Trump rally shooting live: ex-president urges Americans to ‘stand united’; House speaker says Trump ‘vilified’

Authorities handling security at the rally at the Butler Park Showgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, have dismissed claims that Donald Trump was denied a request for additional security.

The US Secret Service has called the claim “absolutely false”.

Secret Service chief of communications, Anthony Guglielmi, wrote in a post on X Sunday morning:

There’s an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed.

This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo.

The pushback came after Florida’s Republican representative and army veteran Mike Waltz said he had “very reliable sources” telling him there were “repeated requests” for stronger secret service protection for Trump that had been denied by the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas.

US House speaker Mike Johnson has said “we shouldn’t be targeting people” as he urged Americans to treat one another with dignity and respect in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. He said there has been no figure in modern American history – besides perhaps Abraham Lincoln – who has been so “vilified” by the media and the legal system, as he says Trump has.

Johnson made the remarks during an interview with NBC’s Today programme in which he acknowledged the country’s “heated” political environment.

“There is no figure in American history – at least in the modern era, maybe since Lincoln – who have been so vilified, and really persecuted by media, Hollywood elites, political figures, even the legal system,” Johnson, who said he sent Trump a text after the shooting, told NBC.

“And when the message goes out constantly that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy and that the republic would end. I mean it heats up the environment. We cannot do that. It is simply not true – everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.”

“We’re all Americans, and we have to treat one another with dignity and respect. We can have heated political discourse and debates, but it shouldn’t be personal, and we shouldn’t be targeting people,” Johnson added.

He also confirmed that he was in contact with the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, about the investigation launched into the shooting and is seeking answers over what the Secret Service saw leading up to the shooting.

The AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, the weapon used in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday, is one of America’s most popular, recognisable – and notorious – weapons.

Closely related to the fully automatic military combat M-16 rifle, the AR-15 has been used in a number of recent mass shootings in the US, including the Las Vegas attack in October 2017, which killed 59 people, and the anti-LGBTQ+ attack that killed five people in Colorado Springs in November 2022.

“It is a weapon of war that is really only suitable for soldiers in a combat zone,” Lindsay Nichols, the policy director at Giffords Law Center, which pushes for gun regulations, told NBC last year. “Its ability to kill a lot of people quickly is the reason why we want it banned.”

But the weapon has been seized on by many as a symbol of the right to bear arms.

Chris Michael

The shocking assassination attempt against Donald Trump is likely to lead to a ramping up of security across the American political landscape as the 2024 presidential election continues to play out against a backdrop of rising political violence.

In the immediate future there are set to be increased efforts to prevent any violence of disruption at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week which now will unfold against a backdrop of the attempt on Trump’s life.

Given the stunning lapse in security at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which saw a single gunman repeatedly shoot at Trump from the roof of a building near to the stage from which he was speaking, the already huge effort in Milwaukee will be tightened further. A senior federal official told NBC that RNC security plans are being reexamined after the assassination attempt.

The Trump campaign’s co-managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita also sent a memo following the shooting to campaign staff confirming that the RNC convention will continue as planned, though it also asked staff to avoid campaign offices in Washington and Florida “as they’re assessed” and would be “enhancing the armed security presence with 24/7 officers on-site”.

The Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, said on social media: “My staff and I are in contact with those coordinating security planning for the RNC and will continue to be in close communication as we learn more about this situation.”

If you’re just joining us now, it is just after 8am ET and here’s a quick recap of what happened at Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania campaign rally:

• Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when shots rang out at around 6.13pm ET. The former president was rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents and taken for a medical check-up.

• As agents tried to move Trump off the stage at the rally, he said: “Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes.” Agents can be heard telling the former president: “I got you. Hold on. Your head is bloody. We’ve got to move.” Trump replied: “Wait, wait.” He then pumped his fist, mouthed the words: “Fight, fight, fight.” And the crowd at the rally responded with cries of: “USA! USA! USA!”

• In a statement, Trump – whose right ear could be seen covered in blood – later said he was “fine” after being “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear”. He had been taken to a hospital for evaluation and then reportedly discharged at about 10.20pm local time.

• The FBI is looking into the Trump rally shooting as “an assassination attempt” against the former US president.

• Trump returned to his home in New Jersey after the attempted assassination.

• One spectator was killed and at least two others were injured according to reports on Saturday night.

• The shooter was killed. The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the “subject involved” in what it termed an attempted assassination. Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter records. Officials have not publicly disclosed a possible motive.

• Secret Service agents fatally shot Crooks, who attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue at a farm show in Butler, the agency said. One person who attended the rally was killed and two other spectators were critically injured, the Secret Service said.

• US President Joe Biden, who spoke to Trump after the shooting, said he was grateful to hear Trump was “safe and doing well”.

• An attender at the rally said he saw the alleged shooter on a rooftop about “200 to 250 yards” away from where Trump was speaking to supporters yesterday. The BBC said they spoke with a witness who said they saw someone with a rifle outside the Trump rally, and tried to point him out to police, before he opened fire.

I’m Fran Lawther in New York and we will bring you the latest news as we get it.

Donald Trump has published his second statement on Truth Social since the Pennsylvania shooting on Saturday. In it, the former Republican president said he looks forward to speaking from Wisconsin where the Republican National Convention (RNC) will be held this week.

Trump wrote:

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.

We will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families.

We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.

In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united, and show our true character as Americans, remaining strong and determined, and not allowing evil to win.

I truly love our country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our great nation this week from Wisconsin. DJT

The Republicans’ convention will take place from July 15-18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks, earmarked to be the main venue.

Wisconsin is one of a handful of battleground states likely to determine this year’s presidential race. It was one of the so-called “blue wall” states that Democrats once relied on, but Trump narrowly won in 2016, paving the way for his victory. Biden flipped the state back in 2020, and both campaigns are targeting it heavily this year.

An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the scene of the Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the alleged shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage.

The roof where the body lay was less than 150 meters from where Trump was speaking. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which US army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. The AR-15, like the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M-16.

Asked at a press conference whether law enforcement did not know the shooter was on the roof until he began firing, Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, responded that “that is our assessment at this time”.

“It is surprising” that the gunman was able to open fire on the stage before the Secret Service killed him, he said.