The FBI is investigating the Saturday evening shooting at Trump’s Butler, Pa., campaign rally as an assassination attempt and have identified the suspected gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa.
The assassination attempt that injured former president Donald Trump reshaped the presidential race and injected uncertainty Sunday into plans for this week’s Republican National Convention in Wisconsin, as both parties recalibrated to address the concerns of a stunned and unsettled nation.
Vowing on social media that he would not allow “a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin” to force scheduling changes or “anything else,” Trump flew to Milwaukee late Sunday afternoon, abandoning plans to delay his trip by two days. Expressing his eagerness to address supporters this week, he posted on Truth Social that he and his movement would “remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness” and surprised his staff by instructing them to weave a “unity” message into the four-day convention.
The shooting adds a new layer of darkness and unpredictability to an already extraordinary contest between President Biden and his predecessor, who maintains that the 2020 election was stolen from him and has embraced the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The shooting has thrust Biden, who is still trying to recover from a stumbling late-June debate performance, into a delicate dual role as a president who has long warned against political violence and a candidate running against a man who has been targeted by that violence. Law enforcement agencies pressed forward with their investigations, but revealed no major clues about the shooter’s motive.
Biden prepared to speak to the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday evening in an address expected to focus on bringing Americans together.
A person who spoke to Trump on Sunday said the former president was almost “spiritual” about his attempted assassination Saturday night. Trump said he was struck by a bullet in his right ear, and officials said one rally attendee was killed and two others were critically injured.
“He thinks he was handed a gift from God. He can’t believe it,” said the person, who like other people interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations and planning. Though plans are still in flux and subject to change, the convention is expected to focus more on Trump’s “courage and his resilience,” a person close to him said. The convention’s planners “want speakers to dial it down, not dial it up,” the person said, referring to the rhetoric used in speeches.
Seeking to reassure aides in the early hours of Sunday, top Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles sent an email to staff obtained by The stating that the convention would “continue as planned” as party delegates prepare to “nominate our President to be the brave and fearless nominee of our party.”
LaCivita and Wiles said they had enhanced the security presence at Trump’s campaign offices in D.C. and West Palm Beach, Fla., and encouraged aides to stay away from the offices as they assessed the security risks. Several people with knowledge of convention planning said additional security measures were put in place to ensure that events, including those outside the hardened security perimeter, would be safe to attend.
