Donald Trump Returns to Butler After Senate Blasts Secret Service Mistakes

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly returning to Butler, Pennsylvania, for the first time since the assassination attempt at his July rally—which the Secret Service has been criticized for “directly contributing” to, in a Senate report released Wednesday.
Trump announced plans to return to the city on October 5, following his promise on Truth Social that he would be back “for a big beautiful rally.”
“President Trump’s return to Butler will stand as a tribute to the American spirit. In America, we do not let monsters like that evil assassin have the last word,” the Republican’s campaign told Newsweek via email Wednesday afternoon. “Every time our nation is struck by attack or hardship, we rally, we persevere, and we prevail. When terrorists knocked down our towering skyscrapers, we rebuilt taller.”
One spectator was killed, and two others were injured during the July 13 shooting, which is officially being investigated as an attempted assassination. Shooter Thomas Crooks was killed by a Secret Service countersniper.
Trump’s rally will be held at the same location as the assassination attempt, at the Butler Farm Show.
“When terrorists knocked down our towering skyscrapers, we rebuilt taller. When our communities are ravaged by fire, storm, or natural disaster, we pull together and come back stronger,” the campaign said. “And when a shooter attacked our democracy and tried to end this movement, President Trump will return to the site, joined by tens of thousands of proud citizens, and together, they will celebrate a unifying vision for America’s future in an event like the world has never seen before.”
The announcement came as a Senate report and the Secret Service admitted to failures during the assassination attempt.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations’ 94-page report, released Wednesday morning, shared about a half a dozen problems, including lack of chain of command, poor coordination with local law enforcement, inadequate resources and the failure to effectively secure the site.
Committee Chairman Gary Peters pointed to several failures by the Secret Service on the phone with reporters Tuesday, prior to the report’s release.
“Every single one of those failures was preventable and the consequences of those failures were dire,” Peters said. “This was the first assassination attempt of a former president and the presidential candidate in more than four decades.”
A text message sent by a Secret Service employee to a supervisor about an hour before the shooting shared, “I’m not getting good comms on either my phone or radio. I’ll try to stay on[.]”
The Secret Service’s drone units also had “technical problems.”
In addition, the preliminary report found that the agency’s personnel were notified about a suspicious person with a range finder almost a half hour before the shooting.
The report suggested countersniper teams were deployed after a “credible intelligence” of a threat. Right before the shots were fired, a countersniper saw local officers running toward the building with their guns drawn. They did not alert Trump’s detail, however.
“Why am I hearing about threats on TV” an agent wrote in a note, according to the report.
Following the shooting, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was questioned in a four-hour bipartisan hearing. Many criticized Cheatle for evasive responses and failing to answer key questions. Shortly after, on July 23, she resigned from the top post, with Ronald Rowe Jr. assuming the role of acting director.
Rowe, who stood before a committee in late July, held a press conference last week, acknowledging multiple security lapses including local enforcement coordination and agency communication during the assassination attempt.
“There was complacency on the part of others that led to a breach of security protocols,” he said, adding that “these employees will be held accountable.”
The news conference took place a few hours after the House unanimously passed a bill to require the Secret Service to provide equal standards of protection to presidential candidates and sitting presidents. The bill, which now heads to the Senate, comes just five days after a suspected second assassination attempt on Trump.
The former president has received the same level of protection as President Joe Biden since the July attempt on his life. The “high level of protection is working,” Rowe said. According to authorities, a Secret Service agent spotted a suspect with a rifle at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when the GOP presidential nominee was playing golf there on September 15.
“Ultimately it is the Secret Service’s responsibility to secure a site,” Rowe said. “The Secret Service has the main responsibility of building the site plan. We cannot abdicate or defer our responsibilities to others.”
Trump was just a few minutes into his speech at his July 13 rally when loud popping noises were heard. The former president appeared to clutch his ear and dropped to the ground. When he stood back up, surrounded by Secret Service agents, blood was seen running down his face.
“I had God on my side,” Trump said at July’s convention. “If I had not moved my head at that very instant, the assassin’s bullet would have hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight. We would not be here together.”
“It’s actually too painful to tell,” Trump said in his speech at the Republican National Convention. “None of us know God’s plan or where He will take us … Every single moment we have on earth is a gift from God. We have to make the most every day for the people and for the country that we love”
Corey Comperatore, a former volunteer fire chief from Pennsylvania, was identified as the victim in the shooting incident at a rally for former President Donald Trump on Saturday.
Also injured in the shooting were 57-year-old David Dutch, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and 74-year-old James Copenhaver, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
Update: 9/25/2024, 3:27 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with more information.
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