50,000 people stand for,” he added, describing his “nervous excitement” about attending the event.

Though no official count was provided, Saturday’s rally drew a significantly larger crowd than the previous one. Trump’s return to Butler, a conservative community in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, was marked by noticeably tighter security.

“As I was saying,” Trump joked from behind bulletproof glass, referring to the violent interruption of his speech in July, to laughter from the crowd.

The chart towards which Trump turned his head at the moment of the attempted assassination three months ago was also displayed on a big screen, drawing cheers from the audience.

In his typically wide-ranging speech, Trump repeated claims about immigration, transgender athletes, and his political opponents.

The would-be assassin had fired from a complex of buildings outside the security perimeter near Trump’s podium. On Saturday, the area was heavily guarded by state police, with trucks parked around the venue to block potential sightlines.